-Our first guests tonight are the stars of
"Law & Order: SVU," which returns
for its 20th season, Thursday,
September 27th, at 9:00 p.m., here on NBC.
Let's take a look.
-I got winded...
chasing that Conway kid, and I -- I had to stop.
And now an innocent woman who's riding her bike
has a broken leg because of -- because of me.
-And no matter how much you suck for air,
you couldn't fill your lungs. -That's right.
-And your legs felt like lead. -Bingo.
-Welcome to the club.
Liv, no one expects you to be Wonder Woman.
-I do.
-Yeah, and I used to think I was Superman.
-So what happened, then?
-Life.
-Please welcome back to the show
our friends Mariska Hargitay and Ice-T, everybody.
[ Cheers and applause ]
♪♪
-Welcome, you two!
I'm thrilled to have you. That was a perfect clip.
Because you are now in your 20th season of this show,
and now it's only fair that you would be police officers
who are also a little bit older. -A little bit.
What was fun about this show
is we didn't have to bring our walkers on.
-Yes. [ Laughter ]
-Thank you so much. It's just very hard.
We never know where to put them.
-Yeah, 'cause it would be awkward.
-So, 20 years of a show.
Obviously, it's still very appealing
for us as an audience to watch it.
Is it still as appealing for you guys to do it in season 20?
-I got to say, for me, it's getting better.
We're having more fun
and going deeper and more invested.
And it's pretty incredible right now.
-I think the best thing about our show is,
everybody on our show that we work with is so wonderful.
It's easy. You know, I love Mariska.
We got along.
Just the work environment is so fun.
So it doesn't seem like 20 years.
It just seems like, you know,
you're going to work, doing something you love to do.
-And people throw the word, you know, "family" around.
But after 20 years... -Yeah.
-Yeah. Well, that's the real deal.
-It's true. And it's the real deal.
And so... -And did you --
Were you two familiar with each other at all
20 years ago, before you got teamed up on the show?
-No, not at all. -But it was kind of odd.
We used to -- Well, trip off this.
We both lived -- We could see each other's house
from where we lived in Los Angeles,
but we didn't know each other.
You know, Mariska lived up the hill
a little higher than me, of course.
[ Laughter ]
But she would come down the hill, and then --
-And I'd be driving up, going, "That's Ice-T's house.
That's Ice-T's house."
-But it was just odd. It was weird.
And here we are together. -Yeah. Meant to be.
-I heard you refer to Ice in interviews and articles
as a philosopher king. -Completely.
-Is there advice he's imparted upon you over --
-There's so much advice, but it's daily.
And first of all, you know, we all get in our --
we're all in our little worlds that we live in,
and I've never seen, in 20 years,
this man come to work in a bad mood, not be grateful,
always ready to work, always ready.
He's never complained.
I've never heard him complain.
Everyone complains. Who doesn't complain?
I complain. And he never complains.
But, also, I think your gift is that he has the ability,
no matter what we're talking about,
to distill it down to its purest essence.
-Yeah, I just believe everybody needs
a reference point to [bleep] up, all right?
[ Laughter ]
And if you can -- When you're on a set --
We're on a set. We're making movies,
and you can feel bad, but I've been through some bad things,
so I always use that as a reference point
to be like, "Shut up. Relax. You're lucky.
You're fortunate." And then --
-You're on a TV show. -Yeah.
-And you're acting. -Sitting with Seth.
You know what I'm saying? You got fans.
Like, what?
You got a lot of nerve to be upset.
So I just bring it right back.
And then I try to transfer that to everybody on the set.
Like, "Look, we're all very lucky,
and let's just be blessed, you know?
And take advantage of it."
-There you go. [ Cheers and applause ]
-That is the truth. -That's great philosophy.
-That is the truth. That is the truth.
-What was -- Was there anything
that was surprising to you about Mariska over the years
that you maybe didn't expect?
-Well, I think when people watch her on television,
she very rarely does anything funny on our show.
It's always so ser-- [ Laughter ]
Right? -By the way, that's good.
-There's so much opportunity. -Yeah, I was gonna say.
"You know, that was a really funny episode
of 'Special Victims Unit.'"
[ Laughter ]
-Hey, I'm just telling you.
You know, I watch her on television,
and I'm like, "Wow, wow, she's dead serious."
But behind the scenes, she's crazy.
She's fun to be with. Nothing but jokes.
Not even jokes we can even tell on television.
[ Laughter ]
-Did you -- Do you ever listen Ice's music?
-I do. -Yeah, that's great.
-We share everything.
So he'll come, and he's so cute. He's like a little kid.
He's like, "Look at my new video,"
or, "Listen my new song." [ Laughter ]
-Well, you know -- -Why is that funny?
-I just don't think a lot of people
think of Body Count as cute.
[ Laughter ]
-I know. But I know him differently.
-Yeah. -Yeah, she knows me.
-Well, there was one thing cute about a recent Body Count show.
You were in Switzerland, right? -Yeah.
-And you were doing a show.
And your daughter, Chanel,
was on stage while you were performing.
And that is something you don't expect to see.
[ Audience "Awws" ]
-Yeah, that's her fake mic. She got a mic.
She gets onstage, and she rocks out.
She's not afraid of the crowd.
And, you know, it's --
I mean, at the end of the day, this is entertainment.
My man over there from Alice in Chains know.
If you're not having fun, you're missing the point.
-Yeah. -You know, that's what it is.
-And what does the audience --
Are they surprised when a child walks on stage?
Do they feel like something's gone wrong or...?
-You know, what I do in the show,
I usually ask who's the youngest person in the audience.
And they're usually like 12, and I say, "I got you beat,"
and out comes a 2-year-old.
[ Laughter ]
-You were traveling, as well.
I think you were in Switzerland, as well.
-I was. -This is your husband.
-Oh, wow, we're whipping out the Instagram.
-Yeah. -Okay.
[ Laughter ]
-Is that -- -"Just making some bratwurst."
-Yeah, he is -- he's grilling up his own bratwurst.
-He was.
-Is he handy like that on a trip?
-He was this day. -Okay.
[ Laughter ]
So this is not a normal occurrence?
-No, no. Well, no.
[ Laughter ]
No. He can grill.
-Yeah? That's really lovely.
-No, he actually cooks more than I do.
This was a special day. And I have to tell say,
this was, I think, my favorite day
of our whole month-long vacation.
-Wow. -Yeah.
-Oh, that's great. -It was very beautiful.
-It looks beautiful.
And he's a handsome guy with a good vacation beard.
I don't know if that's full-time,
but that looks like a vacation beard to me.
-It's full time. It's anytime he's not working.
-Okay, gotcha.
-And his hair looks like a hedgehog.
But I enjoy it. -So, the other interes--
[ Laughter ]
-What? Was that weird?
-No, no, I think it's good. Look, get it out there.
Let people know something about you.
-Peter will tell you what happened later.
[ Laughter ]
-I'm just saying -- whatever. Okay.