Vincent D’Onofrio has been in the film and television game a very long time. The Daredevil star made his film debut in 1983 in The First Turn-On!, with his first TV role coming three years later in two episodes of The Equalizer. Since then, he has been all across the big and small screens. Amongst all of the roles he’s had, the actor is opening up about how his Law & Order: Criminal Intent role mentally affected him. Additionally, he balanced that out by listing a silver lining to those on-set struggles.
D’Onofrio portrayed Junior Detective Robert Goren for all ten seasons of Criminal Intent, the third series of the Law & Order franchise. By that time, the Dick Wolf franchise had made quite a name for itself, and Criminal Intent only further cemented the success. D’Onofrio is among the actors who have been in the most Law & Order franchise episodes. While appearing on Michael Rosenbaum’s Inside of You podcast, D’Onofrio recalled his time on the drama and just how hard he worked. He noted that he and co-star Kathryn Erbe worked long hours, which at the time was normal:
I just couldn’t believe that we were working so much. I just couldn’t believe that it was okay to do year after year. And I learned the hard way that it was okay, that that’s the way the business was. And it’s not like that anymore. The New York Times did an article about the television hours. Kate and I were the main part of that article cause we were at the time averaging 16, 17 hours a day. They said that in the article. Today these days, it’s like fucking vacation. In network television, you make a lot more money, but in the end, it’s not worth it.
For the first seven seasons, Law & Order: Criminal Intent cranked out an average 22 episodes per season. The meant working almost 20-hour days for months. While it may not be exactly the same for a lot of shows in more recent years, stars will work a lot. All of that work put a strain on Vincent D’Onofrio’s mental health and attitude, as he tells Rosenbaum:
You get nasty. I got to a point where I was completely in my head and just had no patience for anything. The only people that I would give back to would be the other actors and the camera crew. Everybody else, to me, was just in my way and taking up my time from getting home and going to sleep. I have to say, having said all that, when I left that show, I was ten times a better actor than before I went on it.
Even though working on Criminal Intent was hard at some times, D’Onofrio does have praise for the series. He admits that he learned a lot while he was on the drama for ten years, most notably the art of transitioning since it’s very different for TV shows than it is for film:
My chops got so good. I learned how to transition so much easier. I was just used to doing film where you do story transitions or emotional transitions, over like three scenes or an act, you know? But on television, you do transitions within a scene. Big ones. And so to be able to pull that off was, I think it does with everyone, it makes you or breaks you. You either end up coming in and doing one line, cut, one line, cut, one line, cut, which a lot of people end up doing. Or you master it and become this machine. Everybody does, obviously. Not just me. And you leave a situation like that like you’re great at the technical aspect of your job.
It’s been twelve years since Criminal Intent ended, and Vincent D’Onofrio has since gone on to do many other projects, most notably his turn as Kingpin on Netflix’s Daredevil, Disney+’s Hawkeye. In 2024, he’ll appear in Echo, and eventually in the upcoming Daredevil: Born Again. Even so, there’s always the possibility Robert Goren could return to the Law & Order franchise. D’Onofrio previously shared it was all up to Dick Wolf. Law & Order franchise vets often return, so you never know what could happen.
It’s clear that Law & Order: Criminal Intent had an impact on Vincent D’Onofrio, both good and bad. It’s sad to hear how he basically exhausted himself on the show, but it still didn’t take away the good that came from it. If fans ever want to see the end result of the hard work or rewatch it, all ten seasons are streaming with a Peacock subscription.