Mariska Hargitay is sharing the spoils of a weekend well spent relaxing by the pool, taking to her social media page with a stunning new snap.
The actress, 61, posted a photograph of herself laying on a bright blue pool float on a Sunday morning enjoying some "downtime," with her hair spread behind her, wearing a pair of sunglasses, a pink lip, and a bright blue bathing suit.
While details of her actual suit weren't visible, the strings poked out from the straps, and she topped it off with an understated blue chain. "Happy Sunday. Just floating around…," Mariska simply captioned the image.
One of the first comments came from her close friend Ali Wentworth, who quipped: "On my way over!" while other fans left responses like: "Beautiful as always!" and: "Down time. You have that?! Enjoy every well deserved second."
The downtime Mariska mentioned might have to do with the fact that she's back on set filming the 27th season of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, which is set to premiere this fall.
The actress will step into the role of Olivia Benson, the longest-running character in American primetime drama history, for a record 26th year, ever since she took on the mantle in 1999, although as it turns out, she'd never thought it was all meant to be.
While speaking with Willie Geist on Sunday TODAY earlier this year, Mariska opened up about a moment of panic she felt after auditioning for franchise creator Dick Wolf to play Olivia, especially when she encountered her competition.
"It was very funny," she recalled. "I walked in there and because after ER I said, 'What am I — what am I going to do? This is the greatest show ever. There's no other show. Oh, except for Law & Order,' I said to myself. And I was making jokes, 'I need to get on that Law & Order.'"
After she read for Dick, he gave her a "couple notes," and she remembered reacting positively at the time. "I remember going, 'That was good. That's good.' And he was like, 'Oh really? Is that — is it good? Is that a good note?'"
Mariska believed that she and the showrunner had "hit it off" at first, but suddenly felt the anxiety grow when she met a "stunning girl in the waiting room," which caused her to panic.
"And I walked in, I go, 'Listen, I don't know what you're doing, but you're a little confused: This is my role. This is my part. I am Olivia Benson.' And (Dick) was sort of laughing, I could tell, and I was like, 'No, no, you don't understand.'"
Such was also the case when they were auditioning for someone to play the part of Detective Elliot Stabler, which eventually went to her longtime screen partner and now close friend Christopher Meloni.
Mariska retold the story of three actors and three actresses being paired up together in another callback to serve as a chemistry read for Olivia and Elliot. "In the room, when he walked in, I sort of sized him up and I said, 'That's the guy,'" she fondly recalled.