New 'Law & Order: SVU' Star Juliana Aidén Martinez Shares First Impression of 'Formidable' Mariska Hargitay

Many actors have been on or dream of being on Law & Order: SVU, whether playing a dead body, a criminal, or one of those extras who can't stop working long enough to talk to the cops. Only a chosen few get to join the long-running cop franchise as an actual detective, and get to work alongside Captain Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) herself. Season 26 welcomes Juliana Aidén Martinez as Jr. Detective Kate Silva, a transfer from homicide into the SVU. She may be a newbie, but she gets the pressure put on her immediately as the season opens. She's the daughter of a well respected cop and deputy commissioner, and while she's only been at SVU for three weeks, Captain Benson is already taking her under her wing in her very first scene.

Martinez most notably played Miami intelligence agent June Hawkins in the Netflix miniseries Griselda, which was based on the real story of the takedown of Colombian drug lord Griselda Blanco, played by Sofia Vergara. Kate Silva might not be directly inspired by a real person like June Hawkins was, but Law & Order is well known for stories ripped from the headlines, and Martinez is already learning the toll it can take on an actor. Luckily, she's got coworkers like Hargitay and Ice-T who have been doing it for 25 years and might be able to offer a few pointers.

In an interview with Parade, Martinez shared what she's learned and what she still has to learn from some of the best in the biz.

Related: Everything to Know About Law & Order: SVU Season 26

What was your relationship like with SVU before you joined? Were you a big fan?
I had heard about SVU growing up, but it wasn't something I knew until I was a teenager. We were on a high school trip to Europe and we were in Germany. It was my first time in Europe, and we sat down on the bed and we were excited to see what German TV was like. We turned it on and it was SVU. It was amazing that this American show [had] such an international reach. It was a very strong impression that I had of my first authentic encounter with SVU. And then my friends and I would watch it during college. I was totally aware of it to a point that as a New York actor, many would say it's a rite of passage, and every amazing New York actor has done it. But, by the time I graduated school in 2020, I booked Griselda and had been living in LA, so it wasn't even something I had considered. It feels very serendipitous.

What was it like joining this team, especially alongside someone like Mariska who has been doing this for 25 years?
It's definitely daunting. I think I'd be a liar if I said that I wasn't nervous. [Hargitay] is such a formidable woman that, when she enters a space, you know who the captain is, so to speak. I found that incredibly inspiring and also very empowering. I looked at her, and my first impression was that there's so much I can learn from this woman. There's things that I would like to learn for myself as a young woman, and I think I'm going to be a better person because of it. That was my immediate impression and curiosity about her.

I would imagine it's very tough to do a show like this when you're working with some of the most horrible things you could imagine happening to people. Has Mariska given you tips on how to keep it from affecting you too much?
I've been meaning to ask her that! I think I read an interview where she said she felt like a victim of secondary trauma. And we were shooting an episode that was based, as many of them are, on a real life event. I couldn't sleep that entire week, and I kept having nightmares. I remember when I came across that interview, I definitely had that feeling like, "Wow, I already see where this could really affect me on a deep, psychological level." These are real life things. It's not even something where it's like, "Hey, let's play pretend and then go back to reality." This is reality for so many women. The thing that gives me hope is that we always find a solution. We find justice. And to me, that's the most important thing, that it's a message of hope.

What else have you learned from some of the OG cast?
I have definitely asked the OG cast for some pointers. My head is scrambled so I'm still getting used to the filming schedule, but I'm giving myself grace. I think that was one of the things they said, like, "Hey, this is going to require a lot of you. So give yourself grace, make sure you take care of yourself. Self care is super important. We've got your back." Ice-T was like, "This is an ensemble show. So you look out for the ensemble. You look out for each other." I found that to be true every day working on set. Everyone's kind of looking out for you, and I don't think this show would happen if they weren't, because you're all kind of in the trenches and it's a lot. But together, you can achieve anything.

Related: Mariska Hargitay Shares Unfiltered Opinion About Taylor Swift’s Future as an SVU Guest Star

Coming from homicide, how does Kate adjust to the differences in SVU?
It's a great question. I read this book by Michael Connelly [about] a detective working on late night shifts, which Kate Silva [was doing] in Brooklyn homicide. There were a lot of things I was kind of absorbing throughout, and I thought about how, in some ways with homicide, it's only you and this victim who's passed away. It's kind of an ephemeral, spiritual connection, [because] this victim has passed into another dimension; you can't find justice for them in this lifetime. But with rape victims and victims who are still alive, you can find hope and a different course for their story now. And I thought that was really beautiful and also daunting, because the consequences of what's happened is also happening in real time. The dead can't speak, but the living can. And that transition, I think, is going to be a really interesting journey for Kate.

How do the cases this season impact Kate and the team?
I will say, as a new detective who has joined the squad, each case has deeply affected me so far. And I find myself thinking about them even after moving on to the next episode. I'm thinking about, "What happened to that character? What was their [life] like after that? Are they okay?" I wonder if Kate wonders if they're okay and checks in on them, or if they're living a life that's more promising and brighter.

The premiere episode addresses the fact that cops have not been super popular lately, and you're playing a character who is not just a cop, but the daughter of a cop. How do you feel about that, and how does Kate feel?
It would be naive to say that we aren't having these types of conversations right now. I will say that one of the opportunities that I had was to play a real life homicide detective on Griselda. I had a lot of conversations with her, and I got to talk to a lot of people who were also homicide detectives. The thing that struck me was the nuance in the people who were in those positions of law enforcement. That, for me as a human being and as an artist, forced me to not be so immediately judgmental, but rather have compassion that everyone is navigating their best.

There are people who wanna do good who are police officers. [Kate's] father is in collaborative policing, which is a unique and niche part of policing that's about finding what is the best type of policing in a community. As an artist, I just want to show the truth about who this person is in their circumstances. And I think Kate is someone who saw someone like her father, who truly wants to do good, and she has her own mission of justice for women and for New York. I think those nuances are very important. There are people who want to do good, and there's still changes that have to be made.

I don't think we should put everyone into one category. I know a lot of people, very close friends to extended family members, who joined law enforcement because they were poor. No one talks about the classes that exist in policing. They're like I need to support myself, and I'm a person of color joining law enforcement, but I care about my community. There's a lot of nuanced conversations that I think SVU is allowing to exist.

Law & Order: SVU airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. on NBC.

Next, Mariska Hargitay Invites ‘SVU’ Fans in on the New Way Olivia Benson Is Making History.