Warning: Spoilers ahead! Do not proceed unless you’ve watched “Forsaken,” Thursday’s episode of “Law & Order: SVU.”
Jalen Brunson had a new teammate for his big cameo on “Law & Order: SVU.”
The Knicks star, 30, appeared on Thursday’s episode of his celeb pal Mariska Hargitay’s New York-based procedural, playing a fellow cop who assists Captain Olivia Benson (Hargitay) on a case.
The guest spot marked Jalen’s acting debut, aside from hosting “Saturday Night Live” on Sept. 26. It showed. Jalen’s delivery was stiff—and he shouldn’t quit his day job for Hollywood.
“As Robert De Niro once said about acting, ‘Don’t do anything!’. It seems Jalen listened to Bob,” Dinanda Klaassen, an actress and acting teacher at The Barrow Group in Manhattan, told The Post, noting Brunson did a “decent” job for a rookie.
A proud Knicks fan, Klaassen added: “If Jalen can come back from a 29-point deficit, he can do Shakespeare in the Park for all I care.”
In the “Forsaken” episode, Benson and her team investigated the case of a teen girl who was assaulted at a wedding. As Benson looked into the girl’s stepfather, Rick (Bill Heck), she questioned a fellow cop who tangled with Rick in the past: Detective Madison (Brunson).
Benson met Madison in a cafe. There, Jalen’s dad – former player and current Knicks assistant coach Rick Brunson – also had a minor cameo. Rick was shown for about three seconds, entering the eatery.
Benson then approached Madison, who was on a stool by the bar, and said to him, “Look at you, out of uniform, huh!” before congratulating him on a recent promotion.
Madison replied, “Thanks, Captain. I focused on my goals, did 110%. Things worked out.”
In the context of the show, he was talking about Madison’s career success. Obviously, it was also a wink at Jalen’s big Knicks championship win this summer, which ended their 53-year drought.
The two discussed Madison’s experience with Rick, whom he previously arrested for a DWI. After Madison shared a piece of crucial information, she distractedly told him, “Thanks, Jay. You’re the best,” before rushing away.
So, Madison’s scene was brief, but it gave Benson a key assist on the case.
Following Jalen’s “SNL” appearance, his teammate Josh Hart told USA Today: “I think his performance was fine. I don’t think he has a future in acting.”
That’s true for Jalen’s acting chops for “SVU,” too. But, the show isn’t Shakespeare, and nobody needs it to be.
The crime drama, which has aired since 1999, has included appearances from a slew of iconic non-actor celebrities, such as Snoop Dogg (in 2019) and Serena Williams (in 2004).
Jalen’s flat acting is different from Kim Kardashian’s notoriously dreadful efforts on Hulu’s legal drama “All’s Fair.” She’s a star of that show, so it sinks under a lack of acting chops. For Jalen, it’s a lower stakes ballgame to be in a quick scene.
“It’s a weird feeling, but [I’m] grateful for the opportunity, grateful for Mariska,” he said at a Nov. 4 post-game press conference. “It’s pretty cool.”
Hargitay, 62, is a mainstay on Celebrity Row at Madison Square Garden, and she even bolted from her Broadway debut on the show “Every Brilliant Thing” to sit courtside and cheer for the Knicks during the finals.
“I took four minutes off the running time of my show, and I knew the traffic would be crazy, so I sprinted from the Hudson Theater on 44th and 6th to MSG,” Hargitay told the Hollywood Reporter in June. “… The ten block sprint after a 2-show day was no joke.”
After the Knicks pulled off their Game 4 comeback on June 10, defeating the Spurs 107-106, Hargitay quipped to THR: “I love my husband [Peter Hermann], and our wedding night was great and all, but I think it might have been the greatest night of my life.”
The athlete went on to appear in Hargitay’s Emmys pre-taped opener on Sept. 14.
Jalen’s “Law & Order: SVU” episode aired Thursday, Nov. 5 on NBC at 9 p.m., and streams the next day on Peacock.
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