While the NBC television drama Law & Order: Criminal Intent allowed him to become a household name for his outstanding performance as Detective Robert Goren, it wasn’t really easy for Vincent D’Onofrio to play the intelligent but imposing detective for nine seasons. To say the least, his onset experiences had him being a total prick to his co-stars.
Though he decided to go on the show to make a career for himself and in search of a better life and career, the actor was actually met with the opposite as he had to work overtime, leading even to him eventually collapsing on set after suffering from exhaustion. But the worst part of it all was show creator Dick Wolf’s reported mistreatment of him in the worst place.
Vincent D’Onofrio’s Candid Confessions About Criminal Intent Mistreating Him
Back when he was originally offered a prominent role in Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Vincent D’Onofrio decided to hop on board because he was worried about his ability to sustain his career and support his family in the long term. Plus, his manager had him sold on the fact that not only would he still be in his hometown New York but also that “life will be better.”
However, it was only when he had already signed on that he realized that the actual situation was quite the contrary. Not only did the gig require him to work on 23 episodes a year and 18 hours a day, but it also took him away from his wife, home, and friends, with his only friendships reportedly being with the people he worked with on the sets of the drama.
Appearing on Dax Shepard’s podcast Armchair Expert, the Daredevil star confessed about the same, explaining how hard he had to work since he was in nearly every scene: “I had to stay ahead two days on dialogue. To actually have to be learning scenes two days before you shoot them while you’re shooting other scenes that you learned two days before that.”
While that was that, things took a turn for the worse when D’Onofrio found himself losing not only his stepdad but his sister during that time period as well. On the one hand, while his stepdad’s death was already as tragic as ever, his sister’s death, on the other hand, proved to be even more devastating to him as she reportedly died while reading a letter to her dead stepdad.
Sharing his mental state during that period, the Echo star said, “She had an aneurysm and died … [Criminal Intent] wouldn’t even allow me to go to the services. They wouldn’t give me any time. So, I had a lot of anger, and angst, and total exhaustion.” That said, it’s stunning to know that show creator Dick Wolf ostensibly didn’t even allow him to attend his sister’s memorial services.
As inhuman as all of that sounds, it becomes only understandable why D’Onofrio said so when he said, “There’s not a lot of things I deserve in life, but I deserve a trophy for [getting through] that period of time.” And, of course, all of this rage and anger had him acting cruel towards his co-stars as well. But it’s not like the actor doesn’t acknowledge it; he most certainly does.
At the Same Time, Vincent D’Onofrio Acknowledged His Own Shortcomings
During the same interview, Vincent D’Onofrio then went on to talk about how all of these feelings of rage, anger, and total exhaustion building up inside of him eventually had him lose his calm in front of his fellow co-stars. To say the least, the actor himself acknowledged that his never-ending misery on the set had him even developing something of a bad reputation among everyone.
Acknowledging his own shortcomings as a result of being mistreated himself, the actor explained, “I really pushed it so far on Criminal Intent that the people I worked with are scarred for life … I think I’ve affected some of those people in a way that they’ll never recover. I think they talk sh*t about me. I don’t think they want to, but it’s involuntary. It’s like a seizure,” like PTSD.
But while that was that, D’Onofrio hasn’t hesitated to let known since then that he was also grateful for the show for teaching him a lot of things that went on to help him as his career progressed further. Either way, perhaps, after realizing that the actor himself was treated inhumanely at times, all those people affected by his mistreatment will find it in their hearts to forgive him.
Law & Order: Criminal Intent can currently be streamed on Prime Video.
