If you’ve longed of playing the corpse onLaw & Order, you’re not alone. And with the revival beingannounced last September, one might be able to check that ghastly dream off their bucket list! The iconic ‘Dun-dun!’ coupled with the program’s sobering description, “the police who investigate crime and the district attorneys who prosecute the offenders,” have corralled fans around the tube for 20 seasons, from 1990 to 2010. It also began the craze of wanting to appear in the procedural of all procedurals as the body.
“It’s bizarre how everyone wants to play a dead body. Everyone! People really want to do it and it’s non-actors who want to the most,” Heather Comer told Danielle Sepulveres forInStyle. The casting director and owner of Comer Casting made her start withLaw & Order: SVU.“There’s a whole story that revolves around this dead body, the episode is built around it, so essentially for a moment that person is a star.”
Fans of the show that was abruptly cancelled rejoiced when it was announced thatLaw & Order,the original recipethat spawned an entire universe of programs, after ten years, would be dusting off their handcuffs and briefcases and recommence doling out justice. And with that announcement, the tweets started flying for the request of portraying the coveted cadaver character. Warren Leight,Law & Order: Special Victims Unitshowrunner, has some advice before accepting the role of motionless remains. “You don’t want to be dead in a park. Or a beach. Or anywhere along the Hudson River. You also don’t want a night exterior. Or a scene that’s very long. Ideally, you’re the guy who died having sex and now you’re just in the morgue.”
InStyle writer Danielle Sepulveres also has some solid advice, as she has had the pleasure! “Lying in the morgue means no extreme temperatures, no bugs crawling on you, no cold water to contend with, and producers can provide a breast plate of sorts under the sheet to absorb some of your chest movement while you breathe, and post-production can deal with removing the carotid artery so the audience won’t see evidence of a beating heart. You don’t want to be the guy who once had to be a dead body in a dumpster when a newbie PA tossed in some actual garbage, from half-empty coffee cups to remnants of the crew’s breakfast, not realizing they just compromised the set dressing as well as the hapless guy lying inert inside who now had cold eggs in his hair.” The more you know!
The Dick Wolf revival will seeSam Waterston returningas District Attorney Jack McCoy and Anthony Anderson returning to his role as Detective Kevin Bernard. Joining the cast areJeffrey Donovan(Burn Notice) who will be playing an NYPD detective, Hugh Dancy (Hannibal) as an Assistant DA, Camryn Manheim and Odelya Halevi.Law & Orderseason 21 will debut on NBC on June 14, 2025, kicking off aLaw & Orderextravaganza! Following the premiere catchLaw & Order: SVU, thenLaw & Order: Organized Crime. Dun-dun!
