Ice T refuted a recent claim that “Law & Order: SVU” had “started to go woke” and deviated too much from its OG roots. The rapper and actor is the long-standing male crew member of the NBC criminal investigative series. He portrays detective Odafin Tutuola. He is now working on the 26th season of the show. Ice T was questioned by a fan on X (formerly Twitter) in response to a set shot that the star had shared: “Did they write ‘SVU’ back to normal yet? It started to go woke.”
“What the F is woke?” in a post that has received over 4.5 million pageviews and counting since becoming viral, Ice T posed the question. “Lol. Like I give a fuck.”
For “Law & Order: SVU” Season 26, Ice T will be making a comeback along with Mariska Harigtay, a staple of the series. Upgrades on the cast for the upcoming season feature the addition of Juliana Aidén Martinez, a rookie, and Kevin Kane as a recently promoted series regular. Additionally, Peter Scanavino will reprise his role as ADA Dominick “Sonny” Carisi Jr.
Regarding his role from the previous year, Ice T emphasised to his audience, “I’m not a cop. I’m the furthest thing from a cop.” He also admitted that it has been more “difficult” lately to play a law enforcement officer on screen.
“People have said that our television shows are police propaganda, making the police look good. I understand that argument,” Ice-T said. “The cop I am on our show is an SVU detective…When I got the job at ‘SVU,’ Dick Wolf said to me, ‘Ice, you don’t like cops, right?’ I told him that during my criminal past, I didn’t hate cops — they were my opponents. [He asked,] ‘But you admit we need them, right?’ I said, ‘Yeah.’ So, Wolf told me to play the cop that we need. And if I play the cop that we need, I won’t have any problems with it.”