Mariska Hargitay Confronts Her Late Mother's 'Sex Symbol' Legacy in Emotional 'My Mom Jayne 'Trailer
HBO released the official trailer for Mariska Hargitay's feature film directorial debut My Mom Jayne
The documentary will debut on HBO and Max on June 27
In the trailer, Hargitay says that her mother's "career made me want to do it differently, but I want to understand her now"Mariska Hargitay is reclaiming her mother's story — and her own.
HBO released the official trailer for Hargitay's directorial film debut My Mom Jayne, which will premiere on HBO and Max on June 27.
"I've spent my whole life distancing myself from my mother, Jayne Mansfield, the sex symbol," Hargitay, 61, begins in the trailer. "Her career made me want to do it differently, but I want to understand her now."
When Hargitay was just three years old, she, along with her two older brothers, survived the car wreck that killed Mansfield, then just 34, in 1967. The film will hit Max just two days before the 58th anniversary of Mansfield's death.
"I don't have any memories of her," Hargitay says in the trailer. "And then my dad died in 2006. I've never talked to my siblings about their experiences," she says of her sister, Jayne Marie Mansfield, brothers Mickey Hargitay Jr. and Zoltan Hargitay, and youngest brother, Tony Cimber, all of whom are featured in the documentary.
"I don't know how the hell you got me to do this," Mickey Jr. says in the trailer with a good-natured laugh. And while speaking to her sister, Hargitay admits that she's "envious" of Jayne Marie's memories of their mother.
"In the beginning, I had her to myself," Jayne Marie shares. "She'd take me everywhere."
Hargitay also discusses what she calls her mother's "persona" with her siblings as they examine Mansfield's "pin-up" public image. The mother they knew widely differed from the bombshell presented to Hollywood. Says Mickey Jr., "I looked the other way because I knew she was really smart."
Later in the clip, this time speaking to her youngest brother Tony, Hargitay says that she's "heard things that are really ugly."
"I don't know that I want to know those ugly things," says Tony in response. Mansfield was married to Tony's father, Matt Cimber, for roughly a year, during which time they welcomed Tony.
Hargitay also address the keeping of family secrets that she's done for years, and how she's gained a newfound understanding that the secrecy doesn't honor anyone.
With the initial premiere of My Mom Jayne at the Cannes Film Festival on May 17, Hargitay revealed in the documentary that her biological father is not Mickey Hargitay, the man who raised her, but rather a former Las Vegas entertainer named Nelson Sardelli.
The actress opened up further about the shocking revelation in an interview with Vanity Fair, telling the outlet that she went to see Sardelli perform in Atlantic City, N.J., when she was 30 years old.
Moved to tears when Hargitay introduced herself, Sardelli said, 'I've been waiting 30 years for this moment.'
But Hargitay said she found herself giving him a tough time and going "full Olivia Benson on him," referring to her SVU character.
'I was like, 'I don't want anything, I don't need anything from you.… I have a dad, '' she recalled telling him. 'There was something about loyalty. I wanted to be loyal to Mickey.'
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As the trailer comes to a close, Hargitay says that she set out on this journey to "[reclaim] our family story. That is what this is about for me. Because she's a part of me. I want to know her as Jayne. My mom Jayne."
The North American premiere of My Mom Jayne will take place during the Tribeca Film Festival on June 13 in New York City before the documentary debuts on HBO and Max on June 27.
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