Actor Corey Cott, new on ‘Law & Order: SVU,’ commutes between NYC and Athens
In its 27th season on air, NBC’s “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” remains the longest-running prime-time live action drama in American TV history, a police procedural that continues to find new twists in sexual depravity.
The “Law & Order” franchise is also a calling card for any self-respecting actor who gets a part as a witness, suspect, victim or criminal, but Athens resident Corey Cott recently landed an even bigger prize: He’s a new regular cast member on “SVU” as dedicated Detective Jake Griffin.
And Cott loves his life in Athens so much that he’s choosing to commute between New York and Georgia.
“I have this kind of amazing duality in my life right now,” Cott said in a recent Zoom interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “I come to New York to work during the week, and it feels like the center of the world, then I spend the weekend in the peace and quiet of Georgia.”
Cott, 35, grew up in Michigan and Ohio, attended Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, then had a strong run in the 2010s on Broadway in musicals like “Newsies,” “Gigi” and “Bandstand.” His first regular TV role was on Fox’s “Filthy Rich,” a Southern Gothic family drama that lasted all of five episodes in 2020.
In 2021, Cott left New York City, briefly residing with his parents in Philadelphia during the COVID-19 shutdown along with his wife, Meghan, and two sons. (A third son came along soon after.) The pandemic, he noted, changed the casting process, enabling actors to audition remotely via video conferencing instead of in person in New York or Los Angeles.
As a result, Cott was all ears when filmmaker friend Matthew Perkins, a 2006 University of Georgia graduate, invited him to check out Athens. Perkins, who grew up in Athens, returned in 2018 after 12 years in New York City.
“I took him on a driving tour around town,” Perkins said. “I described Athens as a small town with a cosmopolitan sensibility. People here value nuance and details in a way you don’t always see in a town this size.”
Cott was sold. When Perkins showed him a home with acreage 15 minutes from downtown Athens, Cott scooped it up in a matter of days.
“Even in the time I’ve lived there, the city has grown and expanded,” Cott said. “It’s really an exciting time to live there. I took my family last year to see the Athens Rock Lobsters and we had a blast.”
As Perkins noted, “a lot of creatives now use Athens as a home base.”
“In Athens, you can have your cake and eat it too. It’s a great place to raise a family, where you get fresh air and elbow room. But you can be in New York City door to door in six hours.”
Meanwhile, “SVU” producers brought in Cott as a recurring character earlier in the year and liked him so much they promoted him to regular cast member by the ninth episode in January.
“It’s a gift, an absolute gift,” Cott said. “Every day, I’m pinching myself.”
Cott first nabbed a role on “SVU” as a sergeant’s son accused of rape during Season 18. “I was a perp,” he said. “It’s a rite of passage.” He’s also had roles on episodes of the original “Law & Order” and “Chicago Med,” another show from producer Dick Wolf.
Cott came in earlier this season as Griffin, who is assigned to the SVU from the Midtown robbery division, where he was nicknamed “Batman” for being so hardcore on his job.
Kathryn Tynan (Noma Dumezweni), new chief of detectives, gives him the job without consulting Capt. Olivia Benson, a character Mariska Hargitay has played since the show debuted in 1999.
Why did Tynan do this? Tynan and Griffin’s father, a police officer who died in the line of duty, were partners back in the day. Tynan took Griffin under her wing after his dad’s death.
The squad thinks Griffin is spying on them, and he occasionally acts on his hunches without consulting them. Despite her suspicions, Benson likes the way Griffin works with victims.
In the 14th episode of the season Thursday, Cott received his most robust storyline to date. A man kidnapped a nonverbal 10-year-old boy, discovered on video through an errant baby cam signal. Griffin has a brother who is also nonverbal and on the autism spectrum, so he was able to connect with the boy as SVU figured out where he was located.
After the mom reunited with her son, Griffin asked Benson how she‘s been able to do this type of work for so long. “We keep telling our stories, no matter how dark they are,” Benson said. “You keep telling your story because I know that good always comes from people hearing them.”
She paused and added: “That and a whole lot of therapy.”
After he apologized for questioning Benson, she demurred. “You’re a detective,” Benson told Griffin. “You’re supposed to question everything and everyone. A good leader welcomes questions. A bad one demands loyalty, and you have to remember that because some day you may need to choose who you want to follow.”
Griffin is aware of what she is talking about. “He cares about justice, but he’s also trying to serve his mentor, Tynan, the woman who raised him and gave him every opportunity he has,” Cott said. “He’s trying to figure out where his loyalty lies. It’s going to culminate in a big decision he has to make later in the season.”
Cott, despite the inconvenience of the long commute, is willing to make the sacrifice for both his career and his family life.
“This is the coolest job I could be doing outside of being James Bond,” he said. “And I love Georgia. Matthew and I have aspirations to create a hub of film and television in Athens.”
Cott and Perkins have started a film production company and shot a short film in Athens called “Fortune,” a Southern Gothic thriller about a blue-collar foreman (played by Cott) who wins the lottery. They are raising money to turn it into a feature-length movie.
Despite living in Athens, Cott has yet to book a project in Georgia, instead landing four Hallmark movies in Canada.
“I’ve only worked everywhere else,” Cott said. “I am trying to remedy that.”
IF YOU WATCH
“Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” 9 p.m. Thursdays on NBC, available the next day on Peacock
