J. Smith-Cameron Says SVU’s Jury Consultant Gwen Sharpe Is “Vetting” Benson (EXCLUSIVE)
Succession star J. Smith Cameron has already made quite a splash on Law & Order: SVU.
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit has long served as a beacon for iconic guest stars, and Season 28’s stakes just got heightened with the arrival of J. Smith Cameron as jury consultant Gwen Sharpe.
SVU Season 28 began with a suspenseful premiere episode, as Captain Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) and the elite squad navigated a tough he-said-she-said case. With an inebriated survivor and conflicting testimony among the suspects, Benson and the lawyers faced an uphill battle in court in a case that soon caught the attention of jury consultant Gwen Sharpe, played by the award-winning actress J. Smith Cameron. Gwen is perceptive, making her an empathetic force Benson immediately wanted in her corner as she navigated the trial.
“Gwen says that she has a fancy law degree from Harvard, but she couldn’t do what Benson does day in and day out, she’s not made for it, she’s just not up to that,” Cameron tells NBC Insider while diving into the new SVU character. “So she’s been able to, it seems like in the fullness of time, create a niche for herself… Her skills are almost like a therapist’s skills or a performer’s skills: very intuitive and a lot of understanding psychology.”
Read more about J. Smith Cameron’s role as Gwen Sharpe on SVU and why the new jury consultant is “vetting” Benson, below.
J. Smith Cameron unpacks jury consultant Gwen Sharpe on SVU
As Benson and the squad squabbled over the judge declaring a mistrial, Gwen offered to buy the SVU Captain a drink to talk the loss over. Benson doesn’t accept loss easily, and fazed by the harrowing aspects of her job and the justice system surrounding it, she confided in Gwen about losing some of her fighting spirit.
“She’s a people person who’s very observant, and I think maybe we’re fair to say an empath,” Cameron tells NBC Insider. “I think one reason that Benson is so world-weary is that she too has such a strong empathy side. And that’s incredibly wearing for her work, just as Gwen observes, so I think that it’s a very unique character because she’s not, she’s not easily defined in one catch-all definition.”
Gwen encouraged Benson to “fight different,” which emboldened the SVU Captain to make some forceful maneuvers to coax a confession from a suspect. While some of her colleagues critiqued Benson for the pivot, she heeded Gwen’s advice.
“I think it’s gonna be great for Benson to have a sounding board and a confidant, a mentor maybe, or a colleague, who isn’t in that mindset that police have to play within the confines of,” Cameron explains, adding that viewers will learn that Gwen isn’t just scouting the 16th Precinct due to the jurors.
“Gwen wasn’t just there vetting the jurors; she was there vetting Benson,” Cameron reveals. “Because she can’t always talk to cops in her capacity. She might be allowed to, but she can’t always communicate well with them… So I think she’s also testing the waters with what kind of person Benson is and whether they share similar values.”
J. Smith Cameron’s movie and TV roles beyond Law & Order: SVU
Cameron is a star of stage, film, and TV, appearing in dozens of memorable projects across her multi-decade career. Many know Cameron as the iconic high-powered executive Gerri Kellman in the Emmy-winning drama Succession, a role which garnered critical acclaim. Cameron has also recently starred in hit series like Hacks, True Blood, and Rectify. Aside from her countless television credits, Cameron has delivered unforgettable performances in feature-length projects such as Turtles All the Way Down, Margaret, and Vengeance.
Cameron is also no Law & Order rookie, having previously guest-starred in a 2013 episode of SVU and made appearances across the franchise on Law & Order: Criminal Intent and the original series.
Watch Season 28 of Law & Order: SVU on Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET on NBC and the next day on Peacock.