How Christopher Meloni and Ellen Burstyn's “Law & Order” Family Dynamic Extends Off Screen: 'You're My Mother'
"It's very easy. It's like slipping into a pair of old shoes. I slipped into being your mother," the 'SVU' and 'Organized Crime' actress told her TV son in a new conversation for 'Interview' magazine
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Christopher Meloni and Ellen BurstynChristopher Meloni found a second mother of sorts in his Law & Order costar Ellen Burstyn.
Meloni, 62, and Burstyn, 90, opened up about how their on-screen mother-son relationship has translated into the real world during a conversation for Interview Magazine.
The Exorcist: Believer star — who portrays Meloni's character Elliot Stabler's mother Bernadette on both Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and the actor's Organized Crime spinoff — recalled the touching moment she realized the actor was more than just her costar.
“You know what I was thinking about yesterday?” she asked during the conversation, which took place on July 12 ahead of the start of the SAG-AFTRA strike. “One day on set [of Organized Crime] you said, 'Why do you do this to me, Dimi?' It’s a line from The Exorcist. And I was so stunned because my son in real life says that line to me.”
She added, “When you said it, it was like I was in two realities at once.”
Related: Christopher Meloni Shares His Wife and Kids' Reaction to His Zaddy Title: 'It's All Fun'
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Christopher Meloni and Ellen Burstyn on 'Law & Order: Organized Crime'It turns out the moment also meant a lot to Meloni, who shared how the interaction had given him new perspective on their relationship.
“Afterwards, I was like, ‘Since I’ve lost my mother a couple of years ago, you — in my life, in our work — you’re my mother,’” he said.
Burstyn shared, “It’s very easy. It’s like slipping into a pair of old shoes. I slipped into being your mother.”
Related: Mariska Hargitay Reveals Christopher Meloni's Mom Was the Reason' SVU' Changed Its Original Title
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Christopher MeloniBack in March 2017, Meloni opened up about how his Snatched costars, Amy Schumer and Goldie Hawn comforted him on set just a day after his mother, Cecile Meloni, died in 2016.
“We were shooting in Hawaii and I did a few of my scenes for a couple weeks there and then they said ‘We’re not going to need you for a while, so you go home.’” he recalled during an appearance on The Talk. “So I went back east and unfortunately my mother got ill and so she passed.”
He continued, “I actually had to leave her bedside, flew and by the time I landed, she had passed. So no one knew except for the producers and the director and they were all very sweet and kind.”
The next morning, Meloni recalled taking a boat up a river to film with Schumer and Hawn. When he broke the news of his mother’s death, the actor shared that Hawn pulled her into a “tight” embrace, while Schumer took a more light-hearted approach to cheer him up.
“And then Amy, she goes ‘Wait, what did you just say?’ I said, ‘Well, my mother passed.’ She goes, ‘Oh, that’s terrible. Hold on one second,’” he said with a laugh as he brought his cell phone to his face, copying Schumer’s gesture.
“I knew she was joking. … How courageous that she — she invited, she needed to diffuse all of that obvious emotion that was filling up the boat,” said Meloni, who added, “And later — this was even cuter — later she goes, ‘You know I was kidding, right?’”
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Law & Order: Special Victims Unit can be streamed in full on Hulu, and the first three seasons of Law & Order: Organized Crime are available on the NBC app.
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