Mariska Hargitay ‘not done with Olivia Benson yet’

“You’re simply stepping into your power with the gift of clarity.”

That’s how Mariska Hargitay looks at growing older, adding that her 50s were great because they prepared her to dominate in her 60s.

And who can argue with the results as the actor/producer/earthshaker is having one of the best years of her professional life at age 61.

Her screen alter ego is also just getting started. “I’m not done with Olivia Benson yet,” Hargitay insists. “She’s got a lot more work to do.”

Cue that signature sound: DUN-DUN.

Fans are eagerly awaiting the return of “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” which is back for its 27th season on Sept. 25 on NBC, streaming on Peacock the next day. Hargitay is best known for her role as Capt. Olivia Benson on NBC’s long-running hit, which she also produces.

Hargitay also directed a critically acclaimed documentary, “My Mom Jayne,” now streaming on HBO Max. She was just 3 in 1967 when she lost her mother, Hollywood star Jayne Mansfield, in a car crash.

The fallout from the film has left her breathless. “I’m in a profound moment of gratitude,” she says. “I asked every member of my family if I should do this, and they all said, ‘Yes.’ That is the greatest gift ever.”

Even better was an early screening for her siblings, who left the theater embracing. “My sister said, ‘We’re four people with one heart,’” Hargitay says.

Her offscreen life is equally profound. In 2004, she founded the Joyful Heart Foundation, an organization dedicated to transforming society’s response to sexual assault, domestic violence and child abuse. In 2017, she produced “I Am Evidence,” a documentary about the thousands of unprocessed rape kits.

Hargitay lives in New York City with her husband, actor Peter Hermann, and their children, August, Andrew and Amaya. Her good life tips:

‘A gift from God’

“I don’t remember the accident. I don’t even remember being told that Mother had died,” she says of the fatal car crash. Mariska, who was asleep in the backseat, survived the wreck along with her two brothers. Yet there were emotional wounds later on.

“As a kid it was so hard to see your mother in a pose,” she says. “I wanted to take down the curtain and find those precious, candid moments where my mother was herself.”

For the documentary, she was able unearth her mother’s actual voice. “I was able to listen to her speak. I listened to the music she loved,” Hargitay marvels. “The archives were like a gift from God to me. I was looking for my mother and found all these moments of her not playing a role, and that’s what I was after.

“I would catch an expression that I never saw or just a private thought or a private moment,” she says of looking through old photos and footage. “And I would be like, ‘There you are.’ It was so fulfilling to my soul. I had this sense of completion.”

Two great loves

In her 20s, she learned Mickey Hargitay, the father who raised her, was not her biological parent — and that Vegas entertainer Nelson Sardelli was. She saw a photo of Sardelli and knew he was her father.

Mansfield was romantically involved with Sardelli in 1963 amid her divorce from Mickey Hargitay, but they ended up reconciling toward the end of that year. Mariska was born in January 1964.

“What I found amazing was the story was not out there. … and that it was mine to tell,” Hargitay says. “My dad was the greatest father in the world, and I’m so grateful to Nelson for making the choices he made. I have a great love for two men. How lucky am I?” With Mickey, she adds, “The truth didn’t change anything. It deepened the love.”

Role of a lifetime

She has played Olivia Benson for 26 years, examining every side of this fan-favorite female hero. What is the appeal of the role? “There is no stopping Capt. Benson,” she says. “She will get in there and fight for you. … It’s so incredibly fulfilling. As actors, we keep building on a character and have these arcs. It makes everything more meaningful.”

Something deeper

She says the series hits a nerve with fans in meaningful ways. “Very early on with the fan mail, I was getting a different kind of response,” she shares. “It went beyond, ‘I really love that show.’ Fans love the show, but disclose things that happened to them in their real live through their letters or emails. I realize how important this show is and how important it is to have a character who fights for women and has this unwavering commitment to justice.”

Ask for help

Hargitay says her years playing Olivia Benson helped prepare her for motherhood. “As a cop, you face daily emergencies, and you need to keep calm and stay in charge while asking for help if you need to fix something. It’s the same thing with being a parent.”

‘A lightning bolt’

Hargitay met her husband when he appeared long ago on Season 3 of “SVU,” portraying defense attorney Trevor Langan. He asked her to attend a church service with him, and she immediately felt an incredible connection. “My knees went weak when I first met him,” she says. “It was like getting hit with a lightning bolt. He was just so amazing. At church, I began to cry. He thought I was so moved by the service, but it really was that I knew I had found the one.”

Take a deep breath

Hargitay says she was a bit afraid of making a movie about her mother, but she has a way to conquer fears. “You just breathe through it,” she says, “and come out the other side.”