For the last 12 years, Kelli Giddish has brought the character of Detective Amanda Rollins to life on NBC’s Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, which is the longest-running primetime live-action series of all time. In the ninth episode of season 24, “And A Trauma In A Pear Tree,” fans said a tearful goodbye to the beloved character.

This hard-hitting and emotional series from NBC’s “Law & Order” brand chronicles the lives of the Special Victims Unit of the New York City Police Department, an elite squad of detectives who investigate crimes of sexual assault, child abuse and domestic violence.

I was lucky enough to have the chance to reunite with the actress over zoom and discuss the key moments of her last episode, the incredible support she’s been shown by her fans, her honest thoughts on Rollins’ ending, the Rollisi Staten Island wedding, and much more.

As Giddish closes this chapter, it’s impossible not to think about the legacy she will leave behind, which is a pretty joyous one:

“I mean, all the messes and all the messy characteristics that she had, even with all her mistakes, she found someone that loves her so much and that she loves so much. So if there’s any legacy of Rollins for the viewers or for the fans, I hope it’s that, you know? You can find somebody.”

The actress has a very passionate fanbase who have gone above and beyond to show her love, and she promises that she has seen all of it. “The fan response in the past six months has been just simply incredible,” she tells me. “I want to thank everybody from the bottom of my heart for every kind, supportive thing they’ve said and meeting fans on the street, I mean, I’m on a procedural, you know? But it’s a procedural that deals with some really, really heavy material and it’s stuff that it’s hard to talk about, and historically has been hard to talk about. So when I have a fan come up, or a viewer come up and say, ‘Hey, thank you, your shows really helped.’ There’s nothing better than that.”

You can listen to our full conversation below: