ADA Sonny Carisi (Peter Scanavino) can talk his way to verdicts in the courtroom, but will that skill—or what he learned as a detective—come in handy in the November 21 episode of Law & Order: SVU, when he’s in the middle of the crime?
In “Cornered,” Carisi tries to protect two women taken hostage in a tense standoff between police and a violent thief while Captain Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) and Sergeant Amanda Rollins (Kelli Giddish) devise a risky plan to get everyone to safety. Below, Scanavino previews the hostage situation, how Rollins handles her husband in danger, and more.
How does Carisi end up in this hostage situation?
Peter Scanavino: It’s one of those days where everything seems to be going right, he seems very much in a good mood. And then he forgets that he’s got to do something for a colleague of his, and he goes trying to do a nice action and he finds himself staring down the barrel of a gun and walking into the middle of a robbery. And then the episode kind of just really takes off from there as he’s trying to figure out how to get out of this situation. It just seems to be getting worse and worse and worse and worse and worse.
How does he handle that? Which of his skills are going to help him more in this situation—as a detective or an ADA?
I think it’s both actually because what he’s trying to do is trying to talk not only his way out of the situation, but also the other two or three people that are involved in the situation. He kind of starts trying to figure out how he can possibly force a wedge between these two people holding them hostage. So he starts using his brain a lot and let’s see how that works out.
Peter Kramer / NBC
How is Rollins handling Carisi being in this situation?
I think she is—I hope she’s terrified because they’re married, but I think she’s concerned, but it’s also, I don’t think you have a lot of time to reflect on the emotion of everything. You’ve got to just kind of put one foot in front of the other and act and try and extricate the people from this terrible situation. And then I think there’s a lot of time for emotion, but in this episode, it all happens very, very fast. So there’s not a lot of time to sit back and reflect emotionally for the characters involved.
How’s Carisi and Rollins’ relationship going, considering her new job means traveling a lot?
I still think that the relationship is really undergirded by the love and respect they have for each other. But it’s hard. Even in perfect relationships, life comes and throws you curveballs, and I think that is a difficult element in their relationship right now. She’s traveling a lot, he’s very busy, they have the three kids. But it’s one of those things where it’s flexing, but it’s also strengthening because you’re going through it together.
Talk about filming this episode. Carisi’s right in the middle of everything, not in his office or the courtroom.
He’s also alone, so that’s another element. It’s not like I’m just very involved in the episode and I’m going with Liv to investigate something, or it’s the courtroom where people are in the gallery. He’s really disconnected from the rest of the squad. So it’s just him. I mean, they’re outside and they’re trying to work to get me out or come through with some kind of solution for this problem. But inside the deli, it’s him and as we’re shooting it, I wasn’t with the other actors, so I kind of felt isolated and alone, much like I’m sure Carisi felt at that time.
What are the chances that we might see over on Organized Crime again?
Well, I think they’re pretty good.
Have you filmed anything?
I don’t know if I’m allowed to say. [Laughs] Take that from what you will.
What about seeing you on say Law & Order?
God, I would love to do a crossover with Law & Order, but I have not done one going that way. But that’s not to say there’s not traffic in any other direction, wink, wink, nudge, nudge.
Law & Order: SVU, Thursdays, 9/8c, NBC