Law & Order Left Actress Betty Gilpin Stuck In A Body Bag
Fans of the recently concluded Peacock series, "Mrs. Davis," might be interested to learn how its main star — Betty Gilpin — was once a consistent guest star in the "Law & Order" franchise. During a 2022 interview on "The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon," Gilpin spoke about her first appearance in the world of police procedurals in 2006 on "Law & Order: Criminal Intent." In the eighth episode of season six, titled "The War At Home," she plays Amanda Dockerty, daughter of Elaine Dockerty (Fran Drescher) and Deputy Commissioner Leland Dockerty (Michael Biehn).
Amanda's body is found naked in an oil drum, and the police pull her out and put her into a body bag. Gilpin was actually in the body bag while filming, with the bag itself zipped up all the way. This meant she couldn't see anything and only heard what was going on around her. The scene involved Detective Robert Goren, played by Vincent D'Onofrio, and Gilpin could vaguely hear D'Onofrio speaking above her while in the body bag.
"And then they called cut, they were like, 'That's lunch, guys! Great day!' And I hear footsteps on gravel, getting farther and farther away, van doors closing," Gilpin explained, detailing the realization that the cast and crew had forgotten about her in the body bag. "And then ten seconds goes by. I hear one far-away P.A. being like 'Oh my God,' and footsteps coming towards me, unzips, sunlight in my face."
When Fallon jokingly mimicked the actress calling out for help, Gilpin responded, "No, I didn't want to be high-maintenance. I wanted to work again, the same season."
Gilpin found the early part of her career frustrating as a whole
Betty Gilpin went on to make further appearancesin the "Law & Order" universe, re-appearing as a new character in "Law & Order: Criminal Intent," as well as on "Law & Order" and "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit."
In the first few years of her career, Gilpin noted that she did just theatre and "Law & Order" guest appearances, and in a 2019 interview with the New York Times, she spoke about how the limitations of the roles were frustrating for her.
"We studied a lot of theater of the absurd at Fordham and 'building your inner ocean of weird' was the thesis statement. Then graduating and auditioning for things like 'Gossip Girl,' where the No. 1 priority is muffling your ocean of weird and curling your hair, I didn't work for a while because I was bad at both the muffling and the curling," Gilpin said. When she did book a role, the responses were not encouraging either. "Sometimes when I was playing a lawyer, I'd created all this identity for this person and done all this homework about what rage they were suppressing. And the first Twitter comment was 'Nice [expletive],'" she explained.
However, it was on "Nurse Jackie" where Gilpin met Liz Flahive and Carly Mensch, who were both writers on the show.Gilpin joined the show in its fifth season, playing Dr. Carrie Roman, and she credited Flahive and Mensch for seeing in her the kind of character she enjoyed playing. Gilpin said Flahive and Mensch, who went on to co-create both "GLOW"and "Roar," ultimately saved her career by giving her a chance to play the kinds of characters she wanted to.