Betty Gilpin recalls being forgotten in a body bag on an episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent. Gilpin made a name for herself with her recurring role on Nurse Jackie as Dr. Carrie Roman, as well as scoring a lead in the popular Netflix series GLOW as Debbie "Liberty Belle" Eagan, a show about the world of syndicated professional women's wrestling in the 1980s. Gilpin is set to star in the upcoming political thriller limited series Gaslit as Maureen "Mo" Dean, wife to John Dean, who served as White House Counsel for Richard Nixon during the Watergate scandal.
Gilpin got her start in a 2006 episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent, the second spin-off series in producer Dick Wolf's Law & Order media franchise. As a weekly police procedural with a large cast of characters, many big actors found themselves cast in minor roles within the franchise early in their careers. Adam Driver famously appeared as a murder suspect before he landed a role in Girls and became the face of the dark side in the latest Star Wars trilogy. A 21-year-old Sebastian Stan played an abused boy on Law & Order before he donned the titanium arm and became the Winter Soldier in Marvel's massive superhero franchise.
During a recent interview on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, Gilpin revealed that while shooting her very first acting role, a dead body on Law & Order: Criminal Intent, she was forgotten inside a body bag. The actor recalled being naked in an oil drum on Chelsea Piers in Manhattan, where MCU star Vincent D'Onofrio discovered her. After Gilpin was transitioned to a body bag, the scene briefly continued before breaking for lunch. Read what the actor said about the moment below:
"This is my first job ever. I remember them zipping up the body bag. Vincent D'Onofrio had like a grumbly scene over my body bag and I just had to sort of be in there. And then they called cut, they were like, 'That's lunch, guys! Great day!' And I hear like footsteps on gravel getting farther and farther away. Van doors closing. And then like 10 seconds goes by, I hear one far-away PA being like, 'Oh my God.' Footsteps coming towards me, [body bag] unzips, sunlight in my face!"
Gilpin explained that she did not call out for help because the small role was her very first job, and she did not want to be considered "high-maintenance." Coincidentally, the star returned to a later season of Criminal Intent to play a completely different character. When she expressed her concerns about the show's continuity, the crew of the detective show informed her that it was okay, telling her, "'No one cares. No one remembers you.'" This situation isn't uncommon either, with other crime shows like CSI fairly consistently bringing back actors to play different characters who previously had small roles.
Starring as a dead body and remaining still during a scene that could take hours to shoot is tough enough, but being forgotten on set while barely dressed and enclosed in a body bag must have been a terrifying experience for someone's very first acting role. Luckily, she can laugh about it now as her career has soared as evidenced by her upcoming role in Gaslit as well as a role in episode 3 "The Woman Who Was Kept on a Shelf" of the Apple TV+ anthology series Roar by the creators of GLOW. Law & Order: Criminal Intent ended in 2011; however, the entire series can be streamed on Peacock.