Mariska Hargitay is a beloved actress who will forever known for playing a signature role, in this case Law and Order: SVU's tough-as-nails detective Olivia Benson. The character has been a trailblazer when it comes to female characters on television. Benson is strong, independent, intelligent, and multifaceted, setting a new standard for how women are depicted on the small screen. Hargitay is proud of the work she’s done on the show, and as time has gone on, she has been able to see parts of her famous late mother, Jayne Mansfield, in her iconic procedural character.
In a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, Hargitay opened up about her new HBO documentary titled My Mom Jayne, which hit the 2025 TV schedule in June and is avialable to stream with a Max subscription. The project, which she directed, examines Mansfield’s life as both an actress and sex symbol before she passed away tragically at 34, and it also delves into Hargitay’s relationship to her mother’s legacy.
Now, I can't imagine anyone would look at L&O's Olivia Benson and immediately start making direct comparisons to a Golden Age starlet like Mansfield, but Hargitay has put a lot of thought into that over the years. She actually does see some similarities between her mom and her franchise character, telling EW that they share a key trait:
Her compassion. I know that [my mom] was a deeply, deeply kind, compassionate, and empathetic, loving person. But Olivia is fearless and certainly not afraid of confrontation. She makes up her own rules and lives by a different code.
Even though Benson is fearless and has a tough exterior, fans are drawn to her because of her undying compassion for the victims in the show. Benson will fight to the end to make sure victims get justice, and perpetrators are punished to the full extent of the law. While Jayne Mansfield was far from a police detective, she was incredibly loving and compassionate towards her daughter and people around her, as Hargitay recounts. This is incredibly sweet, and I love that Hargitay is reclaiming her mother’s legacy all these years later.
However, Hargitay was keen to note the differences between Benson and the public image of her mother. With Olivia Benson, the Emmy winner was able to explore strength in womanhood, and an uncompromising attitude towards injustice. She noted her mother didn’t exactly have that opportunity due to the restrictive nature of the time period, and her “bombshell” reputation that she was sequestered to. She believes these limitations her mother experienced made her the way she is, and was likely one of the reasons she was drawn to Benson as a character. She said:
That's why the character of Olivia Benson, I make my own rules. Nobody tells me what to do. Olivia and I together are strong and think things through in a different way as opposed to accepting the limitations that are bestowed on us — or that the patriarchy wants to put on us. The way my mother was treated certainly informed how I decided to go through the world.
Clearly, Mansfield had a major influence on Hargitay and how she approaches her iconic television role. Even if she didn’t know it at first, Hargitay has learned how deeply she’s been impacted by how she’s interpreted her mother’s pop culture status as a figure in the media. Whether she is subverting it or examining it, Mansfield’s legacy has become a major influence on Hargitay’s own approach to stardom as a “female powerhouse”, and how she sees her character Olivia Benson.
You can see Mariska Hargitay’s documentary by streaming My Mom Jayne airing on HBO or streaming on HBO Max. Fans of the actress can also see her continue her role as Olivia Benson on Law and Order: SVU, which is streaming now with a Peacock subscription.