Chris Hansen gives 2word verdict on Robert Pattinson&x27;s portrayal of him in Primetime movie Connor McCroryMon, August 31, 2026 at 4:36 AM UTC 0 Primetime starring Robert Pattinson hits theaters on September 5 Credit:A24 Chris Hansen has weighed in on Robert Pattinson’s portrayal of him in the upcoming film Primetime, offering a mixed assessment of the actor’s take on the former Dateline NBC correspondent.
Chris Hansen gives 2-word verdict on Robert Pattinson's portrayal of him in Primetime movie
Connor McCroryMon, August 31, 2026 at 4:36 AM UTC
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Primetime starring Robert Pattinson hits theaters on September 5 -Credit:A24
Chris Hansen has weighed in on Robert Pattinson’s portrayal of him in the upcoming film Primetime, offering a mixed assessment of the actor’s take on the former Dateline NBC correspondent.
Hansen, whose work on To Catch a Predator inspired elements of the A24 drama-thriller, said Pattinson’s performance appears convincing in some respects, though he believes the film takes significant liberties with reality. The 66-year-old television personality gave his 2-word verdict of the actor's performance as him ahead of the film's September 5 release.
The review comes after Chris Hansen revealed who he would have wanted to play him in Primetime instead of Robert Pattinson.
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"I mean, obviously, he has practiced imitating me," the former host of To Catch a Predator told Entertainment Tonight.
Delivering his verdict, Hansen continued, "While I think it’s overly dramatic, I think there is a pretty good imitation there in the trailer," adding, "It’s not so much what I think; it’s what other people think. And you know, my wife [and] my family seem to think it’s a pretty good imitation."
Hansen said Robert Pattinson's performance was "overly dramatic" -Credit:Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images
But Hansen made clear that he has reservations about how he is depicted in the movie.
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"He’s saying things I never said and doing things I never did, and that’s not who I am. I’m a nice guy, except when it comes to criminals and predators," he added. "I think people should remember that it is a work of fiction, only based on real-life events."
Pattinson, 40, plays Hansen in Primetime, which draws partly from a 2007 Esquire article, Tonight on Dateline, This Man Will Die, and Hansen’s years hosting the NBC investigative segment from 2004 to 2007.
Hansen has repeatedly said he was not involved in developing the film and has yet to see the finished project. He previously told Fox News’ Jesse Watters Primetime that he traveled to A24’s offices for a private screening but declined to sign paperwork presented to him.
"The lawyers at A24 wanted me to sign away my rights to my name, image and brand, essentially, as well as any potential legal rights that would come out of the movie," Hansen claimed. "I couldn’t sign that, so they didn’t show me the film. I went all the way over there."
Robert Pattinson stars as Chris Hansen in Primetime -Credit:A24
A source close to the production disputed that characterization, saying Hansen was presented with a standard nondisclosure agreement required of preview audiences for unreleased films. Hansen has also suggested legal action remains a possibility.
"People are looking at it, Dan," Hansen told Dan Abrams during an August 26 SiriusXM podcast appearance. "I don’t know. One guy told me, somebody who’s very, very good at all this and very entrenched in entertainment law, he said, ‘You know, you can do that, and you probably have a decent case. How much time do you want to spend doing it?’"
Hansen said his larger concern is the decision to use his identity while fictionalizing parts of the story.
"You could have done the same movie without it, and the reason why they used it is because it has commercial value. So it feels very exploitative to me," Hansen added. "It feels sneaky and disingenuous to me that they would do this and not even say ‘This is what we’re doing.’"
Primetime hits theaters on September 5.
Source: "AOL Entertainment"
Source: Entertainment
Published: August 31, 2026 at 08:00AM on Source: MORNING MAG
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