Stephen A. Smith is fulfilling a lifelong dream: The legendary sportscaster is going to be on “Law & Order.”
A diehard fan of the series, Smith is set to appear in the episode airing on May 8. The twist? He’s not playing himself, but rather the victim in the episode’s murder investigation. The official logline for the episode states:
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“A tough-love sports agent (Smith) is found stabbed to death, leaving the squad with a trail of suspects who wanted him gone. Despite a wealth of evidence, Price (Hugh Dancy) and Maroun (Odelya Halevi) worry that a lack of motive will tank their case.”
In an interview with Variety, Smith said that he jumped at the chance when he was approached about being on the show. “One of the writers, her name was Pam Wechsler, I ran across her in Los Angeles,” Smith said. “She walked right up to me and she said, ‘Would you be interested in doing this?’ I said, ‘”Law & Order?’ The “Law & Order?” Of course!’”
And while playing a corpse on the long-running drama series is a goal for many, Smith says he still has loftier ambitions for his future with the show.
“That’s part of the bucket list, being on ‘Law & Order,’ but not being the corpse,” he said. “My goal is to ultimately be a lawyer in the courtroom, going up against one of the attorneys.”
Smith could still get his wish. Several actors have appeared in the “Law & Order” franchise across different episodes as different characters. For example, Diane Neal appeared as a suspect in the “Law & Order: SVU” Season 3 episode “Ridicule” before returning to the show in Season 5 as ADA Casey Novak, whom she would go on to play for several seasons.
Having built his career in the sports world, Smith has interacted with many sports agents, which he drew upon in order to play the character.
“When they told me to be a sports agent, I’ve dealt with enough sports agents in my life to know the kind of things they say, how they say it, when to be forceful, when to back off a little bit, etc. But still, being being on a show as epic as ‘Law & Order,’ you try to bring your A game. So that’s what I tried to do, because I’ve been a huge fan of the show for many decades.”
“Law & Order” airs on NBC at 8 p.m. ET/PT.
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