Law & Order: SVU Season 27 will wrap its fall run in the 2025 TV schedule with the midseason finale on November 20, with plenty of high-stakes episodes to look back on ahead of the 2026 TV schedule return. One of the most intense has to be "Feed the Craving," which aired back in October with Poker Face alum Danielle MacDonald as a woman who initially seemed like a victim in need of help, only to end up on the stand in her own defense opposite Carisi. The guest star spoke with CinemaBlend about being interrogated by Peter Scanavino as the ADA.
MacDonald came to Law & Order: SVU as a longtime fan, sharing that she'd grown up watching the drama in Australia, and joining the cast for an episode was "like a teenage dream." The episode, which is available streaming now with a Peacock subscription, featured MacDonald's Natalie going from presenting herself as the victim of a horrifying crime to trying to defend herself in court opposite Peter Scanavino as Carisi. When asked if the emotion of the courtroom sequence as a fan was a challenge at all with her Australian accent vs. her New York character, the actress shared:
I don't really know how to act in my own voice, which sounds absolutely insane. I think it's just one of those things now where I'm so used to it, and I think it honestly helps me find the character, in a way... [The accent] just comes naturally to that character, if I'm in that headspace. But yeah, those scenes were intense. He's so good. I was like, 'Wow, I see it. I understand.'
If Carisi seemed intense in this episode of Season 27, Natalie was lucky not to be facing him when he was still reeling from his PTSD-inducing experience in Season 26! He was back at his best after getting what Peter Scanavino described as a "wake-up call" from Benson. So, Danielle MacDonald was on the stand opposite Peter Scanavino going all-out with Carisi's prosecution, and Natalie was not cooperating. When I noted to the actress that it was easy to see why Carisi can get answers out of a witness, she responded:
Absolutely! Are you kidding me? The intensity in those eyes. I was like, 'Oh, my gosh! How am I meant to still play this so stubborn?' It was great.
Even with all the intensity of the courtroom interrogation, Danielle MacDonald had nothing but good things to say about her experience on Law & Order: SVU. She shared that it was "one of the quickest jobs" she's done because "everyone's super efficient" and "know what they're doing" to make "the set a really well-oiled machine."
With that sense of efficiency perfected on a show that's 27 seasons in (and counting, if Ice-T has his way), Danielle MacDonald shared that the long process of filming the courtroom sequences "didn't feel like it was too long at all." She went on:
We really weren't moving on until we got what we were trying to get, which was great. Sometimes it can be hard. Your energy drops a little bit, but you're in that mindset. The character would be waiting around in court the whole day, just listening to testimonies, not being able to say anything. [The performance] kind of just needs it, because that's all you’ve got going for you. I think it's a lot harder when you're trying to do a really amped up scene. You've been waiting for hours, so at least this actually paralleled what the character was going through.
"Feed the Craving" technically had an open ending on Natalie's story, so it's not impossible that Benson, Carisi, and the rest will face her again on SVU. Whether or not the episode was the end of her story, Danielle MacDonald's experience clearly lived up to her teenage dream of coming on the show as a fan.
As for fans watching from home, Law & Order: SVU enters its winter hiatus on November 20 following the fall finale, but will return with more episodes of Season 27 with the midseason premiere on Thursday, January 8 at 9 p.m. ET, between Law & Order at 8 p.m. and the Season 2 premiere of The Hunting Party at 10 p.m., all on NBC. In the meantime, you can revisit earlier episodes streaming on Peacock.
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