Mariska Hargitay, known for her role as Olivia Benson in the NBC series “Law and Order: Special Victims Unit,” brought Woodstock Film Festival goers along on her journey of healing during a packed house panel discussion focused on her documentary, “My Mom Jayne,” at the Kleinert/James Center for the Arts on Saturday.

Hargitay said she had long fielded questions from filmmakers and friends about when she was going to do a movie about her mom, 1950s and ’60s icon Jayne Mansfield, before she took on the project. Mansfield, who appeared in such movies as “Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?” and “The Wayward Bus,” died in a car crash in New Orleans in June 1967. Hargitay, who was 3 at the time, was injured in the crash.

She admitted she had questions about how she could undertake such a project objectively.

“You have a certain kind of emotional infrastructure, I’d say,” she said. Each time, she added, she said she wasn’t ready.

“It wasn’t long before five years had gone by.”

That was until 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns left her with more time. She started opening boxes of letters she got from people who knew her mother and were sharing stories about their experiences with her. They included Hollywood stars like Jane Fonda.

“They needed such a big response,” she said.

 

And soon, Hargitay, at last with time in hand, realized a documentary was the right kind of response.

“For me, documentaries have always been such a powerful form of storytelling and powerful for me to learn,” she said. “I just loved the format of how it’s different from reading a book. It’s an hour and a half to two hours where you just get this comprehensive understanding in this short amount of time of what an issue is. And you leave there with a visceral experience as opposed to reading.

 

“My Mom Jayne” marked Hargitay’s feature film directorial debut.

 

Hargitay spoke at length about how the project changed her outlook. She noted how, as she journeyed through the project, she increasingly came to see how her mom was an intelligent woman who was boxed in by Hollywood, who could only put her in the box of sex symbol and “dumb blonde” roles. It ended up leaving her with this “deep longing for her mother.”

 

“A longing to get to know her,” Hargitay said.

Hargitay acknowledged the pain of her childhood and how that made her want to push her mother away before this project.

 

“Just the thought of her brought up so much heartache and heartbreak and confusion,” Hargitay said. “From a little girl’s point of view, it was just pain and bad, and as I grew up, I thought this person was so complicated, and I just didn’t like the whole sex symbol aspect. Why can’t my mom be normal? Why’s she running around in a bikini and heels constantly?

“Just put on some clothes and make me a meal,” she added.

 

She said the experience of making the film has been “extremely cathartic.”

 

“I’m in awe of her. I’m in awe of what she accomplished.”

 

Hargitay noted her mom’s tenacity in navigating what she went through, all while raising five children.

 

“Not only being a movie star and doing it by herself and not from a showbiz family, but also in navigating her relationships,” she said. “It’s extraordinary, it’s beyond.”

 

She also came to realize just how much she had in common with her mother as she worked with her team to put the puzzle together and make tough choices about what got cut and what stayed in. “I want from not wanting to hear her voice to craving it.”

 

She also said her six siblings were initially lukewarm about the project, with worries about digging things up. Eventually, however, they came around.

 

Hargitay concluded by offering words of encouragement to those in attendance, sharing stories of how she pushed back on studio execs and others when they made disparaging remarks such as, “You should get a nose job.”

 

She replied right back, “Why don’t you get a nose job?”

 

“This is who I am,” Hargitay said. “You like it or you don’t. Power is being ourselves and not something else.”