Danny Pino stars as Det. Nick Amaro on NBC’s“Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.” Before joining “SVU,” fans remembered him best for his role on “Cold Case,” which he starred in for its entire seven year run. As Amaro, we are able to see the detective use his instincts to solve cases:
“Amaro is intelligent, but not book smart necessarily. I think his intelligence and intuition comes from years of observation, interrogation, and understanding human behavior. I am able to work that in scenes and pick up on certain mannerisms that guest stars bring. We’re very fortunate to have guest stars who just come in and are ready to work. It makes our jobs as regulars that much easier. Amaro is definitely an interesting character to explore.”
In this week’s episode, entitled, “October Surprise,” Kirk Acevedo guest stars, and the episode takes a look into ADA Rafael Barba’s (Raúl Esparza) past. We spoke with Pino on how Amaro will play part in the storyline of this episode as well:
“It’s fascinating that both Raúl and I were raised in Miami. We use as much Spanglish as we do English OR Spanish at any particular time. We probably use Spanglish more often than not when we are off set. In this episode, we were encouraged by Warren Leight to really explore that. Both of our characters are Latino and have Cuban heritage. We were really able to not only connect on that level, but also challenge each other on that level which was very exciting.”
If fans paid close attention to the beginning of this season, you would have noticed that it was mentioned that Det. Amaro is no longer wearing his wedding ring. Fans have not only put out tweets, but also videos, wanting an Amaro/Benson pairing.
“They want Benson to be happy. Fans, who have been watching for 15 seasons, want to see Benson in a relationship that doesn’t fall apart or is unrequited. Both Benson and Amaro have an understanding and respect for one another. There is an obvious deep care for each other, and I think that is what the fans are responding to. Do I think it will happen? Probably not. *laughs* That’s the kind of relationship that might not work in the professional atmosphere.”
The actor spoke more about Benson and Amaro’s relationship on the show, as well as his work in the televised “Lucy” biopic which aired on CBS 10 years ago.
Follow Danny Pino on Twitter: @TheDannyPino.
“Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” airs Wednesdays at 9/8c on NBC.
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