Kelli Giddish’s SVU exit is disappointing and rather unnecessary.
BY: JACOB POLITTE
Managing Editor
Photo courtesy of NBC.
News broke in late August that actress Kelli Giddish would be departing SVU later this year. Normally, an actor or actress leaving a television show isn’t and shouldn’t be big news. But this is not any ordinary situation.
Giddish has portrayed Detective Amanda Rollins on the show for 12 seasons now, and worst of all, the exit was reportedly not her decision. In fact, there were active plans in place to kill the character off during the recent three hour Law and Order crossover event (during an hour that wasn’t even an SVU episode no less), before lead actress Mariska Hargitay stepped in to make sure that didn’t happen. Along with Hargitay, the rest of the cast and crew doesn’t seem to be happy about Giddish’s departure. The new showrunner and his team appear to have been blindsided by the decision. The only one who is in favor is the man who calls all of the shots: Dick Wolf, who rumors state thinks that Giddish is overpaid.
She’s been on the show for 12 years and has turned in countless memorable performances on a show that often doesn’t specialize in that trade these days. She should be paid rather well. But as a result of Wolf’s demands to rid the show of Rollins, and barring a sudden change of heart from that particular Dick, Giddish will depart following episode 9 of the current season this December.
While it’s been publicly stated that Rollins’ character will have a happy ending, the disrespect shown to Giddish is beyond defendable. Giddish has worked on the show since 2011, and is one of the longest tenured cast members. Through the years, while the cast has constantly rotated outside of Hargitay and Ice T, Giddish has been a reliable performer and Rollins has been often the most relatable character to the show’s audience.
SVU will be worse off without her.
