Law & Order came back to NBC with a cast comprised of familiar faces like Sam Waterston and Anthony Anderson as well as newcomers like Odelya Halevi and Hugh Dancy. Season 21 managed to pick up where the show left off after its initial end back 2010 even as it evolved to fit with the times in 2022. Part of why the revival has worked so well to start off NBC’s full Law & Order night is the prosecution team of Halevi’s ADA Samantha Maroun and Dancy’s Executive ADA Nolan Price, and the actress spoke with CinemaBlend about what makes that work and how they bring a touch of humor to a show that can be very serious.
Odelya Halevi – who also shared that she was a huge Law & Order fan before landing her role – plays half of the Maroun/Price dynamic, which can range from the two working in sync together to Price threatening to fire her after she crossed a line in a controversial case. The actress shared what it has been like to build that dynamic with Hugh Dancy (who previously played a very different character on NBC as star of Hannibal) so far in Season 21:
What was it like to build that? I think the writers did an incredible job at building that for us. I mean, we get the next script once a week, so we don't really know what's ahead. And it's always interesting to see 'Oh, you might fire me!' And this episode, 'Great. How are we going to do that? How are we gonna create that?' You know, maybe Maroun has too much opinion in this episode. Maybe she's not doing her job this episode.' We talk about that, me and Hugh, about creating the relationship between the two of us, even if the lines are just all about information about the case. And it's been great. It's very interesting to find out every week, what's going to happen next with the two of them.
Maroun and Price shoulder most of the prosecution work on the “law” side of Law & Order, with Sam Waterston’s Jack McCoy overseeing them as the District Attorney. Sometimes their working relationship functions better than others, which has guaranteed that it’s never boring. In the premiere, Price relied on her to draw on her personal history to make the closing argument that secured their verdict, whereas later he didn’t hesitate to tell her that he’d fire her if she crossed a line to promote a plea deal again.
Of course, their dynamic isn’t all drawing on Maroun’s tragic backstory or tense exchanges about their different approaches, and they actually provide some of the humor of Law & Order Season 21 in the 2022 TV season. When I noted that I am a fan of the very human moments of Maroun and Price eating lunch and doing everyday things together, Odelya Halevi commented:
There was one episode where I, you know, we were talking about – I love that the writers write [that] there's always a scene that has dry comedy in it between the two of us and in that scene, we were eating fruit or lunch and then at the end of it, I just, you know, Maroun just grabs the whole thing as if it's hers and he just looks at her like, ‘What did you just do? That's my food.’
Most Law & Order viewers may not be able to relate to Maroun’s work as an Assistant District Attorney in New York City, but who can’t relate to grabbing food (or having their food grabbed) at some point in their life? Odelya Halevi helps deliver some of the comedy in a show that tackles cases that aren’t exactly full of laughs for a nice balance that has been a hit with viewers.
Plus, her character takes the kinds of initiatives that can be necessary to make (or break) a case. In a clip from the April 28 episode of Law & Order, called “Legacy,” she does some investigating in a case that involved a school shooting and who is truly culpable. Take a look:
See Maroun and the rest of the Law & Order team tackle the school shooting case along with the plethora of suspects with the "Legacy" episode on Thursday, April 28 at 8 p.m. ET on NBC. The original series is followed by Law & Order: SVU at 9 p.m. and Law & Order: Organized Crime (which is sure to continue delivering collateral damage for all involved) at 10 p.m. If you’ve missed any of Law & Order Season 21 so far, you can catch up with a Peacock subscription.
