Robert Pattinson on why he rushed to produce A24’s ‘Primetime’
At the London Film Festival, the actor revealed that he was drawn to the Chris Hansen thriller because the script felt urgent and dangerous.
Robert Pattinson introduced his latest film, “Primetime,” to an audience at the London Film Festival on Sunday night, explaining how quickly he moved to attach himself as both lead actor and producer. Describing the script by writer Ajon Singh as feeling like “a grenade,” Pattinson said he recognized something in the material that demanded immediate action.
“As soon as you read it, it felt like it was a grenade,” Pattinson recalled on stage at BFI Imax, according to Variety. “And then to find that no one was doing anything with it, it feels like you’ve stolen something. So you’re literally just like, ‘I want to make this right now.'” He said he called Singh the day after reading the script, and director Lance Oppenheim was on board within a week.
What drew Pattinson to the role
As a producer and actor, Pattinson said he was seeking “something in the writing that’s kind of electrifying and you think is going to be surprising to audiences.” He characterized the script as “original and funny and multi-faceted,” with an edge that felt dangerous. “I don’t want to ruin it for everyone and be like, ‘It’s really surprising!’ And then you’re going to be like, ‘It’s not surprising at all!’ But to me, it was surprising,” he told the London crowd.
Pattinson also acknowledged the appeal of the subject matter during the film’s Venice premiere in September. He said watching “To Catch a Predator” as a younger viewer had not particularly struck him, but revisiting the series later revealed something deeper. “When you kind of obsessively watch it, you realize there’s a strange alchemy with what’s going on with the status of the show and how it was directed and how things got together and the time period,” he said, according to OK!
Box office success and distribution
The film premiered at Venice last month, earning a seven-minute standing ovation. It hit U.S. theaters on September 25 and has become a breakout commercial success, grossing $38 million against a $14.5 million budget. The film is set to release in the U.K. on October 30.
The film’s relationship to reality
“Primetime” is set in 2006 and follows Hansen as he moves his “To Catch a Predator” show into a primetime slot. The film was loosely inspired by Hansen and his work on the Dateline NBC series, which aired from 2004 to 2007, and drew partial inspiration from a 2007 Esquire article titled “Tonight on Dateline, This Man Will Die.” However, director Lance Oppenheim has clarified that the film was not intended as a conventional biography, but rather a stylized retelling that examines the ethics of Hansen’s methods.
Hansen himself has been vocal about his disapproval of the film. He told The Hollywood Reporter that “Primetime” was “a completely made-up work of fiction” and “an insult” to those working to protect children from predators. At the London premiere, Pattinson struck a more hopeful note, saying he still hoped Hansen would come to appreciate the film. “There’s something electrifying about him. I would hope the amount of inspiration his character has given a lot of people for years is some kind of compliment,” Pattinson said.
This article was compiled by the Glamorade editorial desk from the official announcements and reporting listed under Sources.
