Nicholas Braun Recalls ‘SVU’ Guest Spot & Christopher Meloni Pinching Him in the Ribs

Like many other actors, Succession star Nicholas Braun’s early days as an actor included a guest spot on the long-running NBC drama Law & Order: SVU. (It premiered in 1999 and is currently in its 24th season.)

“It was a very exciting role. I played, I think, a character without a name, Boy in Internet Café, because those existed at the time,” Braun recalled when he stopped by Live with Kelly and Ryan ahead of his HBO drama’s return for its fourth and final season on March 26.

“I was looking at a video of the woman who got murdered or sexually assaulted because that’s the show, and then Chris Meloni and Ice-T, I think, come down and sit down, and they’re like, ‘why are you watching this video?’” he continued. (It was actually Richard Belzer with Meloni, and Ice-T came up to them later.)

“Actually it’s funny because Chris Meloni didn’t think I was getting scared enough by them as cops, so when he comes, and he sits down, he’d pinch me in the ribs,” Braun shared. “Every take, he would sit down, and at the end of the day, I thought I did so badly because I needed a pinch … I guess I was supposed to go, ‘oh, cops!’ but instead, I was like, ‘Ow! Ow!’” He was 11 or 12 at the time of his “SVU initiation.” Watch the full video below.

The episode to which Braun is referring is Season 3, Episode 17, “Surveillance,” which aired March 8, 2002. In it, cellist Cassie Germaine (played by a pre-Bones Emily Deschanel!) is attacked in her apartment. Benson (Mariska Hargitay) and Stabler’s investigation reveals hidden cameras streaming Cassie’s home activities to a website and a shrine.

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'Succession': Nicholas Braun Says Cast Is 'Bummed' HBO Drama Is Ending

In Season 4 of Succession, “the sale of media conglomerate Waystar Royco to tech visionary Lukas Matsson (Alexander Skarsgård) moves ever closer,” HBO teases. “The prospect of this seismic sale provokes existential angst and familial division among the Roys as they anticipate what their lives will look like once the deal is complete. A power struggle ensues as the family weighs up a future where their cultural and political weight is severely curtailed.”

Law & Order: SVU, Thursdays, 9/8c, NBC

Succession, Fourth and Final Season Premiere, Sunday, March 26, 10/9c, HBO