Danielle Moné Truitt opens up about “Law & Order: Organized Crime” season three, how her character has grown, future projects and more. (Exclusive)
Photo credit: @daniellemonetruitt on Instagram
Written by: Gracie Lowes
Buckle up Law & Order fans Detective Elliot Stabler and Sergeant Ayanna Bell are back on the scene!
NBC’s hit series “Law & Order: Organized Crime” is back for season three and the drama and stakes are higher than ever.
The show follows “Elliot Stabler’s (Christopher Meloni) return to the NYPD to battle organized crime after a devastating personal loss. However, the city and police department have changed dramatically in the decade he’s been away, and he must adapt to a criminal justice system in the midst of its own moment of reckoning.”
I had the chance to sit down (virtually) with actor Danielle Moné Truitt who plays Sergeant Ayanna Bell. We talked about what it’s been like stepping back into her character, what fans can expect from this season, her future projects, and more.
You can read the full interview below.
Photo credit: @daniellemonetruitt on Instagram
Gracie Lowes: First off congratulations on “Law & Order: Organized Crime” season 3! How has this season’s release and the days building up to it been for you?
Danielle Moné Truitt: “Thank you! I’m excited about this season because there were plans to do a lot more with my character as far as what her role is on the task force, her being in charge of the cases, and Bell’s relationship with Stabler that is going to develop this season. So over the hiatus of course I was taking my time to rest and get ready for the next season. Still, I also made a pact with myself that I would do something else creative acting-wise so I could continue to grow. Hence, I did my one-woman play during the hiatus and that just made me feel so fresh and ready to come back to work and attack the character with a fresh perspective. Sometimes when you’re on a show playing the same character for months and months on end that world can get kind of stale, so when preparing for this season it was good for me to do something else acting-wise so I could be refreshed when we started working again especially since in this script we’re starting to introduce a more personal side to Bell, so I’ve been having a lot of fun with that and the first nine episodes have been so fulfilling.”
Gracie: As you said it can get repetitive playing the same character for so long, especially since you’ve played Bell for over 38 episodes and multiple seasons, but what is it like to play a character like that, and have you learned anything from your time playing her?
Danielle: “It’s a beautiful thing to get to grow with a character like that, it’s two sides of the same coin, on one side it gets stale but on the other side you play a character for a single episode or in a play for a limited time you don’t get to visit that character again even if you loved that character, so I feel blessed to play and continue to play Bell and have the opportunity to develop her, and the more episodes I do the more I learn about her and her world and that gives me time to think about her and form her story. It also gives you the chance to grow, learn and relate to your character, for example, I’ve also gone through a divorce like Bell and it’s not something I’ve talked about a lot so when the showrunner came to me with the script and I found out Bell was getting divorced I was like ‘oh wow this is kind of cool because I was going through this when I booked this job, so to get the opportunity to go through what Bell is going through was a gift and a beautiful thing. Honestly looking at it now, Bell has really taught me a lot about resilience and just staying a grounded person no matter how hard the winds are trying to push you in another direction, being able to stand your ground is important and something that me and her have in common.”
Photo credit: @daniellemonetruitt on Instagram
Gracie: This show covers a lot of topics but I’m wondering whether you have a favorite moment or memory from your time on set either from this season or in general.
Danielle: “It’s hard because there are so many great moments from this set. But one great moment was when we were doing a crossover episode, it was the first time I met Mariska and I was a little nervous, I was nervous when I met Chris, I was coming into the show with not having to audition for the role, I was offered the part and sometimes when you’re offered a part you feel weird and like you haven’t earned it even though you earned it from your previous work and I just remember thinking ‘oh my gosh I hope they don’t think they made a mistake once they meet me.’ So I was nervous when I met Chris but when we did the crossover and I met Mariska she’s the queen of NBC, she’s the queen of Law & Order, and a lot of people on Twitter were worried that Bell and Stabler’s relationship would be like Stabler and Benson relationship but after watching the series they now see it’s nothing like that, so I was nervous of what she would think but I ended up meeting her on the escalator going to set and she got on behind me and she called my name and when I turned around she got so excited and gave me a big hug and said ‘I’ve been so excited to meet you, I’m such a huge fan! You’re killing it, you’re so beautiful!’ and she just embraced me joining the team. I just remember that vividly and it was just really really cool.”
Gracie: Were you a bit starstruck at that moment?
Danielle: “Yeah I remember thinking ‘Wow is this real, am I here?’”
Gracie: If you could describe this season in three words what would they be?
Danielle: “Three words I would use to describe this season are rollercoaster, heart, and discovery.”
Gracie: I know you’re busy with this release but do you have any future projects that you could hint at or talk about?
Danielle: “As of right now this show takes up so much of my time since we’re filming for around 10 months of the year, but early next year I plan to do a reading of my one-woman play in New York because eventually, I want to perform it here so I have to get people to come and listen, I did a reading in LA but I’ve never read it in New York only in a festival many years ago. Then on my hiatus, I’ll be doing two runs of my play one in Sacramento and one in LA, and the play is called ‘3 Black Girl Blues.’”
