Hugh Dancy Says Landing 'Law & Order' Role Made Him Finally Feel Like A New Yorker
Hugh Dancy Says Landing 'Law & Order' Role Made Him Finally Feel Like A New Yorker
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00:00Season 24, that is epic.
00:04What does it feel like coming back to a show like this?
00:06Does it get old?
00:07You both have been on the show for some seasons now.
00:10Does it get old?
00:12No, not in the sense that I think that you mean.
00:15Like, oh, here we are again.
00:18There's a new story every week.
00:19There's a new story every week.
00:22You don't really have time to get complacent.
00:25But also, with that comes something else
00:28to get your teeth into.
00:29New actors that are coming through,
00:31new storylines, new, and so on and so forth.
00:33You're always on the move.
00:34There's always something new.
00:36New story to dive into and new characters.
00:39It's really interesting.
00:40So I think one of life's great virtues
00:42is taking pleasure in what you're doing.
00:44Yes.
00:45We were just talking about that off camera a little bit,
00:48right?
00:48When you love what you do, it doesn't,
00:50I mean, it does feel like work.
00:51I don't like that saying.
00:52But it feels like enjoyable work.
00:54I mean, you still wish to get paid for it.
00:56It is very enjoyable, yeah.
00:58Right?
00:59Having someone like Mariska Hargitay
01:00at the helm of this franchise, showing up with a smile
01:04no matter what, encouraging people,
01:07how much do you think that leads to the success
01:10of this franchise?
01:11I think it's a huge part of it.
01:13I think that there's no one element that alone explains
01:18something lasting for 24 years, 25 years.
01:21It takes so many people to get it right.
01:24But unquestionably, part of that is somebody like Mariska,
01:28who's willing to kind of keep driving forward.
01:30And as we were just saying, willing to show up
01:32and determined to show up every day and find the pleasure
01:35in it and share that with the people around her.
01:37Yeah, absolutely.
01:39This show, I'm from Jersey, but I'm in New York
01:42and I love New York.
01:43And I feel like for fans, it really is such a love letter
01:46to this city.
01:48What is it like for you interacting in your daily life
01:50kind of out in the wild?
01:52Do people, I imagine people say really lovely things
01:55to you both.
01:56To me, they tend to just scream the name of the show.
02:00You can take that any way you want.
02:03I've lived here, Odie moved here when the show started.
02:07I've lived in New York on and off,
02:09but this would be my home base for 17, 18 years.
02:12And it was truly only when I started working on the show
02:15that I felt, oh, I think I can call myself a New Yorker now.
02:18I feel like if you're working on Law and Order,
02:21you can officially think of yourself as a New Yorker.
02:24I love that.
02:24And I've always wanted to be a New Yorker.
02:26When I was in LA, I literally wrote it down on a sticky note
02:29and I was like, I want to be on an Emmy nominated
02:32show in New York City.
02:33And then a few months later, I got Law and Order.
02:35I'm like, oh my god, I'm a New Yorker.
02:36Yes.
02:37And I just moved.
02:38I was like, here's my opportunity, I'm moving.
02:40That is unbelievable.
02:42You really kind of spoke it into the universe.
02:44Yes, I did.
02:45Via sticky notes.
02:46I wanted to be a New Yorker, and I just
02:50knew that I wanted to work here as well.
02:52Aside from working on this show, what
02:54has been the best part about being a New Yorker?
02:58OK, so I'm originally from Israel,
03:01where people just say what they want,
03:03and don't waste their time.
03:05And I spent 15 years in LA, where people are just like,
03:07get to the point already.
03:10And so when I moved to New York, I
03:11remember the first time I came to New York.
03:13And I got in the cab, and I forgot to tell my bank
03:17that I was traveling.
03:18And at the time, none of my cards worked,
03:21and the cab driver was just yelling at me, screaming.
03:25And I was like, I'm home.
03:26I'm home.
03:28I love it.
03:30And I was yelling back, and I was like,
03:33I needed to do that for so long.
03:35It was like a therapy session.
03:36And that's what I love about New Yorkers.
03:38I agree.
03:39So the reason you walk across the street,
03:41and someone just yells, I love Law and Order,
03:43but they would not stop, and talk to you,
03:46and waste your time, and their time.
03:49They'll just say, love it.
03:50Few people can.
03:51I think people that don't live in New York
03:53don't totally understand that.
03:54Like, walking out with a fresh cup of coffee
03:56and being told to fuck off is amazing.
03:59You're like, I love it.
04:00But it's often, it's not.
04:02I mean, I think that's perceived and described as aggression.
04:05And weirdly, it's not.
04:06It's not.
04:06It's just like, we're sharing.
04:08There's not a lot of space here, and we're all sharing it.
04:10So I love you now, fuck off.
04:11Yeah, fuck off.
04:13Or people you know, slow walkers.
04:15The people who walk slow drives me crazy.
04:19I love that.
04:20And you just know that they're not from New York.
04:21It's true.
04:22It's very true.