Law & Order returns with all-new episodes starting on January 5. Ahead of the show’s latest episode, HollywoodLife spoke EXCLUSIVELY with Camryn Manheim, who plays Lieutenant Kate Dixon about what’s ahead and the latest about her son, actor Milo Manheim, guest-starring on the show.
“I’m going to tell you a story because this just happened, and it was so exciting for me. We were out to dinner. We were having a big Law & Order family dinner. The producers were there and Jeffrey Donovan said to the producer, Rick Eid, ‘You know, Camryn’s son is like a huge superstar, right?’ He’s like ‘no’ because all he does is write Law & Order episodes. He’s like, ‘I don’t know.’ And Jeffrey’s like, ‘Oh my God, he’s huge. He’s got millions of followers. He’s a dancer. He’s a singer. He’s such a great guy. He sent a video to my kids. Maybe we should put them in the next episode. It’s about an Instagram star.’
The actress added, “So right there at the table, Rick Eid sent a message to the casting director and then he showed me his response and it said, ‘Are you kidding? There is no way we’re wasting Milo on three scenes about an Instagram star. You are going to write an entire episode for him.’ So it was really sweet at that moment to see Rick get excited about Milo because Jeffrey Donovan was excited about him. And then the casting director saying, ‘No, he’s too good for that little part. We’re going to write him something big.’ So that was a really sweet moment for me. I’m a proud mama. I can’t wait.”
In addition to eventually getting her son on the show, the Emmy winner wants to learn more about Dixon as the show continues. For now, she’s having to make up Dixon’s background as she goes along. “So for example, I believe she comes from a family of blue bloods,” Camryn said. “I think that her father and her grandfather were all police officers, and she grew up in it. That’s why she doesn’t get so flustered by it. She’s got 40 cases at one time. She knows this like the back of her hand. Do I know that’s true? No, I’m just making that up. If you put it in your article, maybe the showrunner reads it. And he’s like, yeah, she comes from a family of police officers.”
She continued, “I don’t know that much about her, but I have to play her right. I have to create a life for her. I always wonder why she is seemingly so blase about every case, but it’s not that. She’s got to get this one done because she’s got 40 sitting on her desk. She’s got a son who’s deaf. We know that she’s no longer married. I pick up little tidbits in every episode, but I’m trying to make her really full and well-rounded. So I hope that we keep making stories about really important subject matters — political and just everything that we’re struggling with in our society — and I also hope that we get to see a little bit more of who the why these people do this day in and day out. Why do they put their lives on the line? Why is so important to them? And what makes them tick? So that’s my hope.”
Dixon’s son is deaf, and Camryn is hopeful about introducing him on the show in the future. Camryn is fluent in sign language and will be crossing over to Law & Order: SVU again to aid with a case involving a deaf person.
“I was having lunch with Mariska [Hargitay]. We were just having a girls’ lunch out. She told me that she was really excited about an upcoming episode that had some deaf people. She didn’t realize I knew sign language. And I said, ‘You know, I am fluent in sign language. That’s so exciting. We need more deaf people on television.’ She picked up her phone and texted somebody and said, ‘Camryn’s fluent in sign language, can we get her on our show?’ Five days later, they’re calling me going, ‘You’re going over to SVU.’ It really works like that. The mayor of New York, which is what I call Mariska, texts somebody and it happens. I was thrilled. It’s thrilling for me to get to work with deaf actors. There are so many incredibly talented ones, and to marry two things that I’ve loved: acting and my second language that I worked so hard to know, and it’s become a part of my life.”
Camryn stressed that it’s “so important to have representation for all those people out there who are watching television and looking for themselves. My whole life, I was looking for somebody who looks like me, and I couldn’t find them. I had to forge my own way. It would have been a nicer childhood and adulthood had there been sophisticated, larger women who were smart, clever, and sensual on television. But it didn’t exist when I was young. I think Law & Order has a duty to get the procedure correct, and I think all television and film have a duty to represent the citizens of our world. I think it’s just the unknown that scares them from writing more for disabled people. But every time New Amsterdam has someone on their show, it just makes it easier and more exciting to incorporate it into other people’s shows.
In the first episode back in 2023, Camryn revealed that Law & Order spotlights “the experience of migrants and immigrants who have come to America and their struggles with our criminal justice system. So you can imagine that some people are coming here, and they want to be upstanding citizens and be on the right side of justice, but they’re very apprehensive to speak up or do the right thing because they are always in fear of being deported. This case kind of highlights that. There are some people who have information and are terrified to be able to be part of the catching of criminals because of fear of repercussions. I think that’s really one of the things that I’m really proud of with Law & Order. The issues that they’re facing head-on like this, like police corruption, abuse of power, rape, and abortion issues. I’m just very proud of the headlines that they do take from and also the ones that they create to kind of show what’s going on in our society.” The flagship Law & Order airs Thursdays at 8 p.m. on NBC.