Law & Order:SVU: Q&A with Taryn Manning, Neal Baer and David Patrick Kelly

Twitter has already spawned one TV show and there are reportedly more to come.  So you wouldn’t think that Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, in its 12^th season, would have to go to the Twitter well for story ideas. Right? Well SVU fans, think again. As I found out during a conference call with executive producer Neal Baer and guest stars Taryn Manning and David Patrick Kelly, tonight’s episode “Possessed” (NBC, 10pm/9c) did exactly that.

Law & Order: SVU is known for ripping the headlines from today’s papers for its plot lines but this time Baer says he was inspired by the tweets of cast regular Ice-T.  “I was talking to Ice-T… and he was on Twitter and got involved in a big Twitter war, so to speak, over this issue of a book that had been published that was available to anybody who wanted to buy it that told how one could abuse a child…”

Baer went on to say that Ice-T, who wrote and performed the controversial song “Cop Killer” in the ’90s, took the position that the first amendment could only go so far. “I rewrote a scene for Ice-T to take that position, or Fin to take that position, which actually reflects his own point of view that he says something like, “I got to tell you that I’m all for the First Amendment, but not when it lets perverts do stuff like this.”

Baer liked the idea of incorporating Ice-T’s expressed views on Twitter into his show’s character adding “…it’s interesting that this happened to come from one of the actors actually who was really quite passionate about it, and we were able to work that into the show.” I was really hoping it was going to be about Coco’s tweets (Ice-T’s wife) but this sounds good too.

Veteran actor David Patrick Kelly guest stars in the episode as a pretty evil guy that he describes as “the most horrifying character.” But it didn’t matter that he was playing such a baddie because, according to David, the regular cast was really excited to work with him, mainly because of one of his most famous roles as “Luther” the leader of “The Rogues” in the film The Warriors.  “There was a lot of fans at my first film there, The Warriors, and so they, you know, everybody was talking about that a lot, especially Ice-T who was a big fan of that.”

Tonight’s episode also guest stars Taryn Manning as a victim of a vicious attack with a buried past (They didn’t really want to get into the plot too much. It’s a cop show and you have to leave some mystery).  Manning, who is getting a lot of work these days on Hawaii 5-0, is not a stranger to playing darker characters or “tortured souls.”  She made a name for herself with standout roles in movies like 8 Mile and Hustle & Flow playing the anti-girl-next-door. So I asked her if she liked playing these dramatic roles or if she would like to take a turn showing her comedic side. Well, according to Taryn:

“Oh, my God. I would cut off my right pinky to do more comedies, but they do take a toll on me. I’m not going to lie because I am a very fun, you know, kind of free spirited person and I’m forced a lot to go to this place and I know that I’m really good at it, and I believe in myself so much and I know that I can nail this kind of stuff and really bring some charity to it.”

I would like to think that she was making a Big Lebowski reference there…but she didn’t say pinky toe. Losing a digit aside Taryn goes on to say she’s hopeful for future roles that showcase her lighter side.

“I mean I hope – you know, that’s one of my goals in the New Year is, you know, to really like try and exploit my – the comedian in me and do whatever it takes to break out of, I guess, the stereotype. “

“I have to admit, I have so many friends that are actors and they always say to me, ‘God, Taryn, I would kill to play the edgy, tortured rolls you get to play.’ And I’m like, “Well, I’d kill to play the girl next door who’s just giggling and happy.”

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit airs Wednesdays at 9/8c on NBC.

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Images courtesy of NBC Universal and Will Hart.