For decades, Mariska Hargitay has embodied resilience and justice on screen. But now, she’s shifting focus — and stepping into the director’s chair — to tell the story that shaped her off-screen life. The “Law & Order: SVU” star is making her feature film directorial debut with My Mom Jayne, an HBO documentary that intimately explores the life and legacy of her mother, 1950s screen icon Jayne Mansfield. It’s personal. It’s raw. And for the first time, it’s told through the eyes of a daughter who lost her mother before she even had a chance to know her.
A Hollywood Bombshell, Frozen in Time
Jayne Mansfield wasn’t just a blonde bombshell — she was the bombshell.
Known for roles in classics like Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? and The Girl Can’t Help It, she lit up the screen with unapologetic glamour. But there was more to her than sequins and champagne. Mansfield was also a mother, a businesswoman, and a woman often underestimated by the very industry that made her a star.
She married former Mr. Universe Mickey Hargitay in 1958, and their whirlwind romance became the stuff of tabloid dreams. They acted side by side in films like The Loves of Hercules, welcoming three children in the process.
But life moved fast and rough. The couple split in 1964, and three years later, tragedy struck. Mansfield died in a car crash at just 34 years old. Her daughter, Mariska, then three, was in the backseat with her two brothers. They survived. Mansfield didn’t.
A Daughter’s Long-Awaited Reckoning
Hargitay has stayed mostly silent about her mother over the years. That silence ends now.
“My Mom Jayne” isn’t just a documentary. It’s a deeply personal excavation. Hargitay calls it “a labor of love and longing,” describing the film as her way of reaching out to the mother she barely knew and claiming her own truth in the process.
She says, “I’ve always believed there is strength in vulnerability, and the process of making this film has confirmed that belief like never before.”
It’s the kind of vulnerability that doesn’t come easy — especially for someone whose life has played out under the public gaze. But Hargitay isn’t looking to rewrite history. She’s looking to understand it.
A Tapestry of Images, Voices, and Memory
The documentary promises to go beyond the headlines.
It weaves together:
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Never-before-seen photographs from Mansfield’s personal collection
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Home videos that offer rare glimpses of family life away from the red carpet
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Intimate interviews with those who truly knew Jayne — not the persona, but the person
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Reflections from Mariska herself as she searches for emotional closure
This isn’t a Hollywood gloss job. It’s textured. It’s complicated. It’s what happens when fame, family, and grief meet behind closed doors.
From “SVU” Star to Filmmaker
Known to millions as Olivia Benson, Hargitay has made a career out of giving voice to trauma survivors. With My Mom Jayne, she’s telling her own story — but doing it through the lens of someone else’s light.
She’s not alone in this project. Produced alongside Trish Adlesic and executive produced by Lauran Bromley, the film has serious creative weight behind it. Adlesic, known for her Emmy-nominated documentary work, brings experience in capturing difficult truths.
CAA, The Lede Company, and Grubman Shire Meislas & Sacks are representing Hargitay as she takes this leap, not just as a performer but as a full-fledged filmmaker.
A Public Story, A Private Grief
There’s something haunting about losing a parent before you can form memories of them.
That’s the grief Mariska Hargitay carries — not loud or performative, but silent and lifelong. My Mom Jayne is her attempt to fill that silence with substance. To reconstruct what’s been lost. And maybe, just maybe, to find pieces of herself along the way.
For viewers, it offers a rare inside look at a figure who’s long been dismissed as a caricature — and at the daughter determined to reclaim her.
