{"id":940384,"date":"2026-10-20T19:02:17","date_gmt":"2026-10-20T19:02:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/940384\/"},"modified":"2026-10-20T19:02:17","modified_gmt":"2026-10-20T19:02:17","slug":"primetime-director-got-robert-pattinson-on-board-by-feeding-his-zyn-addiction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/940384\/","title":{"rendered":"Primetime director got Robert Pattinson on board by feeding his Zyn addiction"},"content":{"rendered":"

Primetime<\/a> director Lance Oppenheim used unconventional methods to entice Robert Pattinson to play To Catch A Predator host Chris Hansen. In a new interview with Vulture<\/a>, Oppenheim recalled resorting to bribery to convince Pattinson, who was initially only attached as a producer, to get in front of the camera. \u201cRob, at the time, was grappling with a Zyn addiction,\u201d Oppenheim said. Vulture\u2018s Alex Barasch explained that, unfortunately for Pattinson, nicotine pouches were in short supply in the U.S.<\/a> But fortunately for him, Oppenheim called in a favor with a friend in Canada, who sent 200 canisters of Zyn to Pattinson\u2019s Los Angeles home, along with a new draft of the script cheekily addressed to \u201cChris Han-Zyn.\u201d When Pattinson committed to the role, Oppenheim likened the moment to \u201cLeBron making the announcement that he was joining the Heat.\u201d<\/p>\n

The production notes for Primetime similarly recalled the script revision process and bringing Pattinson on board as the movie\u2019s star, sans the bribery anecdote. Per the notes, Oppenheim, screenwriter Ajon Singh, and the Icki Eneo Arlo production team refocused the screenplay to center on the dynamic between Hansen and Dan Plum (Skyler Gisondo), aka Decoy Dan. Pattinson was apparently intrigued by Hansen\u2019s internal struggle, the blurred line between his personal and professional life, and his downward spiral, and Oppenheim was keen to cast him by whatever means possible. \u201cThis role was made for Rob, and I knew I had to do everything in my power to convince him to play Chris,\u201d he said, pointing to Pattinson\u2019s previous portrayals of tragic heroes. As it turns out, all it really took to reel in the actor was a hefty supply of Zyn.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Primetime director Lance Oppenheim used unconventional methods to entice Robert Pattinson to play To Catch A Predator host…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":940385,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[49,48,361,75],"class_list":["post-940384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/940384","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=940384"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/940384\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/940385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=940384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=940384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=940384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}