Law & Order reunited its star Chris Meloni with Dean Norris for the spin-off Organized Crime. Having worked with Meloni before, the former Breaking Bad star was nothing less than impressed by Meloni’s acting skills. But he felt Law & Order might’ve done more harm than good when it came to the respect Meloni deserved in the entertainment industry.

What Dean Norris thought about Chris Meloni as an actor

Norris was recruited to the Law & Order franchise to play Meloni’s brother in Organized Crime. The duo were already familiar before Norris joined the show. Meloni even played a huge part in convincing Norris to do Organized Crime as well. Ultimately, however, showrunner John Shiban persuaded Norris that Organized Crime would meet his standards.

“I mean, other than Chris Meloni, that’s the reason for doing the show. John called and he said that we were going to be exploring the family relationships and stuff like that, and he certainly has come through with some great writing in that regard,” he said in an interview with Cinemablend. “And he proved his word to be true, and [there] continues to be great stuff, by the way. I’ve already seen almost to the end. I’ve only got one more script to read. So yeah, it’s been great. I felt that I could trust what was gonna happen. We were talking in some interviews about our [Stabler family] dinner scene. That’s a quintessential kind of John Shiban type thing, and it was great.”

But before Organized Crime, Norris already worked alongside Meloni before. Meloni didn’t just get himself a pilot license after leaving SVU. He starred in the comedy Small Time, where he met Norris.

“Dean walked into the room and I immediately took a liking to the guy,” Meloni said in a 2013 interview with Collider. “We spoke a common language and had a common outlook, which I think was just that we’re two guys who enjoy working, we’re relatively intelligent, and we’re very open to playing and finding what works.”

Norris felt similarly towards Meloni and held his ability as an actor in high regard. He even felt Meloni deserved a bit more respect and attention for his craft. Ironically, he theorized audiences underestimated Meloni because of the years he spent doing SVU.

“That’s with Chris Meloni. I think Chris is an underrated actor, probably because he was on Law & Order for so long,” Norris once told Vulture.

Dean Norris felt ‘Law & Order SVU’ made a huge mistake on letting Chris Meloni go

Meloni stayed away from the franchise for several years after he and the show’s producers couldn’t agree on his salary. He’d later add more variety to his career by doing projects like Small Time, True Blood, and Man of Steel.

Meanwhile, his departure caused a huge renovation to the show, with his co-star Mariska Hargitay now solely leading the series. Additionally, new actors like Kelli Giddish were brought on to SVU, which soon felt like an entirely different show to Hargitay. SVU managed to find its footing without Meloni, but Meloni’s co-star Norris believed that the show should’ve tried holding onto its star a little harder.

“They got very few franchise shows. To let this man go was the stupidest thing they ever did. The ratings went down 40 percent, that’s a fact. In a world where they don’t have very many good ratings. That was a huge mistake. Any time you can have Chris Meloni on your TV show, you keep him on your f***ing TV show,” Norris said in an interview with NotSam.