Chris Hansen has finally seen Primetime – and is not happy.
Chris Hansen isn’t happy about Primetime
The veteran broadcaster is portrayed by Robert Pattinson in the new A24 movie, which follows Hansen’s stint as host of NBC’s hidden-camera show To Catch a Predator, which ran from 2004 to 2007 and saw him setting up stings for adult men trying to meet minors for sex, and after previously criticising the project, he’s now admitted he isn’t sure “what the point” of the “bizarre” film was.
In a 20-minute-long video shared to YouTube, he said: “It was so bizarre and so in-and-out of reality.
“Obviously, I’m not objective because the character is, you know, me, but it was so detached from reality or anything I’ve experienced then or now doing the investigations. I’m not sure what the point of it was.”
He also called out director Lance Oppenheim for having a “dark image of what he wanted to do” with the movie, regardless of “anything positive” achieved by To Catch a Predator.
He said: “He wanted to create a horror-like film with interesting photography and didn’t want to hear anything else.
“[He] didn’t want to have his mind polluted by anything positive that this actually achieved over the last 22 years.
“Hollywood wants to demonise the guy doing what I think is very good work that has created a dialogue that didn’t exist before and an awareness that didn’t exist before. And yet they turn him into the bad guy. And so you have to question the motives of not coming forward and talking to me or anybody who I worked closely with over the years. And they didn’t want to hear that Chris Hansen is a good guy. They didn’t want to hear that this work is important.”
Chris – who previously revealed he had left a preview screening of the film before it began because he was asked to sign a legal document that would sign away various personal rights – claimed 13 members of his former crew had seen the movie and though some felt the “film work was good”, in terms of the story, they “got bored after the first 30 minutes”.
The 69-year-old journalist branded Pattinson’s “version” of him “so detached, so unhinged, so dark, so unlikeable” and declared there was not one thing he liked about the film.
Primetime has been labelled as “inspired by true events” and Chris claimed “almost every” scene didn’t happen in real life.
He added: “In a way, it’s a hit piece on me and the series, which is weird.”
Chris previously stressed he had no personal issue with Pattinson.
He told The Hollywood Reporter: “I have no issue with Robert Pattinson. I think he’s a great actor and a nice guy, and he has been very gracious in his comments about me. But they put him in a difficult position. He’s going to be asked, ‘Did you actually meet with Chris Hansen?’ And he has to explain why, as an actor portraying me, they never reached out even to have a discussion.
“I think it’s because the studio and the director didn’t want to know the truth. They had a notion of the film they wanted to create, and they wanted to benefit from the use of my name.”