Chris Hansen, the veteran investigative journalist best known for hosting Dateline NBC's To Catch a Predator, has finally weighed in on Robert Pattinson's portrayal of him in the upcoming A24 film Primetime — and his family approves. While Hansen himself remains critical of the movie and its production, he revealed in a recent interview that his wife and relatives believe Pattinson's performance is "a pretty good imitation" of the man behind one of television's most famous hidden-camera sting operations.
"I mean, obviously he has practiced imitating me, and while I think it's overly dramatic, I think there is a pretty good imitation in there in the trailer," Hansen, 66, told Entertainment Tonight in an interview shared on TikTok. "And it's not so much what I think; it's what other people think. My wife, my family, seems to think it's a pretty good imitation."
The praise comes with a caveat: Hansen remains unhappy with the way the film was made. He has said repeatedly that he was not consulted about the project and that he only learned of its existence shortly before the first trailer arrived in May. Despite his family's warm assessment of Pattinson's performance, the former Dateline correspondent is still considering legal action.
The long shadow of To Catch a Predator
For much of the 2000s, Chris Hansen was one of the most recognizable figures in American journalism. As the host of To Catch a Predator, a recurring segment on NBC's Dateline, Hansen confronted men who had allegedly attempted to meet minors for illicit purposes. The hidden-camera series, which ran from 2004 to 2007, was a ratings juggernaut and a cultural phenomenon. It also drew sharp criticism from some legal scholars and civil liberties advocates, who questioned whether the show's sting operations, conducted with the help of the online watchdog group Perverted Justice, crossed ethical and legal lines.
Hansen's calm, understated demeanor became his signature. His deadpan "Have a seat" line, delivered just as a suspect was about to leave the decoy house, entered the popular lexicon. For better or worse, To Catch a Predator defined his career. It made him a household name and a polarizing figure in equal measure.
After leaving Dateline in 2013, Hansen continued working in broadcast and digital media. He hosted investigations for CNN, later launched the true-crime series Crime Watch Daily, and eventually built his own platform. He now runs the streaming network TruBlu and hosts the podcast Have a Seat with Chris Hansen, which he pointed viewers toward in his recent Entertainment Tonight interview as a source for his real-life work.
A film based on a famous article
Primetime is not a documentary. The movie is partially based on a 2007 Esquire article titled "Tonight on Dateline, This Man Will Die," which chronicled the making of a To Catch a Predator segment and the tragic suicide of one of the men who was caught on camera. The article, written by Chris Jones, remains a remarkable and unsettling piece of longform journalism. It examines the moral complexities of Hansen's work and the show's impact on the people it featured.
The film, which A24 is distributing, stars Robert Pattinson as Hansen. Pattinson is best known for roles in the Twilight saga, The Batman, and critically acclaimed dramas such as Good Time and The Lighthouse. His casting in Primetime has generated significant buzz, not least because of the striking resemblance he has cultivated to Hansen in the film's promotional materials
Source: MSN News