Mariska Hargitay Says She Was ‘Meant to Connect’ with Young Girl Who Thought She Was Police Officer on SVU Set

Mariska Hargitay is reflecting on the “beautiful” moment she recently shared with a young girl while filming Law & Order: Special Victims Unit in New York City.

On April 10, Hargitay, 60, was filming one of the final episodes of season 25 of SVU when a little girl approached her, believing her to be a real police officer based on the badge she wore as part of her character’s outfit.

“We were meant to connect at the moment we did. This little angel girl was in need and we connected and I could see that,” she told Entertainment Tonight of the moment.

Hargitay said she “did what any mother on this planet would do” when the girl approached her. “I got to hug her mom and her, and it was beautiful,” she said.

A witness told PEOPLE at the time that the little girl had been separated from her mother in the Anne Loftus Playground in Fort Tryon Park and enlisted Hargitay’s help. Hargitay stopped production on the episode for 20 minutes to help the child locate her mother and then consoled them both.

The little girl was totally oblivious to the film crew — and to Hargitay’s scene partner, Ice-T — the witness shared, as she believed Hargitay to be an on-duty police officer.

Hargitay is a mother herself, sharing three kids with her husband Peter Hermann: August, 17, Andrew, 12, and Amaya, 12. She has her own funny stories about how her kids perceive her fame.

In an interview with PEOPLE celebrating the 25th anniversary of SVU, Hargitay shared that her 12-year-old son Andrew “thinks I play a cop on TV, end of story,” so he doesn’t understand why people often approach her on the street excitedly.

“So he asked ‘Why does everyone say I love you’ when we’re walking down the street?” she said.

He recently discovered that she had a voiceover role in a Japanese anime fantasy film, 2006’s Tales From Earthsea, and that was a role that helped him understand her fame a little bit.

“I did this movie so many years ago, I just did a little voiceover, no big deal,” she said. “And then my son, who loves anime now, he found out that I was in this movie. He said, ‘What? You’re in this movie?’ And we sat and watched it. And I’m sitting on the couch with my 12-year-old son who, first of all, the movie’s good, but he just thought it was the coolest thing.”

She continued, “So for him to see me in this movie that he loves, he said ‘Mom, it’s such a cool character.’ And it was this moment of had I known that, almost 20 years ago, that I would have this moment with my son that was so bonding and sacred, I just sat there going, ‘I don’t know that life gets better than this moment.’ ”

Moments like that with her kids are “what’s exciting about life” she said. “In many ways, we’re getting ready our whole lives for things, because I keep learning things are worth the wait,” she added.

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