Law & Order: SVU’s Connie Nielsen Says She Would Never Play Dani Beck Again

Law and Order: SVU fans were delighted on Tuesday when it was announced that NBC had given a 13-episode series order to a new Law & Order: SVU spinoff centered around Christopher Meloni’s fan-favorite character, Elliot Stabler, who is now leading the NYPD’s organized crime unit. While the prospect of getting to see Meloni back as Stabler is one fans are already all for and even are hopeful for crossovers with SVU or appearances by SVU characters, there’s at least one face from the Special Victims Unit that won’t be making an appearance. Connie Nielsen says she has no interest in revisiting her SVU character, Dani Beck.

In an interview with Coming Soon, Nielsen said that it’s the Dani Beck haters that are a reason she has no interest in revisiting the character she played for six episodes in 2006.

“Are you kidding me? NO!” Nielsen laughed emphatically. “Because literally there are these people who are obsessive about hating her! I’m like, ‘Chill the f*ck out, people!’ There are people who are professional Dani Beck haters and I never knew even that they existed until they went on Instagram and started tagging me on there. I was like, ‘WHAT?’ There are people who hate this character I did 10 years ago while Mariska Hargitay was giving birth. They should be grateful to me, I allowed her the time to be home with her baby. (laughs) Instead some asshole is like, ‘We hate Dani Beck.’ Well f*ck you too! I cannot believe it.”

Nielsen isn’t wrong that there is some significant Dani Beck hate among SVU fans. The character appeared during a six episode arc and, in that time, saw Dani grow close with Stabler. That closeness is, in large part, why fans are vocally against the character — a lot of SVU fans ship Hargitay’s Oliva Benson with Stabler so the idea of any character that would present a threat to that, particularly while Olivia wasn’t in the picture, definitely didn’t win many people over.

Still, even with the still passionate fan hatred of her character being a major factor, Nielsen also referenced complexities and intensity of working on the show as being, perhaps, another reason a return to Dani Beck just isn’t for her.

“Law & Order is not for sissies, let me tell you,” she said. “They have a shooting schedule that is mindboggling.”