Betty Gilpin has described an unfortunate moment in her early acting career when she was left in a body bag on the set of Law & Order.
On Thursday (21 April), the actor appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon to promote her new series Gaslit – a political thriller starring Julia Roberts and Sean Penn about the Seventies Watergate scandal – when the host asked about her early years in the entertainment industry.
“For like the first couple years of my career it was only theatre and Law & Order,” Gilpin said.
“I was a dead body on Criminal Intent and then within the same year I was an alive person,” she explained of her multiple appearances on the show.
“I was found naked in an oil drum — Vincent D’Onofrio found my naked, dead body,” she recalled of her first gig on the series. “I remember them zipping up the body bag.”
“I just had to sort of be in there,” she continued. “They called cut, like, ‘That’s lunch, guys! Great day!’ I hear footsteps on gravel getting further and further away, van doors closing.
“Ten seconds goes by, I hear one far-away PA being like, ‘Oh my God,’ and footsteps coming towards me, unzips, sunlight in my face,” she added with a laugh.
Gaslit is scheduled to premiere on 24 April on Starz.
