Christopher Meloni Details Being Attacked Working as a Bouncer

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Emotional Christopher Meloni Reacts to Law & Order: Organized Crime Cancellation

Christopher Meloni was going after the bad guys before he even set foot in the 16th Precinct.

The Law & Order: SVU star detailed a harrowing experience he had chasing after two customers who hadn’t paid their bill while working as a bouncer years before he was cast as Detective Elliot Stabler on the crime drama.

"Frantically, a waitress comes up to me and says, two girls ran out on the bill," he said on the June 22 episode of the Thanks Dad With Ego Nwodim podcast. "So me and the manager bust out onto Bleecker Street. And there was a fresh fallen snow, like half inch, quarter inch, on the ground. And the waitress goes, 'That's them, that's them!' Right? So me and him go running."

But after Meloni and the manager caught up with the women, a car suddenly drove up.

"I'm distracted and one gets away— they both get away—and they jump into the car," Meloni said, adding that it was the girls' boyfriends who were in the vehicle. "I get onto the passenger side door. It's closed. And they're trying to roll up the window and I'm holding it down. And I said, 'Get out of the car, get out of the car!'"

According to the Oz actor, the man behind the wheel began driving, while one of the female passengers started "punching [him] in the face."

"Then the guy in the back seat [says], 'Slam him against, hit him against the parked cars,'" Meloni continued. "He's going to try and crush me against the parked cars. And I'm skitching along, 'cause it's fresh snow."

And while the entire incident only lasted "about three seconds," Meloni stressed that it almost ended with him being run over by the car.

"It starts going and you're wondering when can I let go without being caught under the back wheels," he recalled. "Whatever it was, I did let go finally. Freshly slapped and punched around."

Although the 65-year-old wound up unscathed, he couldn't wrap his head around the patrons' motives.

"I just remember going, 'What the f--k are you thinking? What are you doing?'" he added. "I mean, probably for a bill of $45 or something."

Roy Rochlin/Getty Images for Netflix

Years after his time working as a bouncer in New York City, Meloni was cast in his breakout role as Detective Stabler in 1999 in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit opposite Mariska Hargitay, a role that he portrayed until 2011.

But while he returned in 2021 to reprise his role in the spinoff Law & Order: Organized Crime, the show was canceled in April after five seasons.

“I just saw that they announced OC, Organized Crime, won’t be coming back,” Meloni said in an Instagram Reel following the announcement. “So I wanted to take this moment to thank the fans who not only helped give the character of Elliot Stabler life and longevity, but for sticking with him and welcoming him back.”

As he noted, “I had a great time playing him. It was a great ride, but thank you, you helped give me a career that I never dreamed of, you know, nearly 17 odd years.”

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