Joyful Heart in the News

As tough-talking detective Olivia Benson on "Law & Order: SVU," Mariska Hargitay is rarely at a loss for words.

But in a new series of public service announcements about domestic violence and sexual assault, the 50-year-old Emmy winner shows just how difficult it is for her and other celebrities to talk about the subject.

"There was no one who didn't have a particular line resonate so deeply that they had to take a moment to gather themselves," Hargitay, who directed the spots and whose Joyful Heart Foundation produced them, told ABC News.

The new series of PSAs, titled "Speechless," which start rolling out today, are comprised of just those moments. The new spots, which are visually spare and use only ambient sound, weren't planned. They were the unexpected --and unscripted -- byproduct of emotions that ran high while shooting previously aired spots in the "No More" campaign to end domestic violence and sexual assault.

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