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Known for leading tales of fictionalized tragedies on Law & Order: SVU, Mariska Hargitay will tell the real-life story of her late mother in an upcoming HBO documentary, My Mom Jayne. It will mark her feature film directorial debut and her first public exploration of Mansfield’s life and legacy. She died in a car accident at 34 years old, nearly 60 years ago.
“This movie is a labor of love and longing. It’s a search for the mother I never knew, an integration of a part of myself I’d never owned, and a reclaiming of my mother’s story and my own truth,” Hargitay said, according to a press release. “I’ve always believed there is strength in vulnerability, and the process of making this film has confirmed that belief like never before.”
Mansfield was an alluring actress in the 1950s, starring in cheeky comedies like The Girl Can’t Help It and Promises! Promises! and dramas like The Wayward Bus and Too Hot to Handle. She and Mariska’s father, Mr. Universe winner Mickey Hargitay, starred in movies like Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? and The Loves of Hercules together. They divorced after Mariska was born. Three-year-old Mariska and her two brothers were in the back seat of the car when Mansfield was killed in the crash.
According to a press release, “The film follows Mariska as she seeks to know, understand, and embrace her mother for the first time. Through intimate interviews and a collection of never-before-seen photos and home movies, she grapples with her mother’s public and private legacy and discovers the layers and depth of who Jayne was, not only to her audience but to those who were closest to her.”
