‘Law & Order: SVU’ Ice-T Makes Sure He Doesn’t Die After Reading Every Script
Law & Order: SVU has seen many characters come and go. But stars like Ice-T have been with the long-running series since the beginning. But even with his tenure, the rapper is still concerned with being written off the series from time to time.
Ice-T always wants to make sure he’s sticking around ‘Law & Order SVU’
Ice-T didn’t expect he’d be one of Law & Order’s longest players. After Dick Wolf brought the rapper on board, Ice-T has even outlasted the show’s lead Chris Meloni with his longevity. He famously only expected to be on the show for four episodes. So, the transition from a guest-role, to being a full-time member of Wolf’s roster, took some adjusting.
“But it was difficult, because they had written a character for me. I was wearing suits. There was a backstory that was strange. And once they decided to keep me on the show, Dick Wolf ripped away that backstory,” Ice-T recently recalled in an interview with Entertainment Weekly.
And after being on the show for 25 seasons, Ice-T hasn’t grown tired of the show yet. It seems that he hopes that both he and the series continue their historic runs. This was why the first thing Ice-T checked for when getting a script, was if his character was still alive.
“So when I get the script, I’m just looking at it making sure I didn’t get shot and bleed out. But I don’t know the arc of the season,” Ice-T said.
He added that there was an incident in the series where he was concerned his worst fears were realized. It was a moment he hoped he wouldn’t have to revisit.
“I want to make sure I don’t die. I got shot in this episode [in season 6], and as soon as I read it, I went like this, ‘Mariska,’” he recalled.
After panicking and frantically reading through the script, he calmed down when he realized his character was still kicking.
Ice-T realized he wanted to stay on the show forever after learning about residuals
Fortunately for Ice-T, Law & Order SVU could be seen everywhere. There’s rarely a time during the week when a rerun of the series isn’t on, which Ice-T was very much aware of. With streaming, SVU’s presence has spread even further.
“We’re on Peacock,” Ice-T once said on Late Night With Seth Meyers. “We’re on now. Right now.”
This also meant that Ice-T, and many of its cast, might command a hefty sum when it comes to residuals. Earlier in his career, the potential residuals Ice-T and his co-stars could earn from the series made him want to stay on the series for as long as possible.
“When I first got on the show, I was doing movies and stuff, and I didn’t understand residuals,” he said. “And so the first year I did the show, I’m like, ‘I don’t know how long I’ll do this show. I don’t know how long.’ And then my accountant showed me this number after a year, and I’m like, ‘What’s that number?’ and she said, ‘That’s residuals.’ You don’t make residuals from movies unless you’re, like, Brad Pitt or somebody. You get, like, a dollar for a movie.”
How Ice-T would like to leave ‘Law & Order SVU’
It might seem unlikely that Ice-T’s character would ever be written off the show. But should that time ever come, Ice-T made it clear he didn’t want his character to simply run off into the sunset. Instead, he hoped for a more explosive end to his journey.
“Oh, if I got to go, I want to go in a blaze of glory. Blow me up in a car. I want to be murdered,” Ice-T once told Mashed.
At the same time, Ice-T knew that being a part of Wolf’s franchise meant that his role could continue indefinitely. Even if Law & Order should ever come to an end.
“I say that, but [I’m] in the Wolf Universe. You understand? Law & Order could end and I could be climbing a ladder on Chicago Fire. I could be over on Criminal Intent, so maybe I don’t want to die,” he said.
