Mariska Hargitay may have spent the last 25 years starring on Law & Order: SVU – with more years to come – but her youngest son has yet to meet her beloved alter ego, Olivia Benson.
The legendary NBC mainstay has a lot to celebrate this month, between the premiere of SVU's 25th season and another milestone: her 60th birthday.
In honor of the very celebratory start to the year, the actress has opened up to People about her work on SVU, reflected on difficult experiences in her personal life, and spoke candidly about turning 60.
The latest anecdote from Mariska is about her son Andrew, 12, and how unused he still is that his mom is one of the most famous faces in television.
Mariska and her husband Peter Hermann – the pair tied the knot on August 28, 2004 after meeting on the set of SVU, where the actor had the recurring role of defense attorney Trevor Langan – share three kids. They welcomed son August Miklos, 17, in 2006, and they adopted his siblings Amaya Josephine, 12, in 2011 as well as Andrew four months later.
"He thinks I play a cop on TV, end of story," the mom-of-three revealed about her youngest son's knowledge of her more than 400-episode legacy as Olivia, the longest-running character in a primetime drama in television history.
© GettyShe then hilariously revealed: "He asked, 'Why does everyone say I love you' when we're walking down the street?"
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Still, while Olivia is definitely her most popular role, that's not to say Andrew isn't acquainted with some of his mom's other work.
© GettyIn fact, Mariska shared the tween recently discovered a starkly different role of hers from almost 20 years ago, voicing the character of Tenar in the English version of Japanese fantasy anime film Tales of Earthsea (2006).
She said: "I did this movie so many years ago, I just did a little voiceover, no big deal," before revealing: "And then my son, who loves anime now, he found out that I was in this movie. He said, 'What? You're in this movie?' And we sat and watched it. And I'm sitting on the couch with my 12-year-old son who, first of all, the movie's good, but he just thought it was the coolest thing."
© Getty"So for him to see me in this movie that he loves, he said 'Mom, it's such a cool character.' And it was this moment of, had I known that, almost 20 years ago, that I would have this moment with my son that was so bonding and sacred, I just sat there going, 'I don't know that life gets better than this moment,'" she endearingly said.
"That's what's exciting about life, that in many ways, we're getting ready our whole lives for things," she added, noting: "Because I keep learning things are worth the wait."
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