'Law & Order SVU' Actress Opens Up About Rihanna Comparisons
A recent Law & Order: SVU episode "Funny Valentine" made headlines when some compared it to the real life relationship of singers Chris Brown and Rihanna. Now, the actress who portrayed the victim in the episode is speaking out about those comparisons and her experience filming the show.
Tiffany Robinson is an actress who played Micha on the show where her fictional boyfriend, made up hip-hop star Caleb, assaulted her. Although their tumultuous relationship made headlines, Robinson refused to leave her assailant, which caused many to take to social networking websites like Twitter to speak about comparisons between the show's couple and reality.
Many people scrutinized the 2009 incident where 25-year-old Barbadian pop star Rihanna suffered physical injuries after she was abused at the hands of 23-year-old Brown. Although the two recently announced their reconciliation after four years, Robinson said she did not initially think that the episode would draw comparisons to the celebrity couple.
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"I feel so much responsibility towards it. I honestly didn't even hear all the Rihanna and Chris stuff 'til I was on set. And that was mainly dealing with the makeup, when they did have to do the bruising and stuff, making it look as realistic as possible," Robinson said in an MTV News report. "That's when those kinds of comments were being made. You just felt so much responsibility to deliver this story with respect and also bringing light to the issue [and] the bigger picture. And that is domestic violence. We wanted to make sure we were telling the stories the way that the writers [wanted us to]."
While Robinson said she tried to create a unique character, she also spoke about feeling intimidated when thinking about Rihanna's similar situation.
"I shied away from [exposing myself to Rihanna], and that was really intimidating for me," she explained in the MTV report. "They really wanted me to create this character for myself. Also this character for me was younger and naive."
Still, the actress admitted that there were some similarities to Rihanna's real life situation and that of her character Micha.
"Of course, the story, the relationship is similar. But the character herself, it was more or less, this is her first big break, her first big single," Robinson said in the MTV report. "And it was spun on from her relationship with this other celebrity, which is a lot different from the situation, I believe, [with] Rihanna and Chris."
Brown recently spoke about his on-again relationship with Rihanna being scrutinized in a recent Entertainment Weekly report.
"People attack me and criticize me, it happens all the time. But they don't know me, and they don't know us," Brown said in EW. "It doesn't bother me any more. Other people can judge us but they don't know anything."
