Mariska Hargitay is going into her Emmys hosting gig as a winner.
The star, who is helming the Primetime Emmys on Sept. 14, took home two prizes at the Creative Arts Emmys for My Mom Jayne: A Film By Mariska Hargitay. She landed wins for directing for a documentary/nonfiction program and for outstanding documentary or nonfiction special; the night brings Hargitay’s career Emmy total to three, after she won best actress for Law & Order: Special Victims Unit in 2006.
“It feels extraordinarily new and it’s deeply meaningful for me to have gone into a completely different arena, and to be recognized like this is really beyond my wildest dreams,” she told reporters backstage of how these two trophies compare to her one from two decades ago.
Hargitay also spoke about this particular moment in her career, where she’s living by the motto of “I just say yes. I said yes to Broadway and I said yes to hosting the Emmys — when they called me, I thought it was a joke, and then I went, ‘Why not?’”
“It’s a year of firsts and a year of saying yes and not limiting myself or not being governed by fear. Like, what would I do if I wasn’t afraid? What if it all works out?” she continued. “I’m in that place right now of going, ‘I’ll figure it out.’ I’m really happy right now.”
She also gave a hint at her mindset heading into the main show, admitting, “It’s been a big week, this hosting the Emmys is no joke,” teasing that NBC “undersold it to me” and told her it would just be two days of rehearsal, which was “a lie.” However, she expressed how excited she was to be working with The Late Show with Stephen Colbert writing team on her material and added, “I just can’t believe at this place in my life — my third act is starting and it’s pretty awesome.”