To Catch a Predator host Chris Hansen has shared his strong reaction to Robert Pattinson’s portrayal of him in a new movie.
Primetime stars Pattinson as Hansen during the rise of his famous Dateline segment, which caught would-be sexual predators in the act the moment they showed up to meet with a minor. Hansen, who has been critical of the film for months despite not seeing it, finally got to watch it on Friday when it was released in theaters. He reacted in an Instagram video after an unidentified voice asked him what he thought outside a movie theater.
“It was so bizarre and so in and out of reality,” he said of the film.
“It’s hard for me to—obviously, I’m not objective because the character is me, but it was so detached from reality or anything I’ve ever experienced then or now, doing the investigations,” he added. “I just think it’s—I’m not sure what the point of it was.”
Hansen complained early on that he was not involved in the film and was only contacted after it was completed. The host wanted to make a film about the hugely popular program himself, but couldn’t get it off the ground.
“I didn’t get to choose my own guy,” Hansen said on the Serialously podcast last month, complaining about Primetime’s casting. “He’s saying things I never said and doing things I never did,” Hansen said of Pattinson. “I know he’s a very popular actor, and I know the director is a popular guy.”
Hansen said that when he wrote his own script about his life, he imagined comedian Denis Leary in the lead role.
He added, “I also have some questions: What’s Hollywood’s motive here?”
After he was offered to attend a screening of the film, Hansen said on Jesse Watters Primetime that he was requested to “sign” away his rights in a “very restrictive agreement,” which a source argued was just a standard NDA. Hansen claimed he was turned away for refusing to sign.
The video he posted on Instagram teases that he will release his full reaction on his YouTube podcast, Have A Seat With Chris Hansen at 7 p.m. EST.
