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Ice T Is So Cool Under Pressure Interrogating Julie Bowen on SVU
Nothing can rattle the SVU icon.
Nobody puts the pressure on a suspect quite like Ice T.
Some of the best character moments in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit history have come in the interrogation room. There's something about those intense, one-on-one, fact-finding missions that really bring out the best in the cast, Ice T especially!
Let's turn the clock and head back to Season 10, Episode 1 ("Trials") when one particularly explosive scene between Ice T and Julie Bowen (in her pre-Modern Family days) exemplifies just how cool under pressure the SVU legend is. The scene in question begins at the 1:49 mark.
After a 7-year-old is caught driving a runaway van in an attempt to escape from his parents, the SVU squad springs into action — and Ice T's Odafin Tutuola is tasked with the interrogation of the child's mother.
Ice T's subtle tenacity is on full display during the scene, and he's too cool under pressure as his character casts his net!
"Christopher was his idea, not yours," Tutuola surmised. "But Noah's not the one stuck at home taking care of him, is he? He didn't have to give up his career."
That simple — and correct — assumption is all it took for Bowen's Gwen Sibert to start talking.
"We started a luxury clothing line, eco-friendly haute couture," she said. "It's called 'The Green Line.' While we were working together, there was always lots of wining and dining the buyers."
"And Noah's still out there living it large while you're wrangling the Tasmanian Devil," he offered.
"He breaks things," Sibert said, covering her tracks. "He throws tantrums. He doesn't listen to a word I say. And the constant chattering — he doesn't just make up wild stories, he tells outright lies."
Of course, the interrogation was crucial to the team uncovering the truth. As it turns out — spoilers — little Christopher was being used as a test dummy for the shady "eco-friendly" businesses the couple was running. It was a despicable act of parental neglect — if we were 7 years old and being force-fed poison, we would've stolen a car, too.
(You really owe it to yourself to watch the entire gripping episode on Peacock.)
Ice T reflects on his tenure on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
In a 2022 interview with Smashing Interviews Magazine, Ice T looked back at his SVU career and if he has any plans to leave the show. (He doesn't.)
"I don't have a problem staying on the show because I've already had a career," he explained. "I've already maxed out music. I've had a 20-year rap career. You know what I'm saying? So to get into this, I'm comfortable. I've done a lot of movies. I'm not that person that feels like, "Oh, I'm missing something by doing this. But we'll see. I don't know what's happening in the next script until I get it. I'm just going for the ride. There's a theory that we know what's happening. No, we don't."
Ultimately, Ice T has vowed to stay on the show as long as Hargitay still brings the iconic Olivia Benson to life every week, and he has a funny way of explaining why that is!
"I made a statement that I'll be there until Mariska [Hargitay] leaves," he said." I think the show is Mariska's show. I don't think Mariska can be replaced, and fortunately, she's still out buying sh–t. So as long as she keeps spending money, I think I've got a job."
