In My Mom Jayne, Emmy-winning actress and longtime Law & Order: SVU star Mariska Hargitay explores her memories of the famous mother she only knew for a brief time before her untimely death in a car accident when Hargitay was just three years old, and the family secrets she discovered along the way.
Awards Buzz spoke with Hargitay about what she knew and wanted when she set out to make the film and how that evolved along the way:
“I knew that I wanted to not carry a secret and I knew that I wanted to unburden myself and look at my family with a disciplined curiosity. To really understand why they had made the decisions that they had done and to really go in with that disciplined curiosity and take my judgment or my fear or the narratives that I had told myself for so long. I knew that because of how I felt and because I had met Nelson years ago, and I wanted to share that. There was so much that I thought that I knew going in and then there was so much that was discovered. I just knew that I wanted to go into it with courage and authenticity and as neutral as I could be as a storyteller. Disciplined curiosity but also to let people speak for themselves and sit back and watch. And that was extraordinary.”
“I also wanted to tell my story because, here I am, been on this show for 27 years, well, 28 this year. I have encouraged people and survivors to share their stories and to see what is on the other side waiting when we don’t hold secrets, when we don’t let ourselves be locked in shame and in isolation, because that’s what secrets do. They lock us there and in our own self-imposed prison. But this idea that, in sharing our stories, in being vulnerable, it really does get us to the other side and unburden us. We think that we’re being weak and it makes us look bad, and what it really does is make us look even stronger and more human and connect us to each other because we all share these things. These are universal themes.”
Watch the video above to hear about all the TV she’s loving right now and how excited she is to attend the Emmy Awards not only as a nominee but also as this year’s host!
My Mom Jayne is streaming on HBO Max.
