Mariska Hargitay and Christopher Meloni

Christopher Meloni has appeared in 283 episodes of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit over the years alongside series lead Mariska Hargitay, but there is one scene that stands out to him as the most memorable.

“My favorite Law & Order: Special Victims Unit scene featuring myself and Mariska Hargitay was when Lou Diamond Phillips had a gun to my head, and Stabler told Benson to take the shot,” Meloni, 63, reveals exclusively in the latest issue of Us Weekly, on newsstands now. “We were bound to each other in that moment as people and characters. And I think Mariska was eight months pregnant at the time, so it’s a moment I find particularly special.”

The actress was expecting her eldest child, son August, while filming the episode Meloni referenced: season 7, episode 19, “Fault.” She is also the mother of children Amaya and Andrew, whom she adopted in 2011 with fellow Law & Order: SVU actor Peter Hermann.

Meloni also shared that one thing he shares with his SVU character, Elliot Stabler, is “a complicated relationship with God.”

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All four seasons of Law & Order: Organized Crime are streaming now on Peacock. For more personal facts from Meloni, including the unexpected favorite item in his wardrobe, keep scrolling:

1. I sold my first car, a Jeep Renegade, to pay my way to New York to start my life as an actor. Ten years ago, I bought another Jeep in memory of that car. It brings me right back to my 20s.

2. The most starstruck moment of my life was when I did 12 Monkeys and met Terry Gilliam, who was my hero from his movie Brazil, and, obviously, from his Monty Python days. I almost started crying while I was talking to him, letting him know how meaningful Brazil was to me.

3. Growing up, my favorite thing to do was play sandlot football with the neighborhood kids. Also, I loved to ride my bike. I liked the sense of freedom it gave me.

4. My favorite movie I saw in the past year was Maestro. I thought everything about it — the writing, the directing, the acting — was brilliant, and I know Bradley [Cooper], and I was gobsmacked and inspired by what he did with it.

5. One quality I share with Elliot Stabler is a complicated relationship with God.

6. I love books, whether they are fiction or nonfiction, because I learn so much about human behavior and the species: who we are, what we are and how we operate. The three I read most recently were Herzog by Saul Bellow, Rabbit, Run by John Updike and Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari.

7. I looked up to Robert De Niro, Marlon Brando, Daniel Day-Lewis and Christian Slater when I was younger. I respect how each of these actors fully immerse themselves in their characters. It’s an amazing feat.

8. My favorite item in my wardrobe is this ridiculous sweater my daughter, Sophia, bought me. I once told her how I wanted a tattoo of this insane clown making a crazy face, but her mother wouldn’t let me get it, saying “You don’t want that on your body.” But you know what, I did! I felt like the crazy clown spoke to me. One day, my daughter walked into a vintage shop, found this crazy clown sweater and bought it for me.

Christopher Meloni
9. History was my best school subject. For whatever reason, it was the only thing I was any good at. I like trying to understand who our ancestors were and how they lived.

10. “Time of the Season” by Zombies brings me back to when I was young and life was an adventure.

11. When I was 18, I started working as a surgical orderly in a hospital. I saw my first autopsy from start to finish, and I had seen the guy alive the night before, enjoying his tapioca pudding. The next morning, they had me pull him out of the fridge.

12. If I wasn’t an actor, I’d like to be a sculptor. I recently started sculpting. It is a different creative outlet, a new angle of creation that I have never experienced before. It is very exciting. I could commit to sculpting. I’d go to art school, get my hands dirty. I’d go to sleep with clay under my fingernails and dream in marble.

13. The proudest moment of my career was when I started making a living as an actor and was able to get rid of my side hustle, which was bartending.

14. I’ve worked all over, from rowdy honky-tonks to Studio 54 when it was on its last legs.

15. My favorite place to vacation is the Caribbean and my little lake house getaway.

Christopher Meloni
16. Maybe I’m a company man, but the show I recently binge-watched was Homicide: New York, a documentary series [executive produced by Dick Wolf] about the north and south homicide squads in Manhattan. I thought it was brilliant — just how dedicated the detectives are to their job and their pursuit of justice for the victims and their families. It made me proud of what I do, and I try to convey their strength through my character.

17. My favorite home-cooked meal is a medium rare steak [with] caramelized onions, mushrooms and a nice Caesar salad. Some asparagus too.

18. I’d like to visit the areas of the world I haven’t seen before, like South America, Greece and the Nordic countries.

19. After a hectic day, I like to decompress by going out to eat. I’m lucky to live [near] 20 great restaurants within a five-block radius in Manhattan.

20. The app I use the most is Venmo, unfortunately.

21. The bicycle is my favorite mode of transportation.

22. My workout routine involves a little bit of cardio, a lot of mobility work and some strength training. I like doing my own thing because I’m very attuned to what my body needs.

Christopher Meloni
23. My favorite Law & Order: Special Victims Unit scene featuring myself and Mariska Hargitay was when Lou Diamond Phillips had a gun to my head, and Stabler told Benson to take the shot. We were bound to each other in that moment as people and characters. And I think Mariska was eight months pregnant at the time, so it’s a moment I find particularly special.

24. I’m passionate about the Global Lyme Alliance. As an ambassador for GLA, I’ve led a group of Lyme disease advocates on a trip to Capitol Hill to advocate for increased funding for Lyme disease treatments and diagnostics. Lyme disease has brought a depth of pain and turmoil to my family’s lives that I never could have dreamt of, but that pain required from us all an equal response back: you deal with what you have to deal with, and then fight back with everything you have. I want everyone to know just how insidious Lyme disease is and how little is known about it.

25. My favorite weekend activity is waterskiing, which I started 23 years ago. Sometimes my son will join me or my daughter will tag along to go wakeboarding, but not too many people slalom ski these days, so I usually go with the cronies.