If you sat down with Kelli Giddish, she’d probably tell you her favorite lipstick shade, share a hilarious anecdote about life with three young kids, and, if you’re lucky, offer to knit you a blanket. Down to earth in part due to her Georgia upbringing (she wants her kids to get dirty regularly and counts mud as a personal necessity) she’s the ultimate low-tech soul operating in a high-speed world.
Between wrangling three sons and marking 14 seasons as Amanda Rollins on Law & Order: SVU, making life work comes down to strict organization and a solid partner: her husband, Beau Richards, who went from keeping her on schedule as her driver to helping keep the wheels on at home.
Today, she has a place for everything, from household chores to dramatic on-screen stakeouts. For example, at 5:15 am, Giddish makes lunch while listening to Good Hang with Amy Poehler. Soon after, her three boys — Ludo, 11, Charlie, 7, and Oldie, 3 — will wake up and she’ll begin the mad dash of getting kids ready for three different schools.
And, like many other working women, this all happens before she’s on the clock. To make it all work, she relies on a love-hate task list on her phone and a paper wall calendar mapped out in 15-minute increments.
Here, she shares how she does it... and her must-haves for her craziest days.
Welcome Back to SVU …
You and Amanda have grown up together. What has it been like to play one character through so many stages of life?
“My husband jokes, ‘I think maybe you have the record for the most pregnancies [on camera.]’ I’ve gotten married, I’ve gotten divorced, I’ve had three babies, I’ve gotten remarried. I’ve done the gamut of life. Amanda started off as a very shoot-from-the-hip, impulsive person, and I think that’s still very much part of her makeup.
Every single day, it’s a new puzzle for my brain to figure out. But if I f*ck up one day, I have the next day to be better. It’s not like a film where you go to the circus for a month or three, and that’s it, that’s all you get. I get to build and build and build. That’s a luxury.”
People are as invested in your off-screen friendship with Mariska Hargitay as they are in Rollins and Benson’s. What does your real relationship bring to the screen?
“Even at 46 years old, I still feel like the youngster on the set, which is hilarious. My character is always going to be learning from [Benson], and I know she’s got my back.
Mariska and I are both moms with three kids and we each have our own experiences with that. We go from saying, ‘Can you believe what this kid said?’ straight into, ‘OK, rolling. Action.’ Being moms and working moms … it rolls right into it. We love acting with each other. It shows up in the scene. We trust each other.”
The System
What keeps the week from getting away from you?
“On my phone, there’s a to-do list. It’s my saving grace because I write down everything that crosses my mind. Checking it off is so satisfying.
This morning I even wrote out a schedule. I was like, ‘All right, drop off Charlie at 7:40 am. What goes around that?’ We’re in 15-minute increments. Once I have it down to the minute, then I can just forget about it and be like, ‘OK, I’ve got the plan.’
Everything goes on the calendar. Not just on my phone, but a written calendar because I have a nanny here, so someone can always look at that. If I’m feeling overwhelmed, I sit down with the calendar and all the school stuff and go over it again. That calms me down.”
What helps you pull yourself together when you’re going straight from set to date night or a work event?
“There’s this thing I’ve been using for years from Rouje. It’s La Palette Visage. It has light, medium, dark [shades] and then a few different colors for your lips, cheeks, whatever. I don’t know why, but it works better than anything.
I take it with me on flights because you can’t overdo it. Sometimes if you don’t have a good mirror, you’re like, ‘Oh God.’ But this, you just put it on and it feels moisturizing. It highlights your face. It makes you look awake. I’ve bought three of them now.”
What’s something you bought that felt wildly indulgent but has completely paid for itself?
“An Airstream trailer. That felt completely indulgent. Now the company rents it from me, so that’s my dressing room on set. I’m so proud of that decision now. When I got it, I was like, ‘I can’t believe I’m doing this. I have my Ford truck, and I’m now attaching a trailer to it and traveling across the country.’
I still use it on a daily basis. We just took the kids up to see Billy Strings and my parents, and all of us took the trailer. I’m so happy I did this. It’s not an impersonal thing with weird fake leather seats. It’s my weird fake leather seats.”
And the app you rely on most?
“FreshDirect. Instacart. I am notoriously app-averse. I was late to my son’s basketball practice. They were like, ‘Hey, are you coming?’ I was like, ‘I thought this would be an email.’ They were like, ‘No, it’s on the app.’ My husband said, ‘Oooh, you hate apps.’ And I do.”
I’ve got three kids at three different schools all [with different] announcements. Even my dad said, ‘Put that stuff in the AI.’ I was like, ‘What?’ I would not even know how to broach that. But I can afford to order groceries and have them delivered.”
What do you do that’s only for you?
“I started piano lessons last year, and that has given me such joy. I’m terrible at it. I’m still just at scales, and I don’t care. It’s something that I’m like, ‘Oh, look, my fingers actually know what to do.’
My dog, whom I loved so, so dearly, passed away last year. That 15-minute break I had at night to go walk her [and to] look at the sky and not be responsible for anything was gone. Now sometimes I just go to the piano.”
If you could leave every overwhelmed woman one piece of advice, what would you say?
“Do yoga. Any kind. It doesn’t matter if it’s for 10 minutes or an hour. It’s like a massage for your nervous system. It doesn’t matter if you’re good at it. Just breathe.”
My 6 Essentials:
The things Giddish always has on hand … or in her bag.
A Parker Thatch bag: “If it doesn’t fit in there, I don’t get to carry it.”
RMS Beauty Legendary Serum Lipstick: “I think it’s the best lipstick I’ve ever had in my life.”
Bonjout Beauty Le Balm: “It’s not messy. It smells good. It puts you in a good mood.”
A Dinosaur Designs key ring: “It makes me happy every time I look at it.”
Knitting needles. “We’re not doing little animals. I work on a blanket. One of them took me five years. But if I’m waiting for my kid to get out of basketball or if I’m on the train or on set, I always have to have my needles with me. I hate looking at my phone, so it’s something to disconnect from all of that.”
Camp Snap CS-8 camcorder. “It looks like an old camcorder, and you just press the button. It’s got a few different filters, and there’s no replay.”
Questions and answers have been edited and condensed for clarity.