Little Mariska Hargitay Laughs with Beautiful Mom Jayne Mansfield in Sweet Baby Photo

Hollywood is buzzing about Mariska Hargitay’s big news and a recently shared childhood photo of herself and her mom.

On April 8, the Law & Order: Special Victims Unit icon finally spilled the beans about a secret project she teased in October. Hargitay will officially make her feature directorial debut with My Mom Jayne, a documentary about her mother, actress Jayne Mansfield.

This is exciting news, and a throwback photo of the two women shared on Instagram on April 8 is even sweeter.

See a tiny version of Mariska Hargitay laughing with her mom here.

Mother and daughter are beaming in the vintage photo, and we are obsessed with Hargitay’s cute little smile as she wraps her arm around her mom. If this photo represents what to expect in the upcoming documentary, fans will be over the moon to learn more about the life and times of Mansfield.

In a heartfelt Instagram post of her own on April 8, Hargitay opened up about being part of a project so obviously near and dear to her heart.

“I feel grateful, fulfilled and so proud to share this film,” she wrote. “I never got to make a movie with my mom, and she never got to make the kind of movies she wanted to make. #MyMomJayne is a place of meeting for us, and words fail me to describe how meaningful it is to tell her story, my own, and ours together.”

Split image of Mariska Hargitay and Jayne Mansfield

Hargitay kept with the theme of the day and shared another childhood photo of her and Mansfield — a gorgeous black-and-white snap of the two of them walking the streets of Los Angeles while holding hands.

Mariska Hargitay speaks about her mom’s impact on Hollywood

Jayne Mansfield with her husband Mickey Hargitay and their children Miklos, Zoltan and Jayne Marie, 1960. Photo: Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images

Mansfield’s legacy lives on in Hollywood — and in her daughter’s heart. Hargitay has always been keen to reflect on her mother’s many achievements, and in a 2018 interview with Closer Weekly, the star spoke about the things that the general public never knew about her late mother.

“My mother was this amazing, beautiful, glamorous sex symbol — but people didn’t know that she played the violin, and had a 160 IQ, and had five kids and loved dogs,” Hargitay said. “She was just so ahead of her time. She was an inspiration. She had this appetite for life, and I think I share that with her. Someone once said about [remembering] my mother: ‘All you have to do is look in the mirror.’ She’s with me still.”