On tonight’s special Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, a teenage boy uses a rifle to stop an assault on his mother, but soon learns the target was someone he knows. The episode, titled, “Motherly Love,” features special guest star Sarah Wynter (Amazon’s “Goliath”), who delivers a fantastic and chilling performance as the installment’s titular mother, Dr. Nicole Keller.
PopWire hopped on the phone with the Australian beauty (after we watched the episode and was surprised when we heard an Aussie accent at the other end of the line) to preview what case-of-the-week the viewers can expect.
“She’s a single mother, she has a teenage son,” Wynter tells us of her character. “She’s a therapist and I think she’s done her best to raise her child as a single parent and she loves him very much. Something terrible happens and it’s [Olivia] Benson’s job to figure out if this terrible thing was an accident, murder, premeditated — who’s at fault.
“Basically there’s an incident between my son and I. I think the case twists because you’re not quite sure who’s at fault and who’s covering up for who. It’s an amazing role, an incredibly complex role. I really wanted to play something like that.”
As an actress living in New York for so many years, Sarah Wynter started to wonder if she was the only actor in the city who had never landed a guest starring role on Law & Order and any of its spinoffs. “It almost became a joke with my agent,” she tells us.
Luckily for Sarah, when the opportunity did finally present itself for her to appear on the show, it was for SVU’s monumental 400th episode, which she effuses was “perfect”! “400 episodes of anything is an incredible milestone, absolutely!” Wynter says. “Mariska Hargitay has been there from the beginning. I can’t imagine what it feels like for them. I feel lucky [to be a part of it].”
The milestone was also a big deal for SVU star Mariska Hargitay, who pulled double duty, returning to the director’s chair to helm the episode.
“I was very impressed and quite blown away at how she was able to change roles and put her director’s hat on and then take it off and act with me in the scene and get lost in that character and become Olivia Benson,” Wynter says. “And then she’s yelling cut on herself! It’s amazing. I didn’t see her sit down for 8-10 days, however long it took to shoot it.
“I also never saw her lose her temper or get frustrated,” she continues. “I was just incredibly impressed and blown away by her elegance and professionalism and her passion and kindness to me and to all the actors on the show and the crew. She’s an amazing business woman.
“She is incredibly warm and passionate and really, really every scene, every element, every aspect, every little small detail was important and had to be right because she cares about the show, she cares about it. It’s personal, it’s not just this job that she does. She’s an incredible actress, but to be able to have her work as a director like that, I felt so taken care of, so safe.
“She really wanted me to do a good job and she made me work hard and I’m so grateful for that because she cared and as an actor you want that, you crave that, that’s the best experience. I really welcome that. I really love that. ”
If you’re a fan of the show or if you’ve never seen the show before, you should definitely tune in to tonight’s special episode. Sarah Wynter explains why: “Watch me, of course!”
Wynter shares that the episode centers on a “really interesting” story and is unlike one she’s ever seen before on television. “I am incredibly excited by it. I think it’s incredibly exciting, compelling, frightening — it’s something that will stay with you for a lot of different reasons and for none of the reasons you might think.”
Law & Order: SVU, “Motherly Love,” airs tonight at 9pm on NBC.