Vincent D'Onofrio: We never really tie anything up when it comes to Kate and my characters, because it’s – they always want to leave it open.  You know, we tie up criminals, but – we’ll end those stories, but not – they’ll never really shut any kind of storyline down completely, so it’s kind of open as to what’s going to happen with my character, I don’t know.  I think that this eighth season, I just – you know, I just played it differently than last season, but last season was very, very extreme.  So this season, it’s like he’s just trying to be a cop, trying to do the best you can kind of a thing.

Q: What is it like to be developing a character over several TV seasons as opposed to having to develop a character in a two-hour film?

Vincent D'Onofrio: Yes, it’s completely different.  When I first started the TV show, I kind of thought it’s ostensibly about the character, and did a lot of planning and stuff.  Most of the planning went out the window, and then I just kind of tried my best after that.  With a film, it’s much more – it’s really planned out scene by scene and there’s a real solid arc hopefully most of the time.  The structure of the film is in three acts, you know it’s going to end – it’s easier to plan out a role like that.  It’s just as interesting but it’s a completely different thing.

With the show, it’s just wide open.  We just keep doing it, and there’s different crimes, different little stories to tell.  So it’s two different things. 

I think I just always will prefer films.  I just think that’s my favorite thing to do.  But Goren’s a great character, so it’s good to do. 

Q: What do you feel it is about a show like "Law & Order" that resonates well with viewers? 

Vincent D'Onofrio: I think in our show I think it’s the characters, and I think we investigate weird crimes and I think it’s a popular thing on TV, these kind of crime shows and – just like people were not – and still are – into like crime novels and short stories.  That’s what we’re doing, but we’re doing like a TV version of that, so – you know, it takes off and people like it.

Q: Do you have a favorite type of case to tackle on the show?

Vincent D'Onofrio: Yes, I like simpler stories.  Like we just finished one like a spree killer type story about one guy doing bad things, and Kate and I had to like, you know, catch him.  It was more direct, not complicated, and it had heart, and I like that kind of thing.

Q: Your character goes into some very dark places, and we’ve seen a lot of changes in him since the beginning in the last season, and I was wondering what kind of toll that takes on you as a person, what effect that has on you, if any, in your real life.

Vincent D'Onofrio: Well, it takes a lot of time.  It used to take a lot more time before we started sharing the episodes with another detective.  But – you know, it’s – how do I answer this?  The first four years, or maybe the first three years of the show, when we were trying to make the show a show, you know, just make it distinct from the other Law & Orders and just a plain old good show that people would watch, that was – that was hard.  It was like a 24-hour job and it was with me all the time. 

But that’s a long time ago now, and we all know how to do the show, and we know what the show is.  And so it’s not that exhausting anymore.  The hours are long sometimes, and when we are working we don’t see our families as much as we want.  But that’s part of our job, so we have to do it.  And as far as Goren, bringing Goren home, that just doesn’t happen anymore.  I’ve been playing him too long, and it’s – it’s not something that stays with me.

Q: When you signed on to do the show, did you give any thought to the idea that you might still be doing seven or eight years later?

Vincent D'Onofrio: The first 13 was such a blur that I don’t think either of us was even thinking about – I don’t think it was – I don’t know, it wasn’t weighing heavy on me what was going to happen. 

The first 13 scripts were really, really good scripts and maybe there was like one clunker out of the 13, but they were really good scripts and very tough to figure out how to pull the show off while we were doing them.  The last thing on my mind was like – it was just a blur.  I wasn’t thinking about whether the show was going to run, honestly.  That’s the honest truth.  And I think we knew earlier than most people do with a – when you shoot 3, right?  I think we knew pretty early that it was going to go.

But I have a lot of freedom because of "Law & Order."  I have a lot of creative freedom.  I have a lot of creative freedom on the show and I have a lot of creative freedom with my own time to do other films and do anything I want, so – it’s a very good situation. 

Q: At the very end of the last season, after Vincent or Goren realized that his nemesis had been killed and it was for his benefit – do you know what I’m talking about? – and he’s sitting with that professor.  And you kind of looked at the end, when he said, “I did it to free you,” basically, and you got that look on your face like, you got it.  And I was wondering if we’re going to be seeing now in this season a change in you or a kind of a freeing in your character because of this action. 

Vincent D'Onofrio: It’s nice that you saw it that way, because that’s the way I wanted you to see it, so it’s – yes.  I wanted it to kind of be a freeing thing so that I could treat the next season fresh, so it could be a guy trying to keep his stuff together, do his job; and so what’s interesting about this kind of storytelling is that we always have that – like, the audiences that watch our show, if they’re fans of the show, then they know that that’s part of the learning.  So even if we don’t mention it or I just show this kind of earnest cop trying to do his thing throughout the season, the season previous to that or other things in the previous years, they’re still present, because people are fans of the show and they know that that’s the guy they’re watching that went through all that stuff.  So, yes, that’s what I did, and that’s what I’m doing now.

Q: How do you feel about the new writing team this season?  Are you pleased with your episodes?

Vincent D'Onofrio: It’s tough to – always tough when we switch writers to – it’s all – these last eight years have been just experience after experience, learning experience after learning experience, and it’s quite a business.  To be a performer on a television show, you get a lot of curve balls thrown at you and you have to deal with them, and you know that the show has to be shot so you do your best to contribute and make it the best show you can.  But you get thrown curve balls, like a new writing crew, and – who have never written for you and they’re trying their hardest to get it right, and they’re in a position where they have to get it right fairly quickly, because there are shows to shoot and to air, and so it’s tough.  It takes a while.

But the great thing about is that they’re all talented people and everybody’s scripts are getting better and better, and what we’ve been talking about for the last few minutes is these great things about this season already.  So there have been some amazing things already this season.  But it’s tough.  It’s tough to get new writers.  And they’re great people and so we’re – this show is – this last show that we did was great, and it’s a good season so far, so we’re happy.