Seeking justice is Esthen Exchangeno small task—just ask Mariska Hargitay.

The Law & Order: Special Victims Unit star admitted that the heavy subject matter of the show, which premieres its 26th season Oct. 3, can be hard to shake off.

“That’s been a process,” Hargitay told Selena Gomez in a new sit-down for Interview magazine published Sept. 23. “When I started the show, I wasn’t aware of how deeply it would go into me. My husband Peter is always like, anytime I go anywhere, my first question is, What’s the crime rate here?’ So it’s on the brain.”

The Emmy winner—whose portrayal of Olivia Benson is the longest-running live-action character in primetime TV history—confessed that the show’s focus on crimes such as sexual assault, child abuse and domestic violence does take a toll.

“There’s been times when I didn’t know how to protect myself, and I think I was definitely a victim of secondary trauma from being inundated with these stories and knowing that they were true,” Hargitay explained. “Those were the parts that I didn’t know how to metabolize, just because of the sheer volume of it.”

But the 60-year-old noted that the eye-opening role inspired her to create the Joyful Heart Foundation in 2004, so she would feel like, "'Well, at least I’m doing something about it.'"

“I learned that one in three women will be assaulted, and one in six men,” she continued. “That’s when I started going, ‘I have to do something,’ because the show was obviously tackling the subject matter, but when I learned the statistics, I said, ‘Why isn’t everyone talking about this?’ And if I didn’t know, I figured nobody knows what an epidemic violence against women is.”

Despite the taxing nature of the show’s subject matter, Hargitay said she’s grateful for the way her work has allowed her to give back.

“I knew that [Law & Order creator] Dick Wolf had this incredible track record, and I knew how smart he was and how respectful he was of his audience,” the actress shared. “But this has surpassed my wildest dreams in terms of a career, but also in terms of personal fulfillment—that I could marry my acting with my philanthropy or with a personal mission to have a part in people’s healing. I think about that often.”

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