Law & Order: SVU actress Isabel Gillies SLAMS social media users for flooding her feed with hate-filled ‘eye-popping-bile posts’ over her character Kathy Stabler
Former Law & Order: SVU actress Isabel Gillies penned an emotional essay hitting back at the stream of hatred she faced recently on social media over the death of her television character.
Gillies, 51, who is also a published author, played Kathy Stabler, the wife of Chris Meloni’s Elliot Stabler, in Law & Order: SVU for 12 seasons.
After reprising her role (and being killed off) in the season finale of SVU, Gillies was trolled mercilessly by online bullies which, she admitted in her new blog, left her in tears.
Stop the hate: Former Law & Order: SVU actress Isabel Gillies penned an emotional essay hitting back at the stream of hatred she faced recently on social media over the death of her television character
Last season, Isabel was asked to reprise her role as Mrs. Elliot Stabler, a decade following her final episode with the series, ‘only to get blown up and killed by a car bomb’ during her grand return.
Gillies jumped at the chance to once more ‘play with my friends and former colleagues Mariska Hargitay and Chris Meloni, see the squad room, and get fake blood squeezed on my face.
‘When I filmed the show, we all said, “just like the ol’ days,”‘ she recalled. ‘But it ain’t like the ol’ days – something has seriously changed.’
The day after the episode aired, the actress was met with a rash of hate-filled ‘eye-popping-bile posts’ about her character, Kathy Stabler.
Drama: Gillies, 51, played Kathy Stabler, the wife of Chris Meloni’s Elliot Stabler, in Law & Order: SVU for 12 seasons and was trolled mercilessly by online bullies after reprising her role in the SVU finale (Pictured Christopher Meloni as Detective Elliot Stabler, Mariska Hargitay as Detective Olivia Benson, Richard Belzer as Detective John Munch season one)
‘Gliding over links and threads, memes and emojis, I started, well, crying. ‘KATHY STABLER IS BURNING IN THE DEEPEST PART OF HELL.’ Scroll, scroll…,’ she penned. ‘YOU DESERVE TO BLOW UP!’ Scroll, scroll…’Good morning to absolutely everyone except Kathy Stabler’s ghost.’ Scroll, scroll… ‘This girl is the nastiest, skank b***h I’ve ever met!’
Kathy’s death helped spur Meloni’s official return to the Law & Order family with his own franchise, Law & Order: Organized crime.
‘Throughout the 23 seasons of SVU, there has been a love story between Elliot and Mariska Hargitay’s character, Olivia Benson,’ she explained. ‘It started as a simmer and has been heading toward a rolling boil.’
‘And while I love Mariska and Chris, if their characters were falling for each other or not wasn’t my concern,’ she continued. ‘Once they buried me, I continued on my life as Isabel Gillies, mom, wife, mahjong player.’
‘Gliding over links and threads, memes and emojis, I started, well, crying. ‘KATHY STABLER IS BURNING IN THE DEEPEST PART OF HELL.’ Scroll, scroll…,’ she penned. ‘YOU DESERVE TO BLOW UP!’ Scroll, scroll…’Good morning to absolutely everyone except Kathy Stabler’s ghost.’ Scroll, scroll… ‘This girl is the nastiest, skank b***h I’ve ever met!’ (pictured with Hargitay in 2019)
The ‘personal attacks, barbs, jabs and just plain ol’ meanness’ directed at Isabel left her in tears and she admitted that it’s ‘only human’ to take the vitriol about her character personally.
She called on Mariska to see how she handles the hate: ‘Mariska is one of the most empathetic, loving people on this earth. Hard to imagine she has much experience with vitriol, but sadly, she’s had plenty of it.’
Hargitay told Gillies that the best option is to try to shake it off. While she gave it her best effort, the former star said she couldn’t help but put herself in the shoes of Anthony Fauci, Jen Psaki, Nikki Haley or any of the real-life mouthpieces of different causes who face this kind of hatred online regularly.
‘Can we please all take it down a notch? No matter what our personal views are about TV love stories or climate change or the Senate parliamentarian, can we pause?’ she asked.
‘There is the acronym T.H.I.N.K. Is it thoughtful? is it honest? Is it interesting? Is it necessary? Is it kind? I’m going to try to put everything I say or write through this little fail-safe,’ she concluded.
‘And while I love Mariska and Chris, if their characters were falling for each other or not wasn’t my concern,’ she continued. ‘Once they buried me, I continued on my life as Isabel Gillies, mom, wife, mahjong player.’
Her heartbreaking essay about dealing with viewer hate is reminiscent of the 2013 NY Times Op-Ed penned by Breaking Bad actress Anna Gunn.
Her character in the AMC drama, Skylar White – wife of Bryan Cranston’s Walter Whites – was universally hated by fans of the show.
Gunn, 53, revealed in her emotional piece that fan reaction and subsequent hatred morphed from being directed at her on-screen character to being directed at her personally.
‘As the hatred of Skyler blurred into loathing for me as a person, I saw glimpses of an anger that, at first, simply bewildered me,’ she wrote. ‘
Anna added: ‘As an actress, I realize that viewers are entitled to have whatever feelings they want about the characters they watch. But as a human being, I’m concerned that so many people react to Skyler with such venom.’
Women getting the brunt of it: Her heartbreaking essay about dealing with viewer hate is reminiscent of the 2013 NY Times Op-Ed penned by Breaking Bad actress Anna Gunn about her character Skylar White being viciously hated by fans
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