Chris Hansen Questions “Hollywood’s Motive” With ‘Primetime,’ Says He’d Have Cast Denis Leary
The former 'To Catch a Predator' host says he had a different actor in mind to play himself.
Chris Hansen, you know how this looks, right?
Because that Primetime movie trailer starring Robert Pattinson makes the former “To Catch a Predator” host look rather obsessed with fame.
To his credit, however, Hansen says he refuses to judge Primetime until he actually sees it (which will be next week, he says).
But during an interview with podcaster Annie Elise, Hansen gave some preliminary thoughts about the project.
“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 said, but noted he wasn’t actually consulted on the film and the project was made before “they” reached out. “As a reporter, it’s sort of silly for me to talk about something that I haven’t seen yet. My suspicion is that they used my name because it helps in a commercial enterprise.”
Asked his thoughts on the film’s trailer, at least, Hansen replied, “It looks dramatic. It looks very dramatic. I know [Robert Pattinson] is a popular actor and I know the director [Lance Oppenheim] is a popular guy. I also have some questions: What’s Hollywood’s motive here?”
Hansen noted he “didn’t get to choose my own guy” to play him. When asked who he would have picked, he replied, “years ago I had crafted a script and thought Denis Leary would be a good guy to play me — depending on the age of it all.”
All that said, “I’m busy being the real Chris Hansen.”
Primetime also stars Merritt Wever, Skyler Gisondo, Phoebe Bridgers, Matthew Maher and Bokeem Woodbine.
“To Catch a Predator” was a recurring series of segments on Dateline NBC that ran from 2004 to 2007. The program worked with watchdog group Perverted Justice to lure men who believed they were arranging sexual encounters with minors to a sting house where they were confronted by Hansen, a camera team and police. The program was canceled amid legal and ethical fallout after one of the show’s suspects shot himself as police and NBC’s cameras entered his home.
Primetime is set to hit theaters Sept. 25.
