Missy Peregrym is primarily known for playing Maggie Bell in Dick Wolf’s “FBI,” but did you know that her performance in an episode of NBC’s “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” put her on his radar? Speaking to Deadline, Wolf explained that he was sold on Peregrym after she played an investment banker in the Season 18 episode “Net Worth” and kept up with Mariska Hargitay.
“If you take on Mariska one-on-one for a three-and-a-half-minute scene — that’s pretty good!” said Wolf.
Peregrym elaborated on her “Law & Order: SVU” experience in an interview with People. While she acknowledged that “Net Worth” essentially served as her audition for “FBI” Season 1, she didn’t go into the episode expecting it to lead to more opportunities.
“It’s very rare,” she explained. “The whole story is rare that you would have that experience, but that’s what’s cool about this industry — that you just never know where the next thing is going to come from.”
Missy Peregrym pulled off a difficult job on SVU
“Net Worth” starts at a fancy party attended by wealthy elites. It’s implied that Zoe White, Missy Peregrym’s character, is sexually assaulted by her billionaire client Eli Colton (Tate Donovan) after the gathering. Over the course of the rest of the episode, Peregrym has quite a bit more than three minutes of screen time.
Zoe — arguably the most important character in “Net Worth” — is a rape victim with a powerful attacker scheming to discredit her — but she’s also a staunch careerist. After the incident, her inclination to preserve her hard-won (and lucrative) position in the banking industry influences her choices, right alongside her need for closure and justice. Zoe is, in other words, by no means a thinly written, uncomplicated damsel for Benson (Mariska Hargitay) and her crew to avenge.
It’s a role that made an excellent, and accurate, case for Peregrym as an actor capable of handling a nuanced lead character across an ongoing crime series. “FBI” is currently broadcasting its eighth season on CBS and has been renewed through Season 9.