{"id":92079,"date":"2025-10-22T23:37:25","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T23:37:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/92079\/"},"modified":"2025-10-22T23:37:25","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T23:37:25","slug":"mariska-hargitay-auditioned-for-friends-wanted-to-be-on-a-sitcom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/92079\/","title":{"rendered":"Mariska Hargitay Auditioned for \u2018Friends,’ Wanted to Be on a Sitcom"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tMariska Hargitay<\/a> may be known for her more serious roles, but she always aspired to star in a comedy.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile looking back on the early days of her career during Tuesday\u2019s episode of Amy Poehler<\/a>\u2018s Good Hang podcast, she revealed she auditioned to star on Friends \u201cso many times.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI did a lot of comedy auditions,\u201d Hargitay told Poehler while reflecting on the beginning of her career. \u201cI did Seinfeld and I did Single Guy, and I tested for Friends so many times.\u201d When asked who she auditioned for, Hargitay revealed, \u201cI think for Monica.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe role of Monica ultimately went to Courteney Cox, who starred on the NBC sitcom alongside Jennifer Aniston, Matthew Perry, Lisa Kudrow, David Schwimmer and Matt LeBlanc from 1994 until 2004.<\/p>\n

\n\tHargitay went on to admit that she \u201calways thought\u201d she would \u201cend up being on a sitcom or doing comedy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAnd it\u2019s so funny, I\u2019m in L.A., struggling actor. I think it was after ER,\u201d she said, referring to her recurring role as Cynthia Hooper on the medical drama. \u201cI was like, \u2018What am I going to do? What am I going to do?\u2019 I loved ER, but I had a development deal with DreamWorks, and I was developing a show, and it was \u00e0 la Ally McBeal, where it was a dramedy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHargitay said she experienced a turning point in her career when she took a trip to New York City, which she \u201cdid three times a year to see theater.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI met with this psychic. Everyone said to me, \u2018Oh my gosh, Mariska, you have to meet with this psychic. He\u2019s amazing,’\u201d she recalled. \u201cI drove out somewhere on Long Island to this man and I went there and he started saying all this amazing stuff to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHargitay continued, \u201cI was listening to him really intently like this. He said to me \u2026 \u2018You see that face you\u2019re doing right now? You see that face?\u2019 I said, \u2018Yeah.\u2019 He goes, \u2018You\u2019re going to be famous for that face. You\u2019re moving to New York and you\u2019re gonna be famous for that face.’\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHowever, Hargitay was determined to land a network sitcom role at the time. \u201cI said, \u2018Uh, no.\u2019 I live in L.A. and I\u2019m going to be a comedian,\u201d she said. \u201cSix months later, swear to God, I got SVU.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHargitay has been playing Detective Olivia Benson on Law & Order: SVU for more than two decades, and the NBC series is currently in its 27th season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mariska Hargitay may be known for her more serious roles, but she always aspired to star in a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":92080,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[15708,146,61988,85,46,61989,20895,411],"class_list":{"0":"post-92079","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-amy-poehler","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-friends-tv","11":"tag-il","12":"tag-israel","13":"tag-law-order-svu","14":"tag-mariska-hargitay","15":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92079"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92079\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/92080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}