The red carpet at the London Film Festival can sometimes feel like a predictable parade of glamour. But on Sunday night, the atmosphere took a decidedly darker, more introspective turn. Robert Pattinson was in town to premiere Primetime, a tense new thriller from A24 that looks back at one of the most controversial eras of American television.
In the film, the 40-year-old actor takes on the role of a television host based on Chris Hansen, the real-life anchor of the notorious 2000s series To Catch a Predator. The show, which ran on NBC from 2004 to 2007, sent shockwaves through pop culture by setting up sting operations to trap men targeting underage decoys online. It was riveting. It was horrifying. And for many viewers, it was impossible to turn off.
A New Perspective on Fear
For Pattinson, the film’s subject matter hits differently these days. In March 2024, he and his partner Suki Waterhouse welcomed their first child. Stepping into a world defined by the threat of online exploitation felt deeply unsettling.
“It’s both the most terrifying thing that can happen to you, whether you’re a parent, or even if you’re not,” Pattinson admitted during the screening. Having a baby has a way of sharpening those anxieties, making the fictionalized hunt feel incredibly real.
The Blurred Lines of Vigilante TV
During its original run, To Catch a Predator sat at a strange crossroads. Was it investigative journalism? Was it law enforcement? Or was it just highly rated reality entertainment? The show frequently drew criticism for blurring those boundaries, using real-time stings to generate massive ratings.
Pattinson reflected on that complicated legacy, noting how the program offered an instant, if problematic, sense of justice. “The show was this kind of microcosm of saying, ‘oh, we can do something about [child abuse], and we can do something about it really, really, really quickly,'” he said. “And in some ways, that’s correct, but it also makes for incredibly powerful TV, and that’s when it gets into slightly dicey territory.”
The appetite for this kind of content didn’t die when the show went off the air. In fact, Pattinson believes it simply migrated online. He pointed out how amateur “predator catchers” have flooded platforms like YouTube and TikTok with similar, unregulated content. That modern evolution is precisely what drew him to the role. He wanted to understand why this phenomenon, which began as a polished network television broadcast, has exploded into one of the biggest trends on social media today.
A Fever Dream, Not a Biopic
Not everyone is thrilled about the film. The real Chris Hansen has already voiced his displeasure online, calling the movie “bizarre” and “detached from reality” in a video shared on X. But the filmmakers say that was precisely the point.
Director Lance Oppenheim didn’t shy away from Hansen’s critique. “I agree, that was by design,” Oppenheim said, explaining that he never set out to make a traditional, paint-by-numbers biography. Instead, he envisioned Primetime as a “fever dream.” For the director, the film is an exploration of a much older human impulse: the thirst for public spectacle and public punishment. “It’s happened for thousands of years,” Oppenheim remarked. “I wanted to make something that interrogated that.”
An Unbelievable Year for Pattinson
The buzz surrounding Primetime has already sparked whispers of a potential Oscar nomination for Pattinson. It would be a first for the actor, whose career has spanned from teen heartthrob in Harry Potter and Twilight to indie darling and blockbuster lead in Tenet and The Batman.
This has been a relentless year for him. He recently starred alongside Zendaya in The Drama, appeared in The Odyssey, and has Dune: Part Three on the horizon. When asked about the awards chatter, Pattinson remained humble. “I am eternally grateful that I got these jobs,” he said, adding that being able to work on these projects has made this “one of the best years of my life.”
As for his next outing as Gotham’s Dark Knight? Fans will have to wait. Production on the sequel is currently on hold. “We don’t know yet, but yeah, working on it,” Pattinson teased, keeping his cards close to his chest. For now, audiences will have to settle for a very different kind of detective story when Primetime hits theaters.