The characters of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit are about to get a blast from the past. Elliot Stabler is coming back to New York City. HollywoodLife got EXCLUSIVE scoop from Ice-T about how Fin feels about Stabler being back in the picture and what to expect from the SVU and Organized Crime crossover, which airs April 1 on NBC.
“Fin’s cool with it,” Ice-T told HollywoodLife while promoting his new partnership with Tide. “People say, oh, you and Stabler went at each other. I’m like, that was 15 years ago. Of course, in the writing, they’ll say, okay, you guys push up against each other. But I think they did that just to let people know that Fin wasn’t going to back down. They were building my character, not so much that I hated Chris, but they just wanted to see somebody that wouldn’t back off. Story-wise when you see the show you’re going to see I talked to Stabler first. Stabler’s actually been contacting me, so you’ll see how it plays out.”
Ice-T is glad to have Chris back in the SVU universe and understands why Chris left the show when he did. Chris was one of the stars of SVU, alongside Mariska Hargitay and Ice-T, until his abrupt departure after season 12. Chris is returning to SVU to kick off Stabler’s own spinoff, Law & Order: Organized Crime.
“The cool thing is me and Chris are friends. So 12 years ago when he left to do his thing, I was 100 percent behind Chris’ moves,” Ice-T said. “Like I’ve said, a lot of people don’t get into acting to play one part for 20 years, you know? It’s like me only singing one song at the concert every year. So he went off to do his thing. He did movies. He had his own show. Now he’s back and in a good place. Chris is a great person. He’s fun. We’re very similar. You got two alpha males, you know what I’m saying? So me and him understand each other. Mariska loves to see him back. You guys are gonna love the episodes that we’ve done so far. I’ve shot a couple of episodes with Chris, so he crosses over back and forth a couple of times.”
On top of SVU, Ice-T is teaming up with Tide and WWE legend Stone Cold Steve Austin to kick off the #TurnToCold campaign, which aims to educate consumers about the environmental benefits of washing in cold water. HollywoodLife asked Ice-T how he got involved with the campaign.
“When you get calls to do commercials and things like that, you always want to see if the shoe fits, you know?” Ice-T explained. “So I get a call and they say it’s Tide. I’m like, okay, I use Tide Plus. And then they said it’s about washing in cold water, and I wash in hot water. They explained to me how much money I would save, that it won’t ruin your clothes, and it’s good for the environment. They said Tide actually washes just as well in cold water. And then I realized it was a play on the fact that my name is Ice. When they said we want to team you up with Stone Cold Steve Austin, I’m like, I’m in. That’s how it all happened. Hopefully, it’ll get the point across that you don’t necessarily need to run hot water anymore to get your clothes clean.”