In Law & Order mainstay Christopher Meloni) and the Organized Crime Control Bureau are working to get to the bottom of why the criminal enterprise ended up stateside in the first place. Stabler pulls in a request from a former informant, Isabella Spezzano (played by Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio), who helped him in Italy to take down her brother, Rocco, and the Camorra crime syndicate in exchange for bringing her grandchildren to America for safety.
After her grandson, Roman, animates the Camorra stateside and begins an all-out gang war with deadly familial consequences, Rocco finds the family and attempts to exact revenge on Isabella and the grandchildren. Law & Order: Organized Crime season 5, episode 5 finds Isabella in the position of having to protect her family once again, and a major twist revealed to Stabler proves she's not out of the woods yet, even with Rocco out of the picture for good.
ScreenRant interviewed Mastrantonio about her character's motivations, how the move to Peacock has allowed the show to tell a more compelling story, and what comes next for Law & Order: Organized Crime.
Mastrantonio Explores Isabella's Motivations In Law & Order: Organized Crime Season 5
A Woman With No Choices Is Now Charting Her Own Life
Isabella Spezzano, the grandmother of Roman, Pietro, and Gia, as well as the sister of Rocco and Lucia Spezzano, who are part of the powerful Camorra in Italy, had made some difficult decisions in her life for protection, for herself and her grandchildren. Mastrantonio says that the decision to go to Det. Stabler for help was likely the first decision she's ever really made on her own, even if it was life-altering. "The only choice I suppose she's ever made was to approach Stabler because everything else in her life has been a dictate from her brothers, from her family, from her father," she says.
The first decision she actually makes is to come clean with Stabler, [and say] 'All right, what do you want?'
"She had to marry a person she did not want to marry. She's had no choice in her life. She's probably undereducated. She probably has many talents that she'll never know she had because she had no opportunities," Mastrantonio continued, stressing the gravity and the weight of her decision to turn on her family. "She wasn't raised in that way. The first decision she actually makes is to come clean with Stabler, [and say] 'All right, what do you want? Get me out of here. Just get me out of here because I want to save these children. They've got to have something more going on in their lives.'"
Mastrantonio Says Law & Order: Organized Crime Has A Richer Story In Season 5
Peacock Allows The Show To Go Deeper
Although the show shares the lineage of the Law & Order universe as well as some of the characters, Law & Order: Organized Crime has never followed the general procedural drama structure of its sister shows. However, the show's move to Peacock for season 5 has allowed the show to free itself from the restrictions of its network television boundaries and, as Dean Norris told Screen Rant last month, allowed the show to present in a more cinematic way.
When asked about her thoughts on the idea of telling a richer story on Peacock, Mastrantonio says that it's not just because of the streaming show, but because of the show's nature. "It's not a procedural, so it is more interesting," she says. "There's just more story there. There's a home life, and there's a this life, and it's not just the office and then the scene of the crime, and back to the courtroom or whatever."
"The characters are more fleshed out," Mastrantonio continued, discussing her thoughts on the layered stories that can be told in Organized Crime. "They're just richer in that way. Because often they are just in relation to the crime, and there's no relationship [between people]. It's just the cop, the crime, the lawyer, the this, the that." Not so in the latest Law & Order. "These are, I would say, not burgeoning friendships. But, say, the nature of the way Isabella trusts Stabler. It's not just something that happens at the scene of the crime. It's nurtured because he needs it, and she needs it because they have to get to know what's going on here in order to protect everybody."
Law & Order: Organized Crime's Shocking Twist Is Not As Unrealistic As You Might Expect
"Actually, This Stuff Does Happen"
With the Spezzano family fully involved in the messy Camorra war, both within itself and with its competition, Isabella came face to face with Rocco after his orchestrated escape from an Italian prison, and in the wake of Stabler's son, Eli, appearing to shoot and kill Pietro, her grandson, in episode 4. While some of the stories may feel like they have an abundance of creative license, Mastrantonio affirms that some of these stories captured in the shows are based on real life.
"A million years ago, when Scarface was [released], it was operatic," Mastrantonio said, comparing the story arcs portrayed in Organized Crime to her 1983 film Scarface, in which she played drug dealer Tony Montana's sister, Gina. "But actually this stuff does happen. This stuff happens. It might not happen in your backyard or in your neighborhood, but this stuff happens."
Law & Order: Organized Crime Season 5 Brings Back A Missing SVU Character For 4 Years
Law & Order: Organized Crime brought back a popular character who originated on SVU but has been missing from the franchise for the past four years.
"You just have to give a creative license as well," she continued, while expressing her concerns with depictions of Italians in crime dramas and television programs. "I'm not writing the story. It's not my story. But I had a little bit of trouble with it because I am Italian. It was like, 'Oh, not the Italians again. Not this.' We're never the President. We always have to be that other person. That can be tricky, but it's just their story."
Mastrantonio Doesn't Know Why People Love Scarface So Much
"I Really Don't Know What It Is"
When discussing the themes in Law & Order: Organized Crime, Mastrantonio mentioned her 1983 film, Scarface, the epic and legendary tale of Tony Montana, played by Al Pacino, and his rise and fall through the cocaine distribution world. Mastrantonio, who played Tony's ill-fated sister, Gina, in the film, says she genuinely isn't sure why people have latched on to the film as much as they have, even after all these years.
"I have no idea. I really don't," she says. "I really don't, and any one of them has seen it far more [than I have]. I've seen it a few times, but I really don't know what it is. I'm not saying it doesn't deserve it."
"On a really humid day, if my hair is getting bigger and bigger, someone will still do this," Mastrantonio says as she makes a surprised gesture that fans have made at seeing her in public, and in reference to her hairstyle in the movie. "And I'm like, 'Oh, my God.' At least I still look like myself."
Law & Order: Organized Crime season 5 releases a new episode every Thursday, exclusively on Peacock.
Law & Order: Organized Crime
- Release Date
- April 1, 2021
- Network
- NBC, Peacock
- Directors
- Jean de Segonzac, John Polson, Jon Cassar, Stephen Surjik, Alex Hall, Alex Zakrzewski, Bethany Rooney, Eriq La Salle, Jonathan Brown, Ken Girotti, Michael Slovis, Tess Malone, Gonzalo Amat, Milena Govich, Simón Brand, Sharon Lewis, Carlos Bernard, Cherie Nowlan, Jim McKay, John David Coles, Juan José Camla, Kate Woods, Laura Belsey, Leslie Hope
Cast
Christopher MeloniDet. Elliot Stabler
Frank WoodME Dr. Abel Truman
WHERE TO WATCH
- Writers
- Amy Berg, John Shiban, Liz Sagal, Will Pascoe, Davon Briggs, Katrina Cabrera Ortega, Nichole Beattie, Josh Fagin, Michael Konyves, Alec Wells, Bridget Tyler, Candice Sanchez McFarlane, Emmy Higgins, Rick Eid, Gwen Sigan, Sean Jablonski, David Graziano, Daniel Beaty, Katie Letien, Nick Culbertson, Jean Kyoung Frazier, Christina Piña
- Creator(s)
- Dick Wolf, Matt Olmstead, Ilene Chaiken
Your comment has not been saved