Interview
‘Law & Order: SVU’: Kelli Giddish Reveals How Rollins & Carisi’s Relationship Grounds Her
“I was surprised that they actually let them get together,” Kelli Giddish admits of her and Peter Scanavino‘s characters, Sergeant Amanda Rollins and ADA Dominick “Sonny” Carisi Jr., on Law & Order: SVU.
Not only are the two together, but they’re also married with three kids. And in a season with a bit up in the air — Would Chief Tynan (Noma Dumezweni) force Captain Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) out of the squad? Would Sergeant Odafin “Fin” Tutuola (Ice-T) retire? Could Detective Jake Griffin (Corey Cott) be trusted? — Rollisi was perhaps the most stable part of the series. That also plays into why Rollins is “settled” — though Giddish is hesitant to use that word — at SVU now.
“I think there’s always a part of her that needs to keep moving, so, settled, even when you say that, I’m like, no, she’s never settled. But I think she has a good home base finally. She has a good relationship she can fall back on. She has somebody that’s stable, that loves her, that can say, ‘Hey, it’s OK. It’s OK to sit still. It’s OK to be back here,'” Giddish explained when she spoke with TV Insider and Swooon in our ATX TV Festival suite. “That’s a really cool aspect of her to play because she’s always been so impulsive.”
Because of her relationship with Carisi, “She gets to be loved. She gets to be grounded. She gets to have something that she’s never had. She didn’t grow up with stability so it’s beautiful. It’s a beautiful thing,” Giddish continued. “We don’t show it a lot, I think because filming with kids is very hard to be honest, but they’ve got that family there and then the family in the squad room.”
She loved getting to capture their relationship with the break-in at their home in Season 27. It showed “how they worked as a team just in that moment like, ‘OK, I’m going to do this, you’re going to do that.’ And they didn’t say a word,” she noted. “And then Rollins goes running off to chase the bad guys. So that really illustrated their faith in each other, their trust in each other, and how much they love each other.”
In general, Giddish loves Rollins and Carisi’s relationship. “He’s such a great friend of mine. There’s been some really crucial moments that we’ve created and it shows, I think, the depth of their trust and respect for each other, which is awesome,” she said.
Law & Order: SVU, Season 28, Fall 2026, Thursdays, 9/8c, NBC
