19-year old singer-songwriter Grace Gaustad has been a fan of Mariska Hargitay’s for years. She watched the “superhero” play Olivia Benson on “Law & Order: SVU” throughout her youth. As it happens, Hargitay is a huge fan of Grace’s, and the two collaborated on a music video recently.
The music video is for a song called “93 Days.” It follows Grace as she takes a trip to her therapist, played by Mariska Hargitay. Appropriately, the subject matter of the song revolves around mental health.
“It’s been 93 days since the doctor called. Said I wasn’t okay, said I needed drugs. Didn’t need the medicine, I just needed love,” Gaustad sings.
The music video and song together do a lot to paint seeking help from a therapist in a positive light. As her role model, Gaustad felt like the “Law & Order: SVU” star was the perfect choice for depicting a mentor-like figure in the context of the song.
“’93 Days’ is a song with a message that really speaks a lot to what I think Mariska stands for as a person and a leader and a mentor,” Gaustad told People.
Hargitay found the song and idea for the music video to be in line with the subject matter she deals with on “Law & Order: SVU.” While Olivia Benson is far from a therapist, she encounters victims of all kinds of abuse on the show.
“We’re dealing with so many of the same themes, and that’s why it immediately resonated so deeply with me. People feel alone, and the message of SVU, the message of Joyful Heart, the message that I’m sending out into the world and Grace’s message is: you are not alone,” Hargitay told People.
Mariska Hargitay Was Excited to Work on Something Different Than ‘Law & Order: SVU’
That’s not to say Hargitay dislikes her work on the long-running procedural. But the show is just that, a lot of procedure. Add to that the darkness of the subject matter, and all of a sudden, the prospect of doing a music video is beyond exciting.
And that’s especially true when there’s as much mutual admiration as there is between the “Law & Order: SVU” star and Grace Gaustad.
“I was so excited to do something different. Grace and I trusted each other implicitly, and we’re so open, so there was a little bit of magic that happened on the set because we were going into something and building something and creating something together,” Hargitay continued in the interview.
The medium is entirely different, going from a network TV show to a music video. But for Hargitay, it’s acting. And that’s something she knows how to do, even when she doesn’t have any lines to go on.
