Step aside, Bensler fans. There’s a new contender ready to fight for Olivia Benson’s heart!
During a recent appearance on Today to promote her latest studio album, Bite Me, Reneé Rapp revealed that the only role that would tempt her away from her unofficial acting hiatus would be a guest spot on her favorite TV show, Law & Order: SVU.
Rapp, who previously gushed about the crime procedural during a visit on Amy Poehler’s Good Hang podcast, was asked several questions during her Today appearance, including what character she would want to play.
“Whoever came up with this question, I just want to say thank you so much,” Rapp quipped as she read the question aloud. “You’ve done more for my community than you can even imagine. And my community is just me, really.”
When it came to her answer, Rapp already had a plotline in mind for her character’s appearance.
“Let me tell ya, I would be Mariska Hargitay’s lover. She would be gay, finally,” the Sex Lives of College Girls alum said. “I would be her lover and we would somehow get tangled in like an undercover kind of miss[ion], probably with a drug empire.”
Rapp keenly recalled that Benson’s sexual orientation had been the topic of conversation on the series before. Episode 13 of season 11 saw Benson ask her longtime partner, Elliot Stabler (Christopher Meloni), if he ever gets “a gay vibe” from her.
“Would it matter if I did?” Stabler says.
“You’re not answering the question,” Benson responds, to which Stabler adds, “Well, it’s not like you’ve had a lot of luck with guys.”
“It’s called being married to the job,” she retorts.
Although fans have long speculated about Benson’s relationship with the crew’s former ADA Alexandra Cabot (Stephanie March) — who was a series regular from season 2 to 6 before formally departing the show — the detective has only ever been with men on the series, albeit never the specific men that fans have been vying for her to be with for decades.
Virginia Sherwood/NBC
Benson and Stabler have had a will-they-won’t-they vibe since the series began. They two were partners for more than a decade on SVU, and while Benson has stayed put, Stabler has moved to Law & Order: Organized Crime. However, they still communicate via appearances on one another’s shows. They’ve come very close to becoming a couple, but they haven’t actually gone there.
On the upside, it isn’t just the fans that want to see the partnership finally go from platonic to romantic. In June, Hargitay revealed that she also wants to see Bensler become a real thing — but not until the very end of the long-running series, which is heading into its 27th season.
“Maybe on the last episode,” Hargitay said during a visit to the Call Her Daddy podcast. “I think that’s when they should be together… if it’s right. We’ll see when we get there.”
Hargitay added that the characters are “soulmates, in a way.”
“Chris has had a profound impact on my life, my artistry,” Hargitay said. “I think we’ve had a big impact on each other, and so Olivia and Elliot are [soulmates]. But let’s see where the story takes us, you know?”
The two characters have flirted with the idea of a romantic relationship many times but have yet to truly go there on screen.
In fact, Hargitay previously revealed that Benson and Stabler nearly kissed in season 24 of SVU, but the long-awaited and much-hyped moment was ultimately cut right before filming.
“To be honest with you, Chris and I thought it should go one way and the powers that be didn’t, so it got changed at the last minute, that near kiss,” Hargitay said in a May 2024 interview with Variety. “Obviously Mekishana Pierre Dick [Wolf] gets final say. It’s his show and he didn’t want that.”
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In another interview, Meloni revealed he didn’t think that kiss would have “worked.”
“We were attempting something. I don’t think it worked,” he said at the time. “But I’m not going to tell you why it didn’t work, because you all have your opinion.” He added teasingly, “I know what transpired.”
Will Hart/NBC
But that doesn’t mean the kiss won’t eventually happen at some point in the future.
“We want to hold the tension,” Hargitay said at the time. “And do what’s right and truthful for both characters.”
Maybe that time will come sooner rather than later.
When a fan on X suggested last Monday that, “for f— sake, kiss her already,” Meloni replied, “I’m f—ing trying.”
He better hurry up before Rapp gets her guest star role and sweeps Benson off her feet!
