Chris Hansen Finally Gives His Verdict on Robert Pattinson’s Impression of Him, and It’s Surprisingly Balanced

Public figures rarely get the chance to critique their own on-screen portrayal with quite this much specificity, especially when the performance in question comes from one of Hollywood’s most acclaimed actors. Most subjects either embrace the depiction wholeheartedly or reject it outright, leaving little room for the kind of nuanced, mixed reaction that actually reflects how complicated these situations tend to be.

That nuance was exactly what came through this week, as the man at the center of A24’s most talked-about upcoming release finally offered a more measured take on how he’s being portrayed.

Chris Hansen says Robert Pattinson’s impression of him in “Primetime” is “overly dramatic,” but his family thinks it’s “pretty good.” Speaking with Entertainment Tonight, Hansen explained, “I mean, obviously he has practiced imitating me, and while I think it’s overly dramatic, I think there is a pretty good imitation there in the trailer. 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,” a quote reported by Variety.

“Primetime” dramatizes Hansen’s tenure as host of NBC’s “To Catch a Predator,” the hidden-camera series that ran from 2004 to 2007 and turned Hansen into one of television’s most recognizable and polarizing media figures. Pattinson’s portrayal in the trailer has clearly drawn on Hansen’s real-world mannerisms closely enough that even Hansen himself acknowledges the effort behind it, even while maintaining reservations about the tone.

This latest, more measured assessment marks something of a shift from Hansen’s earlier public comments about the film. According to Yahoo, Hansen previously told SiriusXM’s The Dan Abrams Show that the trailer felt “overly dramatic” in a more critical sense, questioning how the filmmakers could accurately tell the story “without having talked to anybody who was directly involved,” and adding that some of the conversations depicted “never took place in real life.”

Hansen has also been vocal about feeling shut out of the production entirely, telling Fox News that he was invited to a private A24 screening but declined to sign what he described as a restrictive legal agreement that would have required him to sign away his name, image, and brand rights, along with any potential legal claims tied to the film. According to Yahoo, Hansen went as far as purchasing pre-show advertising to run before every theatrical screening of “Primetime,” promoting his own true-crime streaming service, TruBlu, to audiences who show up to watch Pattinson’s version of him.

Despite that ongoing friction, this latest comment to Entertainment Tonight suggests Hansen is willing to at least credit Pattinson’s technical performance, even while continuing to distance himself from how the film frames the broader story. Directed by Lance Oppenheim, “Primetime” is set to premiere at the Venice Film Festival on September 5 before opening in theaters September 25.

Given how much back-and-forth has already unfolded between Hansen and the studio before the film has even reached general audiences, it’s clear this dynamic between subject and portrayal is far from settled. Whether Hansen’s family’s more favorable read on Pattinson’s performance ends up shaping his overall opinion once he actually watches the finished film remains to be seen.

Have something to add? Let us know in the comments!