Trying to take down criminals seems to have always been in there Christopher Meloni‘s blood – even before he played Detective Elliot Stabler on Law and Order: Special Victims Unit.
Meloni, 65, recalled his time working as a bouncer in New York City before landing his role on NBC series in 1999and revealed that he once had to chase down two girls who jumped the bill at a “little dive bar down on Bleecker Street.”
“Great, a waitress comes up to me and says, ‘Two girls ran out of the bill,'” he said on the Monday, June 22, episode of “Thank you father with ego Nwodim” podcast. “So me and the manager busted out on Bleecker Street.”
The actor recalled that there was about half an inch of “freshly fallen snow” on the ground when the waitress spotted the thieves, prompting him to “run” in pursuit of the two women.
Christopher Meloni’s Law & Order spinoff Organized Crime was canceled after five seasons — but does that mean he’s returning to SVU? Showrunner Michele Fazekas was recently asked about Meloni’s future as Elliot Stabler, to which she told People: “Obviously, everyone always asks me about Stabler, and I love Meloni. I would use (…)
Meloni said when he caught up with the couple, he grabbed a girl and said, “Hey, what’s up? You gotta pay your bill.”
She tried to talk her way out of the situation. “(She’s like), ‘Oh, no, let’s go,'” Meloni said, revealing that “all of a sudden a car screeches up” with the girls’ boyfriends in it.
“I’m distracted and one of them lets go – they both let go – and they jump into the car,” Meloni explainedbut his struggle did not stop there.
He told listeners he grabbed the passenger side door, which was closed. “And they’re trying to roll up the window and I’m holding it down,” Meloni continued. “And I said, ‘Get out of the car, get out of the car!'”
Christopher Meloni and Stephanie Gunn on ‘Law & Order: Organized Crime’.
Will Hart/NBC/Everett CollectionWhen Meloni was clinging to life, he said one of the women started “hitting me in the face.”
“So the guy in the back seat (says), ‘Hit him, hit him against the parked cars,'” he recalled. “He’ll try to crush me against the parked cars. And I’ll sketch along, because it’s fresh snow.”
Although the incident lasted for “about three seconds,” Meloni was well aware that he could have been killed for a few dollars.
“It starts going and you wonder when I can let go without getting caught under the rear wheels,” he shared. “Whatever it was, I finally let go. Frisk thrashed and thrashed around.”
Once Meloni was safely back on solid ground, he recalled being confused by the women’s motives for running up the bill.
“I just remember saying, ‘What the hell are you thinking? What are you doing?'” he said. “I mean, probably for a $45 bill or something.”
Melon, who made his acting debut in 1988noted that the car chase was his most intense memory from his time as a bouncer.
Mariska Hargitay and Christopher Meloni on ‘Law & Order: Special Victim Units.’
Virginia Sherwood/NBC/Everett Collection“Besides that, yeah, I had to sidekick a guy once,” he recalled of his life before acting took off. “I had taken taekwondo in college and I was like, ‘Oh, it actually works’.”
Meloni recalled that the guy ripped his shirt while he was “trying to be nice” and “get him out” without incident.
“And he was holding me. I threw him to the ground and he was holding on to my shirt. I was like, ‘This is just amazing.’ I was like, ‘Just get out of here,'” Meloni told the podcast host Ego Nwodim. “He didn’t want to get out of here.”
Fortunately for Meloni, his taekwondo training “worked” and a side kick “knocked the wind out of him” and caused him to leave the scene.
Mariska Hargitay hopes to reunite with Law & Order: SVU costar Chris Meloni in the future following the cancellation of the Organized Crime spinoff. “I love Chris and I love playing with Chris, so I’m always open to working with him and getting Benson and Stabler together,” the actress, 62, said in an interview (…)
After university and working as a bouncer, Meloni found success in Hollywood from the late 80s.
His first television role was a cameo on The Equalizer in 1988, followed by a role on 1. & Ti from 1989 to 1990. Meloni rose to superstardom in 1999 when he began playing Detective Elliot Stabler on Law and order: SVU beside Mariska Hargitay as Detective Olivia Benson.
Melon left the series in 2011 after season 12, returned in 2021 for a few guest episodes, which he has continued to do periodically in the years since.
Meloni also reprized his role as Stabler in 2021 Law and Order: Organized Crimewhich he managed for 5 seasons before it was canceled in 2025.
