Law & Order: SVU star Mariska Hargitay is making her feature directing debut with a very personal subject: her mother, Jayne Mansfield.
HBO will premiere Hargitay’s documentary My Mom Jayne in June. The film will follow her “as she seeks to know, understand, and embrace her mother for the first time,” according to the documentary’s logline. “Through intimate interviews and a collection of never-before-seen photos and home movies, she grapples with her mother’s public and private legacy and discovers the layers and depth of who Jayne was, not only to her audience but to those who were closest to her.”
Hargitay is the daughter of Mansfield, an actress and sex symbol of the 1950s and ‘60s, and actor and bodybuilder Mickey Hargitay. Mansfield died in a 1967 car accident, when Hargitay was 3 years old; she was involved in the accident as well but survived, as did two older siblings.
“This movie is a labor of love and longing. It’s a search for the mother I never knew, an integration of a part of myself I’d never owned, and a reclaiming of my mother’s story and my own truth,” Hargitay said in a statement. “I’ve always believed there is strength in vulnerability, and the process of making this film has confirmed that belief like never before.”
Hargitay produces and directs My Mom Jayne; it’s her first time helming a feature-length project, though she has directed several episodes of SVU. Trish Adlesic, who worked with Hargitay on HBO’s 2017 documentary I Am Evidence, also produces. Lauren Bromley executive produces.
Hargitay is repped by CAA, The Lede Company and Grubman Shire.