In the Law & Order “Play with Fire” crossover, ADA Price (Hugh Dancy) butts heads with SVU’s Captain Benson and, to a slightly lesser extent, Lieutenant Brady of the 2-7. Both women have personal reasons for wanting to quickly bring a killer and rapist to justice, and it leads to them taking a little bit of an “ask for forgiveness instead of permission” approach to obtaining evidence against the corrupt cop they know is both a rapist and a killer. When Brady and Benson bring their theory to Price and Carisi in Law & Order: SVU Season 26 Episode 19 (Part 2 of the crossover event), Price has quite the initial reaction. So, during our interview with Dancy, we asked him about that scene. Specifically, what was going through Price’s mind?
“On the one hand, great, we have a viable suspect, in the sense of viable that it seems likely that this is the person who did it. On the other hand…Benson and Brady have jumped right ahead of normal procedure” by using the blood on Liv’s clothes for DNA testing. “So, Price is constantly evaluating how you make a case. Because it doesn’t matter if you know somebody did it, if you can’t actually make the case in court, right? And that’s just a very technical series of arguments, and will the evidence be allowed, and so on and so forth. So, he’s, I think, excited — but a little alarmed by the process part of it. And maybe in a broader way, a little alarmed by what it says about the kind of personal level of involvement, because that’s risky, too.”
For Price “the most difficult part” of working on this case winds up being “really trying to persuade [Brady and Benson] that” discovering Gomez is good for the murders “is all fine, but you’ve got to slow down. And there are certain stops along the way that we have to make to secure” the evidence “for the goal” of getting a conviction, “which we all share. And he can see, looking at them both — and in particular, looking at Benson — I think, that she’s not really interested in the message.”
Another thing Liv very much doesn’t want to hear? When it becomes clear “the defendant is deliberately wrapping her into [the case] in a more personal way” by sending someone to approach Noah at school,” Nolan suggests maybe she might need to take a step back and recuse herself. We know Gomez is “doing that in the knowledge that it’s going to make it harder when we get to court.” That’s because getting Captain Benson more personally invested and more emotional through Noah is “going to make her testimony less reliable…And so [as Price]. I’m telling her something that I know she’s going to hate, but I’m also telling it to her for the exact same reason that she shares,” of wanting to get justice.
“I’m glad that he’s not worried about saying that to her that way,” Dancy told us, and although ADA Carisi is in the room at the time, “I think it makes sense that it would be [Price] who makes that case,” at least initially. Yes, “Carisi, obviously, maybe has the same legal concerns, but he’s also her dear friend. And I think that Price is a little bit more cut and dry about the trade-offs.” That’s not to say that being passionate about the work is bad — quite the opposite. Price “understands what the endgame has to be…and it can be driven by passion. There’s nothing wrong with that.”
In fact, “just from a legal perspective, like in a courtroom, demonstrating passion to the jury is important. And then, in his opening statement in the court case, [Price] gets to do that. He gets to basically say this — this is a disgusting human being. But,” Dancy warns, “that’s also strategic. It’s not just letting your emotions run away with you, because that’s when you’re going to make mistakes. And then, you know, your case is going to collapse. So, he’s quite good, I think, at doing that. And I know lawyers, it does come across as quite dry sometimes.”
So, yes, even in the scene where Nolan asks Olivia to recuse herself (and Carisi eventually backs him up), Nolan is also on the same page with her. And he’s honest with her, too. We see that very clearly when he calls her back as she’s on her way out of his office to secure more evidence and reminds her that she’s “not the only one that is infuriated” by Gomez doing “exact opposite” of what he swore to do (protect and serve). When Hugh Dancy discussed Law & Order: SVU Season 26 Episode 19 with us, he told us, “I think what he’s saying to Benson is just reminding her, [that professionally], ‘look, my process might be different from yours in this. But on a personal level, we’re in we’re in exactly the same place.'”
MORE: Earlier this season, Maroun threatened to walk out on Price — permanently. We asked Odelya Halevi if she was serious.
Hugh Dancy on what’s next for Nolan, including in the Law & Order Season 24 finale
During our interview about the Law & Order crossover, Hugh Dancy reminded us that “we’ve faced similar kind of dilemmas elsewhere in the show, where you have to decide how much to put a check on your personal investment. And in fact…our finale this season very much lands in that in that space.”
So, the obvious next thing to ask was what else he could tease about the remainder of Season 24. “Between now and the end of the season,” Dancy said, “there’s one episode that leans in a little bit more to Price’s history with his own family, just tangentially, but it kind of forces him to maybe consider the way he’s framed…his brother in his mind. And then, in our finale, I think we’ll leave people in a very interesting place that involves one of the characters in the show…potentially in a role that they would not normally be in, in terms of which side of the law. I can’t really say anything more than that. But I think it will be — it’ll be very interesting.”
You’ll have to tune in to see what that’s all about.
Don’t miss Hugh Dancy in Law & Order, airing Thursdays at 8/7c on NBC.
