Stepping into a lead role on a TV series inevitably comes with a certain level of expectation and anxiety. But stepping into a lead role on a TV series that’s part of the beloved Law & Order universe, alongside characters that fans have spent decades getting to know — I mean, can you even imagine the pressure? Danielle Moné Truitt, who plays Sergeant Ayanna Bell to Christopher Meloni’s iconic Detective Elliot Stabler, has done just that. And, honestly, she makes it look easy. (To be clear, it 100% is not).
In the spinoff series, which premiered its fifth season April 17 on Peacock, Truitt started as Stabler’s new partner. No small feat, since we all know Stabler’s last female partner was none other than Mariska Hargitay’s SVU Captain Olivia Benson. OG fans know the story: After spending a decade abroad, Stabler returned to New York and became a lead detective in the Organized Crime Control Bureau. Under the watch of Truitt’s Bell, their team exposes and works to dismantle the dangerous world of illegal enterprises like trafficking, high-tech domestic terrorism, and cross-border smuggling.
So, suffice it to say, Truitt plays a strong female character. She’s just as much of a badass in real life, though, raising two sons, helming her own (super empowering) podcast, fighting to ensure Black women are truly seen and heard onscreen and off. When we had the chance to catch up with her just ahead of the season 5 premiere, here’s what she shared about Bell and the other TV mom who’ll always have her back.
Scary Mommy: Before we discuss some of what’s coming up, what’s Bell’s mindset like coming into Season 5?
Danielle Moné Truitt: She’s having to deal with a lot of different things all at once. So, of course, she’s making sure her team is prepared for whatever cases are coming up, but she’s also having to deal with other branches of law enforcement coming into her task force. The task force technically is supposed to be just a place for her and her team, but people keep showing up. How do you all even know where we are? But OK.
So the FBI shows up. All these other people coming in trying to assert themselves and to tell her how things should go and what’s going to happen, and she has to check them … like, Yo, I’m in charge, so I’m going to tell YOU what we’re going to do.
And I think that speaks to her being a woman — her being a Black woman — in this position. She’s constantly tested, she’s constantly doubted, and she constantly has to make it known that she got this. Also, she actually does have it. They don’t believe she got it. She has to tell them she got it, and then she has to show them that she actually got it, and it ends up working out.
So, I think her mindset is to just let me do my job. I’m going to make the decisions that I feel are best for this team. [What] I love about this season is she’s empowering her team more. In the first episode, she’s like, You need to go undercover. That’s probably the first time you’ve heard Bell say that in all five seasons to Stabler. Usually, it’s him telling her he wants to go undercover and her trying to talk him out of it. Finally, in this season, she’s the one — the catalyst for pushing that forward — and I think that’s good for her. I love it.
SM: I love that for her, too. I feel like she gives some real eldest daughter energy.
DMT: It’s probably because I’m the eldest daughter in my real family. (laughs)
SM: Me too! We obviously don’t want to spoil anything, but suffice it to say the first few episodes are INTENSE. Do you feel like the stakes are even higher than normal this season?
DMT: Absolutely. I think moving to Peacock did a real service for our show. I know people were upset about it because it’s not going to be on regular TV every week, but our show is better for it. It’s more gritty; it’s more edgy. We get to curse. There are not as many restrictions on streaming platforms as there are on regular network television, so we just get to have more fun. Which makes it funner for you guys.
SM: I think when news of Organized Crime first came out, there were obviously so many questions about how Stabler would mesh with a new team. And it certainly hasn’t been all smooth sailing, but I love Stabler and Bell’s interactions now. Can we expect that relationship to grow more this season, or is there more turbulence ahead?
DMT: I think it grows. Stabler and Bell aren’t butting heads a ton this season. I know there’s one time, one episode … I feel like we shot it a million years ago, but I just remember she had to go off on him about just doing something that he wasn’t supposed to. She went off on all of them, actually. It was him, Vargas, Stabler, Vargas, and Reyes. She literally ripped all of them a new one because they were like keeping secrets from her and just f*cking shit up.
That’s basically what happened. They messed up something, and it put her in a terrible position to have to go back to say, like, My team messed this up because they’re acting like high school boys. So that’s one moment where she kind of had to let him have it. But other than that, she’s very supportive of him. He deals with a few really big things this season that, more than having somebody bark at him, he needs comfort. He needs space to be able to deal with what it is he needs to deal with.
SM: Has being exposed to this really dark underbelly of domestic terrorism and trafficking and that sort of thing changed the way you move through the world at all?
DMT: Well, I grew up in the hood, so… sorry, it doesn’t. (laughs) I’m a Black woman living in America. I have seen many, many, many hard times. I’ve seen many scary things. I’ve experienced some very tough, hard, dark things that I’ve had to navigate through, and I thank God for his grace that I’m even the person I am today. So, I definitely have the stomach for what we deal with and see on our show. It doesn’t necessarily phase me very much.
SM: That may have just answered this next question. You’ve done a few police dramas now. What do you think it is that either draws you to these types of roles, or what do you think it is about you that casting directors recognize works in this space?
DMT: Yeah, I was talking to my boyfriend about this recently, but I said it’s so interesting because in real life, my family, my friends, people I’m dating, my kids — I mean, with my kids, I have no nonsense mama, but — I’m a very soft person. I’m a Pisces. I’m a lover. I will cry in two seconds. I’m really this soft person in real life, but I guess I just give off this authoritative vibe. So, casting directors keep casting me in these roles. I’m not seeking them out. I am really not. I just did a movie for Netflix, so I got to play something different, which was really cool. But yeah, it’s also fun to be a softie at heart and then get to show up in this very no-nonsense, badass way.
What I try to do is I think what makes Bell work, and what makes people love her is the softness that I actually have as Danielle. Because she’s just warm. I give her a warmth to where it’s not like, Oh God, she’s just a b*tch. She’s always just fussing at somebody. I give a compassion to her that makes her lovable.
But … let me tell you, my parents laugh at me, my family laughs at me, my friends laugh. They watch the show and I’m going off, and they literally just crack up laughing because they’re like, Who are you?
SM: You have this fantastic podcast, All the Women I’ve Been, and one of your guests was Brilliant Minds’ Tamberla Perry. What does it mean to have a friend like that who is also the lead of a show right now in your corner?
DMT: First of all, thank you for asking me about my podcast. That makes me so happy. And that episode in particular, me and Tam have been friends for about 11 years, so she’s one of my best girlfriends. She is one of the most supportive friends I have.
We have auditioned for so many of the same roles — she auditioned for Bell. I got it. We auditioned for They Cloned Tyrone; she got it. And what we do is we’d be like, ‘Girl, did you get auditioned for such and such?’ She’s like, ‘Yep. What role?’ ‘Same role. OK. If I don’t get it, I hope you get it.’ That is just how we show up for each other.
When I got Law & Order, she was so excited for me. She was like, ‘Ooh, this is just letting me know my opportunity is coming too.’ It’s like the people that you roll with, the people that you pray with, that you’re close with, that you champion and celebrate when something great happens for them, why would you think that it’s far off for you? We’re together in this. So when she got Brilliant Minds, we were just like number twos. We’re like the NBC Black women number twos! Like, just so excited for her.
So, that’s my buddy … I love her so much. We both have children to raise, and so it’s a blessing to have a sister in this industry who is really and truly rooting for you, and you’re rooting for her, knowing that there’s enough for both of us. If a role comes by me and I don’t feel like it’s right for me, I’m going to pass it on to her and she’s going to do the same thing.
And if we’re going out for the same role, then we going to hope that one of us gets it.
This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.