Mariska Hargitay is best known for her iconic role as Olivia Benson on Law & Order: SVU, and her dedication to the character has only amplified her celebrity status over the years. Hargitay’s commitment to her role was so intense that she often insisted on performing her own stunts. However, this dedication came at a significant cost when a stunt went terribly wrong, leading to a severe injury. Reflecting on the incident, Hargitay shared how she learned to count her blessings despite the challenges.
In 2008, Hargitay faced a serious injury on the set of Law & Order: SVU. During an interview with Redbook, she recounted the circumstances surrounding the accident. Hargitay explained that the injury occurred while filming a scene that required her to jump and land on a cushion. On the second take, she landed incorrectly, which resulted in internal bleeding in her lungs. This misstep led to a collapsed lung and required multiple surgeries to repair the damage.
“I jumped and landed on pads, but on the second take something happened — I just landed wrong,” Hargitay told Redbook. “I got up and felt that something inside was not quite right. At first, I thought I had the wind knocked out of me. I was angry with myself. Later, I thought maybe I’d pulled a muscle, but I didn’t focus on the injury and kept expecting it to get better.”
However, the injury did not improve. More than three months later, Hargitay began experiencing shortness of breath and chest pains. She described a terrifying moment while walking along the beach when the chest pains became so severe that she had to kneel to catch her breath.
“They took an X-ray and found that my right lung was 50 percent collapsed,” Hargitay said. “I began to panic. I was so scared. I had a procedure hoping to stave off more serious surgery, but it didn’t work, and I ended up in surgery about two weeks later.”
This traumatic experience served as a stark reminder of life’s unpredictability, bringing back painful memories of her mother’s untimely death. Hargitay was only three years old when she survived a car crash that claimed her mother’s life at the age of 34.
“Losing my mother at such an early age is the scar of my soul,” Hargitay told Redbook. “But I feel like it ultimately made me into the person I am today. I understand the journey of life. I had to go through what I did to be here.”
Despite the gravity of her injury, Hargitay chose not to dwell on the misfortune. Instead, she focused on her blessings, especially the joy her son, August, brought into her life since his birth in 2006.
“Becoming a parent erased many of my negative childhood feelings and filled them in with something new,” Hargitay shared in her Redbook interview. Despite her experiences of loss and illness, she strives to focus on the positive aspects of her life. She described her existence as “an interesting reality between loss and gratitude.”
Through her trials, Mariska Hargitay continues to find strength and gratitude, embodying resilience both on and off the screen.