This is per THR, which reports on the former To Catch A Predator star’s recent appearance on Annie Elise’s Serialously podcast, where he briefly talked about the movie amid a much longer conversation about his career. (While also noting that he’s withholding judgment on Oppenheim’s film until he sees it, which is supposedly happening via a private screening next week.) While making it clear that nobody involved talked to him until after they finished making the film—in which Pattinson plays a clearly unhinged version of Hansen, crusading after online pedophiles in pursuit of fame—Hansen says producers did ultimately reach out. “A couple months ago, they came and said, ‘Hey look, we’re doing this, we’d like you to have some sort of consideration in terms of helping us with this.'” Hansen says he has watched the blatantly deranged trailer for the movie, and doesn’t sound super-thrilled about it when he politely refers to it as “Very dramatic.”
As to casting, Hansen—who’s still out there doing his old, extremely familiar thing, now via a show called Takedown on his own TruBlu streaming service—lightly lamented that he didn’t get to choose his own “guy.” Acknowledging that Pattinson is “a popular actor,” Hansen said he’s always been a Leary man, saying that, years ago, when he’d written a script based on his own life, he’d envisioned the “Asshole” singer playing him. Meanwhile, because he’s Chris Hansen, he also has just a few questions he wants to ask about this whole weird situation—namely, “What’s Hollywood’s motive here?” in terms of the actual underpinnings of the film, which don’t seem especially flattering toward his particular blend of vigilante journalism and long-term engagement-seeking.
Primetime hits theaters on September 25.
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