Robert Pattinson only agreed to star in Primetime when the project became “more esoteric and strange”.
The Twilight actor stars as journalist Chris Hansen in the movie, directed by documentary filmmaker Lance Oppenheim, with the film focused on the phenomenon of To Catch a Predator.
Robert was initially attached to the project as a producer, and wasn’t keen on the idea of portraying Hansen himself.
However, as the concept for the film progressed, it became increasingly clear that Robert was actually perfect for the role.
He told The Au Review: “I think the initial draft, when I found it, almost required someone with this kind of American-dad energy – otherwise it wouldn’t have made sense. You’d want to cast someone playing against type for it to land the same way.
“As we talked about it, we started drifting into this slightly metaphysical world, where everything is a little surreal and mystical, and I thought, that’s my kind of thing.
“I like things that are more esoteric and strange.”
He added: “It moved further away from being a traditional biopic – it was never really that, even in the first draft – but the further we drifted into this strange ether the movie exists in now, the more I understood it.”
Hansen is described as an “intense and unhinged television host obsessed with his growing fame and vigilante sting operations” in an official synopsis for the film, while Oppenheim likens it to something of a “fever dream”.
And Robert added that he was determined not to over analyse the character, but instead to play him as organically as possible.
He explained: “I also don’t approach things psychologically, trying to understand a character intellectually; I think about it purely in terms of performance.”
As the shoot progressed, Robert realised there were more and more things he could work with, as he added: “The more scenes we got, the more I thought, this has got something juicy in it.
“And it just got juicier and juicier.”
