Friends who fly together stay together. In honor of the upcoming Emmys, Chris Meloni posted pictures from his flight to Los Angeles with fellow Law & Order: SVU co-star Mariska Hargitay. His Instagram shows the pair first leaning in to speak to each other from either side of the aisle, then holding hands from opposite sides of the plane. “Talk Emmy stuff to a random lady,” Meloni joked in his caption. “We became friends #OfftoLA.”
This post is further testament to the off-screen friendship Meloni and Hargitay have developed over the many years playing Elliot Stabler and Olivia Benson. “From the second we met, the bells rang. We knew we were going to be a huge force in each other’s lives,” Hargitay told TV Insider in 2018 about meeting Meloni for the first time. “He was intense and spirited, but also funny.” And it seems Meloni feels the same way.
“She and I hit it off from the start,” he told Cinema Blend in a 2020 interview. He also told Entertainment Tonight that same year that their friendship is unlike most other relationships because it’s so simple feels. “We just pick up right where we left off and we’ve said it’s like we don’t have that relationship with anyone else… it’s unique, it’s full of laughter, it’s full of love.” We just seamlessly fall into this place every time we see each other.”
