Kelli Giddish is obsessed with knitting

0:00David Greene: If you'd like to join the Obsessed community, head over to joincampsite.com. We'll give you updates on episodes, some behind-the-scenes access, and a whole lot more. That's joincampsite.com. Hope to see you there.

0:15Kelli Giddish: Campsite Media.

0:21David Greene: Alright, so I want you to imagine that feeling when one of your favorite TV stars lets you in on a little secret. I'm obsessed with Kelly Giddish. She is on Law & Order SVU. And she told me that sometimes she leaves her knitting bag on set and it accidentally will show up in a scene on SVU. That's going to become my next obsession because every single episode I watch, I'm going to be looking out for your knitting bag popping accidentally into a scene in the squad room. Maybe I'll do it on purpose now. Oh, please do. I mean, if you want to put my initials on it or something, like to send a message, that's totally fine.

1:02David Greene: Completely fine with me. Wouldn't complain about that.

1:05Kelli Giddish: It'll just say obsessed.

1:06David Greene: Yeah, love it. Perfect. Yeah, so that's Kelly Giddish. She plays Detective, now Sergeant Amanda Rollins on SVU. I've been doing some math. Three hours per week equals about 150 hours per year, which over 20 years is about 3 ,000 hours. and that's 125 days. So I've probably spent approximately 125 days of my life consuming episodes of Law & Order SVU. I often watch with my wife. It's our thing. It's awesome. I love Detective Rollins, played by Kelly Giddish. Got to speak to Kelly and she told us all about her obsession with knitting.

1:54David Greene: kelly giddish thank you so much for for doing this this uh this is awesome yeah i'm happy to be here i i have to say i spent many years uh hosting at npr and got to interview many many people in entertainment and television and never got an svu conversation even though my wife and i

2:10Kelli Giddish: are obsessed with the show so are you obsessed that's great that's great yeah before we get to

2:16David Greene: your knitting obsession it's um this is my confession i mean she and i she and i watch new episodes but um i don't know we'll stream for hours on usa like and she makes a big bowl of popcorn and it's like i think the worst thing i think is when we start an episode and one of us realizes we've seen it before both of us that's okay because we can decide to watch it again or not but if it's one of us then yeah that just it takes away the shared experience please can we

2:43Kelli Giddish: Can we go to the next one? I already know who did it.

2:46David Greene: Yeah, exactly.

2:47Kelli Giddish: And I'm trying to get out of cleaning the kitchen right now. So I'd really like to be enthralled in this episode and not have to think of the things I'm not doing by sitting down on the couch and watching.

2:57David Greene: No, it's so true. No, but it's really...

3:00Kelli Giddish: It's SVU. I know someone that her dad, they call each other every week. And he's like, did you watch Savu? Which I've never heard that one. I like Savu.

3:13David Greene: Savu.

3:13Kelli Giddish: I just like the, you know, hi, how are you? Did you watch Sabu this week? I like the, but it's so cool because it's something that couples watch together. It's something that mothers and daughters watch together. It's something that grandmothers and granddaughters, grandsons, it's like, it's a generational thing, you know? Like, so many times people come up to me on the street and they're like, I love it, But my mom is so obsessed, you know, I'm like, can I just have a picture for my mom? Oh, I love that. You know, it's not even for them. It's like, I love that. And I mean, it's been on for a quarter of a century.

3:54Kelli Giddish: So, you know, that's to be expected. 90s, the aughts, the teens, now the 20s.

4:00David Greene: Yeah.

4:00Kelli Giddish: That's crazy.

4:02David Greene: I mean, do you think that's part of it? Like you're able to hold on to a constant, even though the world has changed so much? I think so.

4:08Kelli Giddish: I think so. It's like your favorite house shoes, you know? They're beautiful. They're beautiful to you because they do their job well. And they're not the newest thing. They're not the premium. It's like alpaca farmed and only Peru. It's not that. It's just they're yours. And you know how they feel. I mean, not to take this metaphor too far, but I really do think that that's what it is. And you know how the characters are going to act. You know what they're going to say and you want to hear them say it anyway.

4:43David Greene: Yeah.

4:44Kelli Giddish: You know?

4:44David Greene: Yeah. No, it's really, it's funny. Like, I think you coming back in this season, it was like reassuring to see you go rogue again and for you and Liv to fight over whether she could trust you. Like, it was like, okay, we're back. Like, everything is.

5:04Kelli Giddish: I know. God, I welcomed that. I welcomed that scene so much. I was like, because I always said, I always said to the showrunner, like when I first started, I was like, if you need to throw anyone under the bus, let it be me. You know, because I just think that fight is always is is always more fun to play. Like the coming back, you know, the comeuppance, the God, did I really do that? Yes, because I thought it was the right thing to do. And that whole turmoil, it turns into something you can really build organic relationships on, too. Because we all mess up. We all want to see somebody mess up and then fight their way back like we hope to, I think.

5:47No, and I think that's part of the love for your character.

5:54David Greene: Because there's a rule-breaking element that then when it works out, you sort of have this whole moral dilemma on your own. And like, do you break the rules? And if it works out, does that validate the rule breaking? And I don't know, there's something so relatable about that kind of thing.

6:10Kelli Giddish: Yeah, I love that you said it's reassuring. Yeah. I felt the same way. But that's great that you're like, okay, here it is, here it is, okay. And we know this and we get to see it again. And now they're different people. They're a little older, a little wiser, hopefully. and you know what does it look like now when she breaks the rules there's a there's a lot more

6:34David Greene: consequences I think yeah well and now I mean you're now you know a mom on the show and that comes with questions about his rule breaking and and greater risk and yeah I could go on about my obsession I want to get back to it but I want I want to start with your obsession um which is

6:50Kelli Giddish: knitting it sounds like yeah yeah I I um you're going to show me something that you've knit you're

6:56David Greene: looking around for something. I know.

6:57Kelli Giddish: Well, it's like my, because I always have it on set,

7:00David Greene: especially, especially on set.

7:02Kelli Giddish: Yeah. Because when you first start doing this job, like you want to, there's so much downtime. You want to make use of it. You know, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm someone who like, I can't, I can't not use the time to do something productive. So you try and read a book and you're like, I can't read a book. I can't get into this. Like you read one page and then you're out of it again and they're ready for you to for you to be on set or to come back to to your to your mark and so i was like you know what i'm i'm just gonna full-on lean on to knitting so i swear under rollin's desk in every scene is my knitting bag i think it's made and made itself into a

7:39David Greene: couple of scenes to be honest like accidentally i mean it happened to be on camera when it wasn't

7:43Kelli Giddish: supposed to be there oh that's funny yeah and actually a fan gave me this knitting bag and And I've gotten a couple of knitting bags over the years from fans because I guess they see me like in, you know, behind the scenes pictures in my cast chair knitting. But it's something you can do. You can like you can certainly carry on a conversation while you do it. You can. And I love the ride to work because I don't have to drive. I get driven. Thank God. And I sit back and I listen to a podcast, whichever one I've started. and I get to listen to interviews and I also feel like I'm getting something done.

8:20Kelli Giddish: You know, it's like, it's great. And I've been doing it for like 30 years.

8:27David Greene: Oh, wow.

8:28Kelli Giddish: And it's kind of like my guitar playing. It hasn't progressed past a certain point and I'm okay with that.

8:35David Greene: You haven't become like a professional amazing knitter. You're like a, what, a B plus knitter or where do you rank yourself?

8:42Kelli Giddish: Yeah, I mean, I could do anything I put my mind to, with knitting but but where i knit you know you can't really count stitches and follow a pattern you know it's like you're in and out of it so it has to be something i don't have to think about and i can my hands just just do it um yeah man i don't know how i would rate myself as a knitter i'm not doing cable cable sweaters not doing that but if if i had all the time in the world I would definitely be getting into that.

9:13David Greene: You'd lean in even more.

9:14Kelli Giddish: I would lean into it.

9:16David Greene: So 30 years you've been knitting. What's your first knitting memory when you were like, huh, this is kind of a cool thing. I sort of like this.

9:26Kelli Giddish: I remember seeing macrame and I was like, how is this done? So you get a book. That's how we had to do it. Back then you got a book on whatever you were interested in and you followed the step-by-step illustration. you know and that I go okay I don't you can't really make anything with this I want to I want to make a scarf which is what every knitter starts out with when you're 16 every single person's first scarf is is either like this this wide or it's it's this short and like that skinny because you don't know what you don't know what you're doing and you pull things too hard and the casting on you know the first row is very important and you don't really know that when you're first starting out.

10:11Kelli Giddish: So you do it because you're dogged and you're determined to have something to show for this very time-consuming task. So if you see someone on the street wearing the shape and scarf, just know that someone gave that to them.

10:26David Greene: It was their first attempt.

10:29Kelli Giddish: It was a first attempt. The yarn is terrible. It's a bad color. It's a bad pattern. the dimensions are completely wrong.

10:40David Greene: Yeah, but hell, it has personality though. It has personality. There's a lot of personality in that misshapen scarf.

10:45Kelli Giddish: Yeah, yeah. So I remember like my chorus teacher in high school, she was a knitter. And so I finally got to the point where I was like, all right, I need a human being to show me how to do this. Because you can only learn so much from pictures. and you know like now you can youtube anything but then you had to go find somebody that did the thing you want to do and learn from them and so that's a part of it that I really like you know that I I like I learned from somebody how to do it and like there's so few things that we we do that with now you know like my I remember my grandmama showing me how to make buttermilk biscuits, you know, so every time I make biscuits, it's not, I learned it from the master, you know, the adosha from a, from a Southern woman that made them every morning, you know, and it's like, it's kind of one of those things for me that it's, it's tactile.

11:46Kelli Giddish: It's, it's learned from somebody else. It's, it's, it's something that takes a stupid amount of time, you know, no matter how fast you are. And I, that's all the things that I love about it.

12:01David Greene: And it sounds like it, you hold on to this relationship with your course teacher still.

12:06Kelli Giddish: Yeah. Oh, for sure. And then you meet knitters along the way. And my, the, the person who does my wardrobe here, her name is Alyssa and her mom owned a knitting store. And so whenever I have trouble with something, I go to her and she's like, okay, so let's sit down. This is how you do it. You know, I'm like, you, it's a conversation. And, and, and it's like, I really respect her for knowing how to do something I don't do and for being able to teach me in such a, such a great way, you know, and it's a, like, there's resources, a real life resource. It's not the internet. It's not something you consume and then, and then it's over with.

12:43Kelli Giddish: It's like something you, you keep with you.

12:45David Greene: It sounds like it's a, it's a community too. Like you meet someone who knows about this skill and loves it as much as you do. It's like an instant connection. For sure.

12:54Kelli Giddish: Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. There's always been like little shops that you have in every neighborhood that you've lived in, that I've lived in. And like you go in there and you don't need more yarn. You don't need any notions. You don't need anything. and you go in and like you'll see like four, five, six women sitting around the very cramped table in the back because any knitter, you overload the space that you have for your yarn with way too much yarn because you can't stand not getting that yarn, even though you might not use it for 10 years. So anyway, the tables are always so cramped in the back of a knitting store and it's women just sitting there in silence sometimes, you know, just being with each other, you know and and that's always happening at knitting stores and I I just that's magic to me god I love that it sounds like magic yeah um I I miss I miss that shop on I I always went into the shop on avenue a and then I there was another shop called uh pearl soho that used to be it used to be brick and mortar down in soho in new york city and um just like the little tiny beautiful things that you go in there and see.

14:12Kelli Giddish: They're so magic to me. Now they're just online, but I think COVID kind of put them online and they're so successful now. And even if it's online, I do still feel a string attached to them, a sense of community, because I know everyone is spending too much money at their store, just like I am.

14:33David Greene: First of all, imagining your knitting bag showing up in scenes. Now that's going to become my next obsession because every single episode I watch, I'm going to be looking out for your knitting bag popping accidentally into a scene in the squad room. So I just want to do it on purpose now. Oh, please do. If you, I mean, if you want to put my initials on it or something like to send a message, that's totally fine. Completely fine with me. Wouldn't complain about that.

14:58Kelli Giddish: It'll just say obsessed.

14:59David Greene: Yeah. Love it. Perfect. Perfect. Um, uh, but I guess I wonder, like, I'm trying to understand what the tempo is like when you're shooting? Does it sound like there's a ton of downtime? Like, are you just sitting around when they're doing another scene that Rollins isn't in?

15:16Kelli Giddish: Sometimes. Sometimes, you know, location really dictates the schedule. So if you start out in the squad room and then you have to move out onto the street, well, maybe they have two more scenes in the squad room before you have to go out in a boat on the water or whatever. And so, yeah, you've got two scenes of downtime. But even within a scene, you know, it's like you do rehearsal. You go, you finish doing whatever, like getting mic'd up, getting your wardrobe on. And then you go back to set. And then you do one side of the scene. And then they have to turn around. And I mean, sometimes that can be a 20-minute lighting thing.

16:02Kelli Giddish: and instead of just, you know, butzing around, I either sometimes I sit on set and talk to the crew while I knit or sometimes I come back to my dressing room and knit here. But it's, you know, it's just something you can, I like being on set. I don't like coming back and forth to my trailer. Like if we're on location, sometimes we have a trailer, you know, you have a trailer to go back to. I have a little Airstream, so it's very cozy. But sometimes you just want to sit on set and shoot the shit with everybody. And that's just a good way to pass time and also feel like you're getting something done, you know?

16:37Kelli Giddish: So sometimes, I mean, TV in general moves so fast. Of course, here, we've all been working together for so long. It's like clockwork, you know? I'm like, I think we talk in acronyms or very rude analogies sometimes to get in like everyone understands what's happening next. But there is still downtime. Like it's, it, it, there's a lot of moving pieces and it, it requires a lot of, you know, a lot of work to, especially if there's six actors in a scene, you know, or four actors, if we're all in the squad room, you know, it's like, it, it takes a lot, a lot of different angles to get everybody's, everybody's coverage.

17:17Kelli Giddish: So you're sometimes in a scene for three hours, you know, and not all of that is shooting, you know, probably 20 minutes of that is shooting 30, you know.

17:26David Greene: And so the knitting is, is when you're not actively having to do something. I and that gives you this thing to do to fill the time and feel like you're being productive.

17:33Kelli Giddish: Right, right, exactly. Because I can't read. I would love to pick up my book and read, but I'm somebody that has to have a quiet space to read and to kind of grok what I'm taking in.

17:47David Greene: So this lets you keep staying in the moment, chatting with your colleagues, being able to keep talking, stay there while doing something.

17:54Kelli Giddish: Yeah, yeah.

17:55David Greene: Have you always needed to fiddle with something? Does that say something about your personality?

17:58Kelli Giddish: I smoked cigarettes for so long. I think that there's something definitely, you know, like have to be doing something with my hands or, you know, like smoking cigarettes is definitely not accomplishing anything, but you feel like, okay, that's what I do during my break. Knitting is definitely a healthier option there. But yeah, I do think that that's part of it. And I see my son, he's my oldest son is 10. And he so needs something to do with his hands. We have a basketball hoop like in the house, you know, and he's just like one right after another, you know, until 10 p.m. And we're like, please put the ball down, please.

18:41You know, he can't, he can't.

18:43Kelli Giddish: He needs something to do with his hands. And I'm sympathetic to that because I kind of do the same thing.

18:51David Greene: So talk to me about coming back to the show. I mean, season 27, you were away for a little while. What drew you back? What did you miss?

19:01Kelli Giddish: You know, it was kind of wonderful because I had a baby during that time off. And I have three boys. And the first two, I was pregnant on set. I had them. And then I was back on set within like a month.

19:20David Greene: And didn't they work all of your pregnancies into the show? Yes. My husband is like, I think he might have a record of being a regular character with the most pregnancies that they've actually shown on a show.

19:36Kelli Giddish: And I'm like, I'll take that record. That sounds very specific to me and I'll take it.

19:40David Greene: It must be easier than having to create a pregnancy or hide a pregnancy on the show.

19:45Kelli Giddish: The second pregnancy, I had to come back, and the timing was different in the script for Rollins. So I just had the baby, but then they had to strap on a stomach because she hadn't had the baby in the season yet. Oh, wow. That was so—you have children.

20:01David Greene: I don't, so, yeah.

20:02Kelli Giddish: Oh, well, if you ever do, or you've known women that have had babies, like once they're done giving birth, they're done.

20:10David Greene: You want to be done with that and moving on. You want to be done with that. You're strapping, recreating the pain of carrying a child.

20:16Kelli Giddish: Yeah, and so you're like, what? I have to strap this on, this big belly? But it was great. I got to be at home for the first time, you know, instead of having a baby and breastfeeding on set, in between setups, talk about accomplishing something.

20:29David Greene: Yeah.

20:31Kelli Giddish: But that was really, really beautiful timing for me. And we laugh so much here. We laugh really, really hard and intense and the camaraderie that we all have being together hour after hour after hour after hour after hour in all kinds of situations. And like, I've never spent time with anyone except Ice-T when the snow was coming directly into our eyes right on the Hudson River. And we have to act through it. Like it's almost not happening. Like we still have to say the lines and we're looking at each other like through a blizzard. He's right here and I can barely see his face. It's a whiteout.

21:19Kelli Giddish: And we're like, what are we doing? You know, like being in the, I know those are the worst trenches that actors get in. I know they're not that bad, but when you're in it, it seems absurd and it's funny and you're so cold and you're just doing the work because it has to be done. And just having those different experiences with different people here, and all the crew is feeling the same thing. And you've been there with all of these people.

21:50David Greene: So a scene like that, if you're with a brand new kind of person, that would be different to kind of work through how you're going to handle a snowstorm and insecurity about whether you're going to be able to nail your lines. If you're with Ice-T, who you've worked with forever, it's like that camaraderie just takes care of everything. Is that...

22:06Kelli Giddish: Yeah, yeah. And sometimes I look across the desk at him and I'm like, our job is so weird. We have such a weird job.

22:17David Greene: Why do you say that?

22:18Kelli Giddish: Because we get to play pretend every day and get paid for it. I mean, isn't that acting?

22:23David Greene: Like that's, acting is weird.

22:26Kelli Giddish: It's such a weird job. You get to like, like put yourself in like these hugely tense, intense, um, emotional, uh, situations that aren't real. And you get to pretend that they're real. Just like I, I, I mean, I remember like pretending when I was eight years old that I'd gotten shot in the leg and like, I mean, dragging it with all my might for 20 minutes of one flight of stairs. Like, oh, oh, I mean, that's what, and now I get paid to, now I get paid to do the same thing. It's, it's a weird job. It's so weird. And I love it so much. You know, I get to, I get to go to work and play cops and robbers and cops and cops and bad guys every day.

23:09Kelli Giddish: You know, and it's, it's great. So I, I, I'm, I am a workhorse. I love to work. I love to be in the mix and collaborate. And that's one thing I love about TV, about this show, is that every day there's a new problem to solve. You know, it's like there's something you have to find a way in. You have to put it together in a way that your mind goes, oh, okay, that's a good take on that, you know, and go with it. And so it really keeps you alive and it keeps you thinking and on your toes and you're trying to satisfy yourself, but also the director's vision, the writer's vision, the showrunner's vision.

23:56Kelli Giddish: You're trying to make the DP happy, the cameraman happy, the sound guy happy. It's a fun puzzle to put together every single day. So I miss that. I loved being at home with my babies, with my little oldie when he was a tiny tot. But it felt really, really right to come back now, you know. And I was so happy when I was getting those calls, you know, saying would I consider it. And now it just, you know, it's reassuring to use your word, you know, to be back with my old castmates and get to do kind of a new trip with Mariska. We got a new showrunner this year. the first female showrunner that this show has ever had in its 27 years which is amazing to me

24:49David Greene: wow it's a really female focused show i mean with with you with mariska it's interesting there's never this is the first time you've had a showrunner as a woman it's astounding you realize

24:58Kelli Giddish: when it actually happens that it's never happened before it feels like a new um like new avenues can open up a little bit. And there's an innate understanding and a curiosity about, well, what about this part of them? And so that feels like I'm getting to be a part of that new chapter. And we also have a female directing producer, which is kind of like the boss of all the directors, the guest directors that come in. And she's simply amazing. and she challenges you, you know, and it is different coming from, she's a young woman and you're like, oh, she's not letting me get away with shit right now.

25:45And that feels awesome.

25:47Kelli Giddish: That feels really awesome. It's different coming from that because you know, I don't know, there's an innate respect coming from her, you know, and what you're trying to do. And so it's just like, you can do better. And you're like, I can, I can do better. watch this you know and it's it's a different energy and I I love it so much I I'm so enjoying this year with this with the new leadership with um with the the new writing with with Brenna Molloy the the producing director being being like the head of the the ship um so it's even though it's in its 27th year it's like it's still still tingling you know it's still it's still like kind of electric, which I love.

26:32David Greene: There was a moment in a scene this season, we touched on it with you and Mariska, where I think you're going to know your line better than I know your line, but I think Rollins said something like, not everyone deserves your empathy, Olivia. Do I have that right?

26:47Kelli Giddish: Yeah.

26:47David Greene: There was like an intensity there between two women who have, you know, obviously your characters like have known each other for so long. I don't know, it felt there was a power there that i don't know if that's something that might be coming from the fact that you've more women who are directing you or show running but i don't know as a as a viewer there there felt like an intensity that was um that was fresh and new i don't know if that yeah that makes sense yeah how did i wonder how the audience took that there's so much in that line right not everyone deserves your empathy because it was like i don't know that just took it to a deeper level and understanding the relationship between Liv and Rollins, I feel like, because it was your own insecurity.

27:30David Greene: Like, do I deserve your love and protection, but also your frustration with getting that love and protection? There was just so much there to unpack. That was very cool.

27:40Kelli Giddish: It's like only your best friends know you the very deepest, you know? And I don't think she was trying to cut Benson at all. I think she was frustrated at not getting what she wanted. And sometimes you have to say why you think you're right to get it out there, to kind of walk it back and get a fuller picture of what's actually going on in a relationship. You have to. If you don't, then there's not going to be a new level of understanding reached. I'm sure all of that was not going through Rollins' mind when she said that. She's, I think Olivia is such a brick solid wall that she was coming up against that it was just like, God, I know I can't break her, but maybe I could chip at it, you know?

28:35David Greene: Yeah.

28:36Kelli Giddish: And a lot of that is just intuitive about how to play those scenes. You know, we played that scene a few different ways. and mine and Mariska's relationship is so solid that you can play, you know, and you can kind of see what lights the other person up.

28:58David Greene: How much do those relationships matter? I mean, you mentioned like you and Ice-T and being able to survive a blizzard together when you're shooting. but like it what what is your closeness with like you know um carisi and peter scanavino and mariska like are those off off camera relationships um what role does that play in kind of the

29:22Kelli Giddish: dynamic that we see on camera it's huge it's huge i mean there's I think personally, trust is the biggest thing in any relationship. You know, trust not only that the person will do their best by you, but also that you can do your worst by them. You know, and it's still, they're still going to hold you. And, you know, the relationships I have with these people are deep. They're, you know, they're my really, really, really good friends. And I think it definitely shows up on screen. And I mean, it's definitely an organic bed to lay on. You know, it's organic. It's like it's all built by real conversations we've had with each other.

30:17Kelli Giddish: It's, you know, there's, it's years. It's years. And you can go onto a film set and have such a good vibe with someone. And you can build that instantly, too. I'm not saying you need years. But we've been fortunate enough to have just tons of moments together. And with me and Peter, I can run anything by him as a friend. And so when you see Rollins and Carisi, it's so weird for us, to be honest, because he's one of my best friends. And it's like our DP has to turn his head when we kiss. He's like, this is so weird.

31:03David Greene: Oh, wow. You know what I mean?

31:05Kelli Giddish: It's weird. I never even thought of that.

31:06David Greene: I understand intimacy when you're two actors and kind of you go back to your normal lives. But to actually have two really good friends who have to kiss on camera. It's so weird. I've never even thought about that. Yeah.

31:16Kelli Giddish: Yeah. And it's, like I said, our DP is funny. He's like, oh God, I hate this. I hate it. Is it over yet? You know? And for us, we're just like, whatever, let's just do it. Let's get it done. It's fine. It's fine. You know?

31:30David Greene: Yeah.

31:31Kelli Giddish: And then with Marushka, it's, I mean, we weren't, it's not like we were girlfriends the first year I was here calling each other and gossiping. It's like, you know, like that relationship has been built upon. I've gone through a marriage and a divorce and having three kids and getting married again. You know, she's, this last year, she just made this documentary about her mother. and that's been something in her life that i mean it affects her on a moment-to-moment level and she confronted it you know and i got to see that journey you know and ice ice i get to i get to hear his is like his like demos of his songs that's pretty cool it's so cool yeah you know what i mean like all these creative people around me and i get to i i get to see like the first like hey, look, look at this, you know?

32:24Like that is, it's, it's, it reminds me of like a video

32:29Kelli Giddish: of watching Bob Dylan, like getting to compose on a piano. Like there's some video, I forget which movie it's in and you're just like, oh my God, this is, I get to be, you know, you get to be witness to that. And like, these are incredible people. So I'm super lucky.

32:53David Greene: This is David Green is Obsessed and I'm talking to Kelly Giddish. And Kelly, this is normally the, as we start to wrap up, we do sort of a lightning round of other obsessions in your life, separate from knitting and just listening to you talk about the show and what it's meant to you. I mean, do you see the show as an obsession as someone on the inside? Like it's certainly an obsession, as you know, for me and my wife on the outside. But is it an obsession in your life because these relationships have become so instrumental for you?

33:28Kelli Giddish: Yeah. I mean, I spend anything you spend this much time thinking about probably counts it as an obsession.

33:37David Greene: Is it a dream as an actor to have a role that you sort of defines you for your life and career? I mean, if you had sort of been a young, when you were young and thinking about doing this, like, would you have said, like, I hope I can find a role that I lean into for good? Or is the dream to kind of jump from one thing to another and play, you know, 20 different characters over time?

34:04Kelli Giddish: The dream is to be able to pay your rent. That's the dream.

34:07David Greene: There's that. Yeah. Yeah. So I would have never.

34:11Kelli Giddish: When I took this job, Chris Maloney was leaving, and I was kind of stepping in after he left, me and Danny Pino. And I didn't know really the show that much. Of course, everyone knew it, but I thought I would be around for a couple more years. Boy, was I wrong, because Mariska got to step into number one on the call sheet role and become a producer of the show and talk about an obsession.

34:40David Greene: Are you happy that it's become sort of one role defining your career?

34:45Kelli Giddish: Yes. Yeah. People see me on the street and they're like, Rollins! Now, did I dream that that would happen? Absolutely not. No. You know, like you just hope to hop around to enough things that you can make some kind of career and body of work around it. but I live in New York City. I can support my little family. I can, I have producers here that know me intimately that I say, hey, I've got a mammogram on Wednesday morning. So I can't, I can't be here till 9.15. And they're like, okay. I was like, I was hoping you would say that you don't have to go because I hate getting mammograms. You know what I mean?

35:26Kelli Giddish: It's that kind of thing. So it's like, to the audience, to the public, I hope someone can just identify me with a character on a Dick Wolf show, like Rollins, someone is complex and layered and strong. And no, not in my wildest dreams. Am I so grateful it happened because of all the things that it's brought me? Absolutely.

35:51David Greene: Is acting an obsession?

35:52Kelli Giddish: I love acting. I think still if I could have chosen something to be good at, it would have been music. Sometimes I resent the fact that I need people to create. Writers, musicians, to a certain extent, and painters, they can just go to a place and extricate what's in their minds. and have it be, that's the final product. You know, sometimes, you know, with musicians, of course not. But I'm jealous of that sometimes.

36:32David Greene: That a creator can just go pull it off on their own as opposed to having a big team of writers and cameras and all that kind of stuff?

36:39Kelli Giddish: Yeah, yeah. Sometimes you just wish you could, you know, but you can't act in a vacuum.

36:44David Greene: Why music? Why do you wish music had potentially been your thing?

36:48Kelli Giddish: I mean, because it pulls in so many elements that I enjoy in my life. Music is one thing that no matter how I'm feeling, if you put on a song, you can feel connected, you can feel understood, you can feel challenged, you can feel, you know, it just affects me the most, I think, out of anything. So I wish I could put out in the world what affects me most.

37:15David Greene: Acting, I've read, was one of your, an influence of one of your grandparents? they encouraged you to act when you were a little girl?

37:23Kelli Giddish: Yeah, my grandfather was pretty obsessed with musicals growing up in Atlanta. I mean, not near Broadway. Yeah, he was obsessed. And he took me to my first play at the Fox Theater in Atlanta when I was six. It was Cats.

37:40David Greene: Nice.

37:41Kelli Giddish: And then he took me to Peter Pan at the Civic Center. And I remember I was like eight years old and I was reading the program. and I was like, wait, Peter, Peter all grown up or, you know, I was listing the scenes and he was like, don't read that. Like, he didn't want me to know that he grew up or, you know, it's like, he was like, no, no, no, we're here for magic. You know, like just, just put everything down and watch. And it, I could tell like, it just, him watching the play, it just enveloped him and it, it was, it was magic to him and therefore it became magic to me. You know, it's, I was like, oh, this is, I mean, reverence.

38:19Kelli Giddish: You go in the Fox Theater in Atlanta and there's stars on the ceiling and in the ornate building and in the columns and the stage and the costumes. And there's so much to look at. So he definitely instilled like, hey, you know, come along and let's go see this magic together. Definitely.

38:38David Greene: Must still feel like you're creating magic every day when you do this job.

38:42Kelli Giddish: It does. It really does. I mean, there's moments where you'd say to ICT, what a weird job. But in that statement, it's like, God damn, are we lucky to do this. You know, like we get to create this and be so totally invested in something. You know, I love the idea of your show because I think that's missing sometimes, you know, from people's lives. It's like something that they're just unapologetically obsessed with. You know, like I just love it. And I don't care how much time it takes or the energy or the money or, you know, the sacrifices. I'm obsessed with it. And I want to see it through, you know.

39:30David Greene: I like that a lot. That's the beauty of exploring this kind of stuff. Yeah. In that vein, I'll finish by asking, is there another obsession in your life that you have only told your husband and kids about, but you're going to share it right now with all of us?

39:51Kelli Giddish: Oh, my goodness. I'm obsessed with piano right now. It's a good one. They know that. They know that. And they're like, wow, mom, you're really nailing that one scale that you've been playing for the last month. And I'm like, yep.

40:07David Greene: But I'm loving it.

40:09Kelli Giddish: And I'm obsessed with it. I'm obsessed. And if I don't get the fingering right on the keys, I do it again. God bless him. And my husband has brought me headphones, you know, and he's like, yeah, look, it plugs in. I'm like, that's awesome. Yeah, that's great.

40:23David Greene: It's good. I got to come over sometime and piano playing, basketballs, bouncing till 10 o 'clock at night.

40:29Kelli Giddish: It's insane. It's insane. And then there's a WWE match happening between a two-year-old and a seven-year-old.

40:35David Greene: Oh, nice. That's perfect.

40:37Kelli Giddish: To the sound of piano scales and basketballs.

40:39David Greene: That sounds great.

40:40Kelli Giddish: I swear that's it every night.

40:43David Greene: What a great chaos.

40:44Kelli Giddish: Yeah, it is.

40:45David Greene: Well, Kelly, this has been so enjoyable.

40:47Kelli Giddish: I really appreciate the time and can't wait to watch the next episode and look for your knitting bag. Thank you so much. Thank you. This has been fun.

41:03David Greene: David Green is obsessed as a production of Campside Media. It is hosted by me, David Green. Our senior producer is Lane Rose. We are mixed by Ewan Leitramuen. The executive producers of Campside Media are Vanessa Gregoriadis, Matt Scherr, and Josh Dean. Special thanks to our operations team, Ashley Warren and Sabina Mara. If you have an obsession you would like to share, hope you do, you can send us an email. The address is obsessed at campsidemedia.com. That's obsessed at campsidemedia.com. And hey, if you enjoyed the show, please rate and review the show wherever you get your podcasts. Really appreciate you listening.