Ice T says 'Law & Order: SVU' character questions if 'he can continue being a cop in this climate'

Law & Order: SVU (Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET on CTV) is back with its 22nd season after an abrupt end in the spring due to—you guessed it—the coronavirus pandemic. The show is now extending its title as the longest-running primetime drama, this time premiering "mid-COVID crisis." Chatting about the new season, SVU star Ice T said that viewers would see characters "wearing masks, acknowledging the protests going on, people in the streets." He explained that the show stays away from the 2020 Presidential election, but they talk about the "unrest" in the United States.Ice T told etalk that Season 22's premiere made up for lost time with the storyline of Olivia Benson and her squad investigating a rape in the same area of Central Park where the real-life Amy Cooper situation took place in May. Amy Cooper, a white woman, called the police on innocent birdwatcher Christian Cooper, a Black man (no relation to Amy), in Central Park after he asked her to put her dog on a leash. In the fictional version, a white woman calls the police and says that a Black man exercising near them in the New York park is "scaring my son" and insists she's "not one of those Karens," *insert eye-roll here*."The first episode is the Karen incident where the lady called the cops on this guy in the park, and Mariska and I have to deal with the question where of, 'Did we profile him?' Mariska is asking herself if she has implicit bias," he said, adding that Season 22 comes in "very current." The 62-year-old actor said he's proud that the show is actually tackling these issues. "We had a Zoom meeting with the entire cast of all the Dick Wolf shows, and we talked about it. Just the simple fact that they even care about it enough to have the conversation makes me proud that I'm on a show that does care," he said.Ice T added that the writers of Law & Order: SVU are very in touch with what he feels is right, and "they try to write good scripts that are helpful to humans in a good way." Back in July this year, the actor did address some of the racially coded language used on the show and admitted SVU has contributed to a "romanticizing" of police.Jamie Gray Hyder, who plays officer Kat Azar Tamin, said that she commends the writers of the show for the way they handled her storyline. Since many people in the LGBTQ+ community struggle with "being identified based solely on their sexual orientation when that's only one aspect of their personality," Hyder was pleased they didn't dwell on Kat's orientation that way. Hyder noted to etalk that Kat's coming out was "casually mentioned" and not "made into this huge deal because the viewers have already learned so much about her that this is just another layer of her personality and doesn't solely define everything about her."

 

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Canadian actor Demore Barnes joined the show this season as Deputy Chief Christian Garland, and Ice T said he'd been a fan of the actor since he appeared in the TV series Hannibal and American Gods. "I already knew this dude was deep, and when you talk to him, he's got this really deep voice. It's like Demore, crack a joke! He's heavy," Ice T added before saying that Demore is "very distinguished, fun, cool and Canadian." He also recalled the importance of shooting a scene with the actor where they discussed the nuances and contradictions of being Black police officers which went "very well."Ice T said that he has his own personal opinion about police, adding that if you're a real officer during this time, "and all this stuff is going around about defund the police, of course, it's going to affect you." He said that this season his character, NYPD Detective/Sergeant Odafin "Fin" Tutuola, questions "whether he can continue being a cop in this climate especially after I shot a Black man." Fin deals with a personal dilemma, Ice T added, but we have to wait and see how he handles it.Watch Law & Order: SVU Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET on CTV.