Law & Order: SVU's Newest ADA

With the airing of the Law & Order: SVU episode "Undiscovered Country" on February 7th, Philip's Chicago Justice character, Peter Stone, became the newest ADA for the Special Victims Unit in New York.

After just 13 episodes Dick Wolf's Chicago Justice series met with cancellation but within days, Philip found himself with the opportunity to bring the character back to life on the hit SVU series. Although not known to him or the fans at the time, Raul Esparza, who had played the ADA on the show for 6 years, decided to depart the series leaving the need for someone to fill that ADA role. Philip was just the person for the job. His character already had ties to NY as his father, Ben Stone, had been a major player in the legal system for years. It was his father who prompted him to leave NY and now it would be the death of his father that would bring him back.

Originally just slated as a supporting actor for the show, after episode 13 aired and Esparza's departure from the show was known, it was announced Philip would be promoted to series regular. This was great news for Philip fans and Peter Stone fans. As the lone ADA of the show, he would be appearing in almost all of the remaining episodes for season 13. Fans would now have the opportunity to find out more about what makes Peter Stone tick since most of what was seen of the character in Chicago Justice was in the courtroom. Not much was known of him aside from a career ending baseball injury being the reason for going into law and the aforementioned fact he left NY to get away from his father.

Philip's performance on these 2 episodes of SVU has been outstanding. Subtle nuisances in his acting, such as the slight nod and smile when Barba was acquitted and softening of the eyes when learning of the molestation of Reggie Price and Brian Cassidy, show the viewers that Peter Stone may not like what he's doing but he does it because he has to. Because, as he himself said, "it's the law."

It's not going to be smooth sailing for Peter with the SVU folks. He just prosecuted their ADA and then went after Olivia's ex in episode 14 "Chasing Demons" so he wasn't quite winning them over. Peter is still finding his feet with prosecuting special victims crimes, though, so as the season progresses fans are sure to see the dynamics of the unit change and friendships emerge.

Brittany Frederick of OneChicagoCenter had a wonderful interview with Philip about his new role on SVU. Read her two part interview:

Part One
Part Two

You can also read great episode reviews by Kelsey Nolen for the first two episodes Philip was in:

Episode 13 - Undiscovered Country
Episode 14 - Chasing Demons

Be sure to tune in Wednesday nights at 9:00PM on NBC to catch Philip on Law & Order: SVU.