Ice-T gives update on “Law & Order: SVU” season 28 after reduced screen time last season
Key Points
- Ice-T will be back for more screen time in Law & Order: SVU season 28, and he’s set to appear in every episode.
- The actor has been part of the crime drama since the season 2 premiere in 2000.
- He said shows like SVU consist of dozens of scenes, and “after all these years, I’m not dying for screen time.”
Fans of Law & Order: Special Victims Unitwill be seeing a lot more of Ice-T in season 28.
The rapper and actor born Tracy Lauren Marrow will return to SVU with more screen time as Det. Odafin “Fin” Tutuola than he had in season 27, and he recently told TMZ that he’ll be in every episode.
“Last year, what happened was they brought Kelli Giddish back,” he said. “So they told me, basically, we’re going to bring Kelli Giddish back [and] we’re going to bring down your scenes a little bit.” Ice-T recalled asking if he was getting booted from the show — which he wasn’t — and being told they were “just going to move some things around budget-wise.”
“This next season, I’m gonna be in every episode,” he said, “but it was one of those things where the boss comes to you and you don’t go, ‘Well, I’ve been on here 27 seasons, you’re gonna do this.’ I was saying, ‘I got you, you know, I got it, it’s all good.’ So it wasn’t because of Kelly, it was just the way they moved.”
He then explained how shows like SVU feature dozens of scenes per episode, adding that “after all these years, I’m not dying for screen time.”
Back in November, the actor told TMZthat his reduced screen time wasn’t anything personal. “It’s just basically business,” he said, referring to Giddish’s character, Amanda Rollins, making a return after leaving in 2022.
“They brought [Giddish] back, and at the end of the day, they couldn’t really keep both of us on full-time, as far as budget-wise,” Ice-T said. “So they said, ‘Ice, we’ll have you come in and out this year.’”
He added, “I’m not leaving the show,” and reassured fans that it wasn’t goodbye. “This year they said, ‘Ice, we’re gonna work you a little less.’ Everything was cool with me, I understood. I said, ‘Are you getting rid of me?’ They said, ‘No way. We can’t imagine Law & Order without you.’”
Ice-T joined the procedural drama for for season 2 in 2000. Fin was meant to be a recurring guest role but wound up becoming a staple character for SVU.
The SVU fandom and Ice-T both adore Kiddish, who joined in 2011. Ice-T told Entertainment Weekly last year that “Kelli is a sweetheart.”
“The way they shuffle the deck on SVU, nobody really knows what’s going on,” he added, noting that SVU lead and executive producer Mariska Hargitay “missed” Kelli.” “I think the fans missed her. The fans had a lot to do with bringing her back.”
Law & Order: SVU returns on Oct. 8 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on NBC and will stream the following day on Peacock.