Ice T Got Asked If ‘Law & Order: SVU’ Will Go ‘Back to Normal’...

[TMC]

...After It ‘Started Going Woke.’

https://variety.com/2024/tv/news/ice...ke-1236120848/

Zack SharfAug 28, 2024 8:40am PT

Ice T shut down a recent accusation that “Law & Order: SVU” has strayed too far from its origins and “started to go woke.” The rapper and actor has played detective Odafin Tutuola on the NBC crime procedural series since 2000, making him the show’s longest-serving male cast member. He’s currently in production on the show’s 26th season.

A fan responded to an “SVU” set photo Ice T posted on X (formerly Twitter) by asking the star: “Did they write ‘SVU’ back to normal yet? It started to go woke.”

“What the F is woke?” Ice T asked in a post that has gone viral with more than 4.5 million impressions and counting. “Lol. Like I give a fµck.”

Ice T is returning for “Law & Order: SVU” Season 26 alongside franchise mainstay Mariska Harigtay. Cast updates for the next run include Kevin Kane as newly-promoted series regular and newcomer Juliana Aidén Martinez joining the cast. Peter Scanavino will be back as ADA Dominick “Sonny” Carisi Jr. as well.

Speaking to Variety about his role last year, Ice T reminded fans that “I’m not a cop. I’m the furthest thing from a cop.” He also acknowledged that playing a law enforcement officer on television has become “difficult” in recent years.

“People have said that our television shows are police propaganda, making the police look good. I understand that argument,” Ice-T said. “The cop I am on our show is an SVU detective…When I got the job at ‘SVU,’ Dick Wolf said to me, ‘Ice, you don’t like cops, right?’ I told him that during my criminal past, I didn’t hate cops — they were my opponents. [He asked,] ‘But you admit we need them, right?’ I said, ‘Yeah.’ So, Wolf told me to play the cop that we need. And if I play the cop that we need, I won’t have any problems with it.”

“Law & Order: SVU” Season 26 is set to air on NBC this fall.