‘Law & Order: Organized Crime’: Michael Trotter Talks Filming Death Scene With Christopher Meloni

We’re still waiting for news about Law & Order: Organized Crime Season 6 — the now-Peacock drama has yet to be renewed — and the Christopher Meloni-led spinoff left Detective Elliot Stabler soon after his brother, Joe Jr. (Michael Trotter) was killed after getting caught up with an arms dealer (Tom Payne) and informing on him.

“That was a tough day,” Trotter admitted of filming that death scene with Meloni when TV Insider caught up with him on the Law & Order red carpet to celebrate its 25th season on January 6. “I knew it was coming, but we hadn’t seen each other much that day and rightly so. And it was hard. I mean, it’s a beautiful scene. The way it was cut and the way they realized it felt true to kind of how we felt when we were shooting it. Those are never easy scenes to shoot. I have a lot of history with him. He’s always, in my own personal life, been a mentor. And so there’s a lot of emotions that came to the surface with that.”

It was also knowing that was the end of Joe Jr. “He went out in a way that was genuine and honest,” noted Trotter. “I remember shooting it and forgetting that it was so emotional that when I’m supposed to die, I need to not be emoting anymore. I think there was one take that they had to stop because I was like, ‘Yeah, sorry, I’m getting emotional even though I’m supposed to be dead at this point.’ It was beautiful, though. I’ve known Chris, and he’s a pro, and for us to be able to have that experience together, I’ll never forget it. I’ll never forget that scene, the amount of work that went into it to get it right because a lot of times you can treat that as just sort of [whatever], and it wasn’t that. The writers did a great job of crafting a scene that, in order to respect them and those two characters, you got to take it to the places that you don’t necessarily want to go every day.”

While the penultimate episode of Season 5 brings an end to Michael Trotter’s time as Joe Jr. in the world of Law & Order, the great thing about the Dick Wolf universe is it is expansive and actors have shown up as different characters. “From your lips to Dick Wolf’s ears,” said Trotter.

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As for which show he’d like to appear on, he shared he’s “intrigued” by CIA, the FBI offshoot starring Tom Ellis and Nick Gehlfuss premiering on CBS on February 23.

“I don’t know much about it, but I’ve always been fascinated with the spy genre. And it’s such a big world that that’s why it never gets old and tired. It’s why people keep exploring it. So I’m fascinated by that,” Trotter told us. “I’ve done SVU. There’s also all the Chicagos. I mean, who doesn’t want to be a firefighter every now and then? So maybe that.”

What did you think of Joe Jr.’s death on Organized Crime? Would you want to see Michael Trotter on another Dick Wolf show? Let us know in the comments section below.