"L&O: SVU" 10th Season Finale - NY Times Article & Exclusive Quotes!

Don't read this unless you've seen the Season 10 SVU Finale!

If you have, go here. If you haven't, stop reading now!

SPOILER SPACE




So if you're still with us, you know now that long-time recurring character CSU Tech Ryan O'Halloran, played by Mike Doyle, was killed in the "SVU" Season 10 finale. He spoke to us about the finale and what he'll be doing next -- this is stuff you won't find in the New York Times piece.

On leaving the show: "To have anything as a regular at 'SVU' has been for me, as an actor, a blessing. To be in New York and do television is a double blessing. It's put my face out there -- someone will approach me and recognize me from 'Oz' or 'SVU' but usually in the form of 'did we go to high school together?' Or recently renting a car, the guys at Enterprise were like, 'You're that guy!' And I'm like, 'Yeah, I'm that guy.' But more than anything, it's been such a great experience to be part of such a strong family. Ultimately when you're working with the same group of people for a lengthy amount of time you become family and it's nice to have that as a base of operations."

How he found out: "[Showrunner] Neal [Baer] called me, and he just said, 'I want to let you know you're in the finale and your character is getting killed and it has nothing to do with your character, your acting or you, because I love all three, but the show is' – I'm paraphrasing here – 'the show's going to go through some changes and we're going to have some new faces next year and rather than have you peter out we wanted to send you out with a bang.' Which I appreciate. Six years doing anything as an actor was a rarity. At first I was a little sad was my first response, to think about not being with the family, but very quickly I kind of – my feelings were more of freedom in a way. Because, okay, what's next. I'm an actor, we go job to job. And I didn't have the next job at the time, so I was just excited about the uncertain opportunity that lay ahead."

About getting made into a dead guy: "The death was a three-day affair, lying in blood for three days, it was a long, complicated scene. Lying on the ground in sticky red blood. I was dead for two-and-a-half days and then stabbed on the third day. Then on the last day, at the end of every episode, they announce, 'This is an episode wrap' and everyone came out and applauded and I made a little tearful speech and said goodbye and thank you and we all whooped it up at the [season 10] wrap party that night."

Look for Mike to pop up in an upcoming Nicole Kidman-starring film, Rabbit Hole, in 2010.

We'll miss ya, Mike!