The actress spoke exclusively to PEOPLE at the ‘Town & Country’ Philanthropy Summit on Oct. 29

Mariska Hargitay isn’t afraid of getting personal.

While speaking exclusively to PEOPLE at the Town & Country Philanthropy Summit on Tuesday, Oct. 29, Hargitay shared that she’s leaned even more into her unique ability to empathize with others since turning 60 in January.

“I think that vulnerability — I’ve been preaching for years — is my superpower,” the Law & Order: SVU star tells PEOPLE. “I think that it just saves so much time. And I look at what I respect in other people and I respect the whole person. I don’t want just one part. I want all of them.”

“And we have great parts and scared parts and badass parts and brave parts and little parts. So for me, recognizing that I’m a whole person and not one thing, and so is everyone else.”

Hargitay jokes that she has turned being vulnerable into “a little bit of a sport” as she shares that she encourages those around her to also not be scared of opening up to her.

Mariska Hargitay attends the ‘Town & Country’ Philanthropy Summit in New York City on Oct. 29.Craig Barritt/Getty 

“As soon as you point out a similarity [in] the person, their fear dissipates,” she tells PEOPLE. “And so I found that vulnerability is the glue. It’s the magnet of coming together.”

Hargitay says being so personal as a public figure has helped her break down her fears and barriers with others and build stronger connections with people in general.

“I just think that getting personal levels the playing field,” she tells PEOPLE. “We just cut through all the sort of red tape … we sort of have fear and think that there are boundaries. And then as soon as the conversation starts, it’s like, ‘Oh my god, me too.’ And there’s this beautiful, cozy humanity that comes into play. And all of a sudden, we see all our similarities.”

“So for me, I like to highlight the fact, I guess, that we are the same and that we have more in common than we don’t and that humans are human, period. And so in a lot of ways, the fear is an illusion. And I think we can break through unkindness and fear or standoffishness with being human.”

Mariska Hargitay pictured in May 2024. Dia Dipasupil/Getty 

Hargitay also shared the advice she would give to her twenty-something self in hindsight.

“I wish I had more compassion for all of the parts of myself,” she says. “I didn’t know that we’re all specialists. I wasted too much time going, ‘They have this. I wish I had that. I wish I had that.’ And it’s important to strive and to go, ‘I love that quality. I love that quality. I want more of that. I want more of that,’ and integrate it.”