What To Know
- J. Smith-Cameron will join Law & Order: SVU Season 28 in a recurring role.
- Showrunner Michele Fazekas reveals what to expect from her character with Mariska Hargitay’s Benson.
Law & Order: SVU, in Season 28, is giving Captain Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) someone to talk to.
J. Smith-Cameron will recur, beginning in the Thursday, October 8, premiere, as jury consultant Gwen Sharpe, TV Insider has learned. Showrunner Michele Fazekas calls her a “great get because she’s good.”
Gwen is also being brought in to be a “peer” for the SVU captain, Fazekas explains to us. “Benson is the boss, so when she’s despairing or disillusioned, you’re not going to really talk to your employees, the people who are your subordinates, because as much as she’s friends with them and she’s friends with Rollins [Kelli Giddish], as a good manager, you’re not going to do that. So, I like giving her somebody who’s very, very experienced in a different way, who she can sort of have these conversations with. So J. Smith-Cameron is coming in, she’s great.”
Virginia Sherwood/NBC
The showrunner’s comments about Benson feeling “disillusioned” refer to her arc for the season. After Season 27 addressed the question of retirement for both her and Sergeant Odafin “Fin” Tutuola (Ice-T), the show isn’t just ignoring the fact that she has been on the job for nearly 30 years. Instead, it’s leaning into how much things have changed for its investigations — and how much hasn’t.
“What I got interested in this season was somewhat inspired by the case that we are doing in the first episode, which is a case that really highlights as far as we have come in the investigation of sex crimes and in how we as a society view sexual assault and how we define sexual assault; in some ways we’re still back 30 years ago,” Fazekas says. “It’s a case that is really kind of disheartening for Benson. And she ends up sort of saying like, ‘Oh, in some ways, yes, nothing has changed.’ I wanted to see what she does with that, and so how does Benson push against her own boundaries?”
She adds, “How does Benson push further to get justice and even sort of challenge her own ideas of what is ethical and what is the right thing to do? How far will she go to get justice? I like playing with those boundaries and pushing against them because it is a little bit of being, not despair so much, but certainly disillusioned as you can be with the justice system when things seem to be so stacked against you. I like putting her in that spot and seeing what she does with it.”
What are you hoping to see from J. Smith-Cameron’s character on SVU? Let us know in the comments section below.
Law & Order: SVU, Season 28 Premiere, Thursday, October 8, 9/9c, NBC