“Law and Order: Special Victims Unit” star Mariska Hargitay said she feels like a “victim of secondary trauma” after dealing with dark subject issues on the show while being part of it for more than two decades.

Speaking to Interview magazine, the 60-year-old actress said playing detective Olivia Benson on the hit NBC series for 25 years has been a “process” of learning how to sift out the material she has to deal with about sex crimes on the show that were “ripped” from real-life headlines.

“When I started the show, I wasn’t aware of how deeply it would go into me,” Hargitay said during a chat for the magazine with Selena Gomez. “My husband Peter [Hermann] is always like, anytime I go anywhere, my first question is, ‘What’s the crime rate here?’ So it’s on the brain.” 

“There’s been times when I didn’t know how to protect myself, and I think I was definitely a victim of secondary trauma from being inundated with these stories and knowing that they were true,” she added. “Those were the parts that I didn’t know how to metabolize, just because of the sheer volume of it.”

Mariska Hargitay says “I was definitely a victim of secondary trauma” after acting on “Law & Order: SVU” for so long.

“When I started the show, I wasn’t aware of how deeply it would go into me. My husband Peter [Hermann] is always like, anytime I go anywhere, my first question… pic.twitter.com/hAaM8iknk8

— Variety (@Variety) September 24, 2024

“That’s also why I started Joyful Heart [Foundation], so I would feel like, well, at least I’m doing something about it,” Hargitay continued, noting the non-profit she created in 2004.

The mission statement of her organization said it is “to transform society’s response to sexual assault, domestic violence, and child abuse, support survivors’ healing, and end this violence forever.”

“While we understand that our vision may not be achievable in our lifetimes, we firmly believe that violence and abuse are preventable,” it added. ”In support of our vision and mission, we have developed and adopted a set of values and guiding principles that inform and inspire our approach to all that we do…”

At one point, the actress also said, through her part in the show, she’s learned a lot about “sexual assault, domestic violence,” and “child abuse.”

“I learned that one in three women will be assaulted, and one in six men,” Hargitay said. “That’s what started the foundation for me. That’s when I started going, ‘I have to do something,’ because the show was obviously tackling the subject matter, but when I learned the statistics, I said, ‘Why isn’t everyone talking about this?’ And if I didn’t know, I figured nobody knows what an epidemic violence against women is.”

Related: Mariska Hargitay Halts Filming ‘SVU’ When Lost Little Girl Mistakes Her For A Real Cop, Asks For Help

Hate crime data released by the Federal Bureau of Investigation this week shows that individuals committed a disproportionately greater number of hate crimes against Jews than Muslims in the past year.

The FBI reported 1,951 anti-Jewish hate crimes between January 2023 and December 2023, and 266 anti-Muslim or anti-Islamic hate crimes. The new data follows a rise in anti-Semitic rhetoric and attacks after Hamas’ Oct. 7 terrorist attack on Israel, according to the American Jewish Coalition. Since that attack, many Jewish Americans have reported attacks based on their religion, and anti-Jewish protestors have demonstrated on college campuses across the nation.

In the aftermath of the Oct. 7 attack, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre suggested that the White House had not seen “any credible threats” of anti-Semitism as she discussed whether the administration was worried about increases — then proceeded to discuss how “Muslims and those perceived to be Muslim have endured a disproportionate number of hate-fueled attacks.”

Jean-Pierre later said that she misheard the question, and emphasized the White House’s stance against anti-Semitism. The White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment for this story.

Anti-Jewish hate crimes between January 2023 and December 2023 were made up of 51% of destruction, damage, or vandalism of property, 34% of intimidation, and 6% of simple assault, while 61% of the hate crimes were against individuals, 16% were against businesses, 12% against the government, 4% against religious organizations, and 6% against “other.” The FBI does not know what race 50% of the offenders are, but 36% of the offenders are white and 9% are black or African American.

Anti-Muslim hate crimes were made up of 48% of intimidation, 20% of simple assault, 18% of destruction, damage, or vandalism of property, and 8% of aggravated assault, according to the FBI statistics. The crime data shows that 54% of those offenders were white, 19% were black or African American, and 19% were of an unknown race. These anti-Muslim hate crimes were largely (90%) committed against individuals.

Between January 2022 and December 2022, the FBI recorded 1,257 anti-Jewish hate crimes, and 176 anti-Muslim hate crimes.

Jonathan Greenblatt, the CEO of the American Defamation League, said that this year’s numbers are “unfortunately entirely consistent” with the organization’s tracking and the Jewish community’s experience, noting that the Jewish community “is still suffering from the sharp rise in antisemitism following Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre in Israel.”

The American Jewish Committee’s Ted Deutch called the rise in anti-Semitic violence “earth-shattering.”

“The worst part of this new reality is that young Jews are increasingly on the receiving end of this rise in antisemitic hate, according to AJC’s State of Antisemitism in America 2023 Report,” he said in a statement. “It’s unacceptable that in America of all places there are nearly five antisemitic hate crimes on average per day.”