Amanda Rollins is back and higher than ever — and Kelli Giddish is spilling all of the tea on her Law & Order: Special Victims Unit character’s highly anticipated return.
“I’m so thrilled to be back,” Giddish told Us Weekly exclusively ahead of her return in the course of the show’s latest episode, which premiered on Thursday, October 16.
“We’ve such great showrunners, such strong showrunners, but now, we’ve got Michele Fazekas. We’ve got girls running the show,” Giddish continued. “It just makes it the proper time for the audience to get to see Benson and Rollins’ relationship proceed to grow.”
She teased that there’s “so far more that we are able to explore” with Rollins — and what higher time than without delay?
Giddish also praised Fazekas for her having “an enormous appreciation” for Rollins and allowing the character to indicate how much she’s grown and altered.
“In fact, she realizes the importance of the Benson and Rollins relationship to us personally and to the audience,” the actress said of the showrunner. “I feel she’s really running with that.”
The fourth installment within the NBC show’s history-making twenty seventh season, titled “Clickbait,” ends with a scene that SVU viewers know all too well — Giddish’s Rollins and Mariska Hargitay’s Olivia Benon alone within the squadroom for his or her version of a lady chat. And, yes, Giddish and Hargitay were just as emotional filming it as we were watching it.
Mariska Hargitay and Kelli Giddish Virginia Sherwood / NBC
“There are lots of random hugs. We’re similar to, ‘Oh, thank God,’” Giddish said. “It’s been so lovely. Everybody on the crew says such kind words. They simply exhale, they usually’re like, ‘Oh, you’re back,’ That feels so good.”
Giddish noted that she also “treasures” the fans that share the “same sentiment” about her return.
“We’re all blissful to be there. We’re all very curious. We’re all committed to telling these stories, and it’s lots of fun,” she shared. “I realize it’s really a heavy load — the material, and portraying what evil people do to other people — but we, as a forged and crew, it’s only a solid group of individuals, and it’s just lots of fun to be there.”
Together with the show’s first-ever female showrunner (Us was shocked too), Giddish teased that she, Hargitay and Aimé Donna Kelly (Captain Renee Curry) are the “updated Charlie’s Angels” on set.
“It being three strong women, I feel we welcome the trio and the comparison,” Giddish said, teasing a “super strong partnership” between Rollins and Curry within the near future.
“There’s mutual respect and he or she’s such a robust character on the show, a robust female,” Giddish added. (Kelly previously compared Giddish’s return to SVU as if “one other member of the family has come back home,” during an interview with Us.)
As for Rollins and Carisi? Yes, there are more moments between Giddish and Peter Scanavino as well.
“It’s just really easy with Peter,” Giddish gushed. “Anything they throw at us, we’ve got great chemistry together, and we’re friends off screen as well. I feel that that shows up in our work.”
Law & Order: SVU airs latest episodes on NBC Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET.