Robert Pattinson reacted to recent criticism of his upcoming movie “Primetime” from the subject himself: Chris Hansen, who famously caught suspected child predators using decoys and hidden cameras for the Dateline NBC show “To Catch a Predator.”
Pattinson, who portrays Hansen in the film, was asked Saturday during a press conference at the Venice International Film Festival about concerns Hansen expressed after watching the “Primetime” trailer — and about the pre-show adverts Hansen took out ahead of every screening.
“I mean, obviously I hope he likes the movie,” said Pattinson. “I mean … I never really set out to make a movie about Chris Hansen. It’s just kind of, like, I never really thought about it, and then I saw it in there in the script and there’s something electrifying about it.”
He added, “I would hope in some ways, the amount of inspiration that his character has given so many people who are involved in this, for years now, I hope it’s some kind of compliment. But I think the more you watch the show, there’s something magnetic about his presence.”
“To Catch a Predator” was a hidden-camera Dateline NBC segment that aired from 2004 to 2007 and documented adult men arriving at sting houses to meet up for apparent sexual encounters with minors. It was canceled after William Conradt Jr., an assistant district attorney in Rockland County, Texas, fatally shot himself after a local SWAT team accompanied by a Dateline crew encircled his house and moved in for an arrest, prompting a lawsuit from Conradt’s sister.
Pattinson noted Saturday that he watched “To Catch a Predator” when he was younger, but “didn’t even think about” Hansen’s appeal at the time — only to eventually recognize “a strange alchemy” between the show’s aesthetics, the era and the Dateline NBC host himself.
“Something he’s doing is the reason why people are still talking about that show 20 years later,” Pattinson said. “And it’s not to do solely with the subject matter, because the subject matter — I think there was something about the show that was very groundbreaking.”
Left: Alessandra Tarantino/Invision/Associated Press; Right: Paul Drinkwater/NBCUniversal/Getty Images
Hansen has not shown the same enthusiasm for “Primetime,” especially since the movie’s trailers debuted.
He has not only questioned “Hollywood’s motive” during an interview on the “SERIALOUSLY” podcast, but also told Entertainment Tonight in an interview published Sunday that the movie is “totally made up” — and has him “saying things I never said and doing things I never did.”
Hansen reportedly bought pre-show advertising on the screens showing the movie, directing audiences to the journalist’s TruBlu streaming network, which produces the same kind of investigations that made his breakout show famous.
Pattinson said that he and the filmmakers were merely trying to use their “collective enthusiasm” to capture Hansen’s “sort of mystery” — and added that there’s “definitely” a “vibrant energy magnetism” to Hansen’s persona that “every actor wants to play.”