My Mom Jayne (Hargitay, 2025)

My Mom Jayne: Re-Writing Jayne Mansfield’s Legacy

My Mom Jayne: A Film by Mariska Hargitay is the most beautiful declaration of love a daughter can have for her mother. It’s a raw and intimate conversation about what it means to be the daughter of one of the most famous women in Hollywood history.

 Written by Lara Rosales

Let me start by saying that My Mom Jayne: A Film by Mariska Hargitay is one of the most beautiful documentaries I have ever seen. Mariska Hargitay dives into her mother’s life and career to give her the decency and respect she always sought and never received from the men in her industry. By sitting with her siblings in their homes, Hargitay makes the audience a witness to intimate conversations that allow us to better understand who Jayne Mansfield was, what she went through, and who her daughter is.

For some fans, Mariska Hargitay is Jayne Mansfield’s daughter, while for others, Jayne Mansfield is Mariska Hargitay’s mother. Depending on who you met first, your approach to this story will be different. For those who knew Mansfield first, it is a retelling of her story from the lips of those closest to her, giving her the respect she always deserved. For those who knew Hargitay first, it’s an understanding of where she comes from and all the things that happened to her leading to her famous days.

Mansfield was known as the smartest dumb blonde. Hargitay’s vision showcases how smart and talented her mother was. Mansfield spoke several languages, played two instruments, and understood how to play the industry to her advantage. She knew her body and pin-up persona could open many doors that could potentially lead to the career of her dreams. Even her voice, which Hargitay explains she used to hate, was a perfectly crafted character that she portrayed to give the audience what they wanted. Sadly, she worked in a time and age when women were seen as objects of pleasure and fit into stereotypes given what they could or couldn’t provide for men.

Hargitay’s older siblings talk about how smart and funny Mansfield was. Meanwhile, the clips from interviews show how smart she was, but how dumb the men who interviewed her thought she was or tried to make her look. One particular interview stands out when Mansfield was trying to transition her career into a more serious one, and the interviewer kept bullying her about it. Viewers could tell how uncomfortable Mansfield was, but she was playing the role she had been stereotyped into. While that helped her shoot her career into stardom, it was hard for her to leave behind and finally accomplish what she wanted.

In the documentary, Hargitay says the film is a way to reclaim what was lost. This is true, and the audience can see it in two ways. On the one hand, Hargitay is reclaiming the mother she lost. It is a way for her to learn more about Mansfield through her siblings' words and by opening all the boxes that contained her mother’s history. On the other hand, Hargitay brings her mother back to life (“She feels so alive to me now in such a beautiful way”), giving Mansfield the chance to reclaim her own story. Through every story, every word, every photograph, and every video, the audience can gain a newfound respect for Mansfield and who she was. Both women get to reclaim what was always theirs: her mother and her career.

At this point in her life, Hargitay is well-known for being Olivia Benson. She recognizes that for fans, it is hard to separate where Mariska ends and Olivia starts. However, this documentary, her directorial role, her vision, and the rawness of her voice prove she is so much more than Olivia Benson. Hargitay’s talent goes beyond what she has given the world in her Law & Order: Special Victims Unit character. Her eye for detail and her storytelling in this documentary are beyond anything people could have expected based on the few episodes she has directed. It could be because she allows herself to be vulnerable on and off camera, but it is undeniable that the magic touch is there.

By directing the piece herself, Hargitay opens the door to share one of the biggest secrets of her life. In doing so, she talks about the anger she felt toward her mother and the mess she left behind. The healing process that Hargitay describes and takes the viewer on is a beautiful, raw, intimate journey that makes us all love her even more for it.

When Hargitay talks about the fact that she kept Nelson Sardelli and her sisters a secret for so long, she mentions she did it to honor Mickey Hargitay. This is absolutely understandable, but in doing so, in explaining this to the public, Hargitay honors Mickey in a different, more palpable way.

My Mom Jayne not only gives Jayne Mansfield the voice so many tried to take away from her, but it also honors how Mickey Hargitay loved and chose his daughter day after day. The portrayal of Mickey’s love for Mariska through photos, statements, and through Ellen Siano’s words is one of the things that stand out the most in the documentary. Whether Mickey knew the truth or not, he claimed Mariska as his from the beginning and never let her doubt that he loved her. His involvement in this documentary is the living proof of what unconditional love is. He didn’t care to know the truth because in his bones and in his soul, Mariska was his daughter. And that will always remain so, which Hargitay makes even clearer in the documentary.

By choosing to make this documentary, Hargitay opened the doors of her soul to the entire world. While she has been in the public eye her entire life, she has always shared with the audience what she wanted them to know. And she does so again by directing and guiding the narrative to a place where she can talk about her mother the way she felt about her and the way she feels about her now.

My Mom Jayne: A Film by Mariska Hargitay is the most beautiful declaration of love a daughter can have for her mother. It’s a raw and intimate conversation about what it means to be the daughter of one of the most famous women in Hollywood history. It is the story of a woman who was placed inside a stereotyped box because it benefited everyone around her. But by telling us her story, Mariska Hargitay takes Jayne Mansfield out of the box, brings her back to life, and allows her to reclaim her story with the decency and respect she always deserved. It is the story of her mom, Jayne.