Robert Pattinson Was Bribed to Star in Primetime With 200 Zyn Canisters and a Note Reading ‘Dear Chris Han-Zyn’

Most casting stories involve an agent, an offer and a signature. The one behind Primetime involves 200 canisters of nicotine pouches and a pun. Director Lance Oppenheim told Vulture that he won over Robert Pattinson, who was originally meant to produce A24’s Primetime rather than star in it, by shipping him a very large supply of Zyn.

How the Stunt Worked

According to Variety, Oppenheim explained that Pattinson was struggling at the time to keep a steady supply of Zyn, which was difficult to find in the United States. A friend in Canada sent 200 canisters to Pattinson’s Los Angeles home. Oppenheim then delivered the newest draft of the script along with a letter that began ‘Dear Chris Han-Zyn,’ a play on the name of Chris Hansen, the real host of To Catch a Predator.

The gesture came after a rough start. The Tribune reports that Pattinson first rejected the part flatly. Screenwriter Ajon Singh then reworked the script to bring him around, and the combination of rewrites and pouches did the job. The film’s credits now list Pattinson as both its star and one of its producers, in a group that also includes Ari Aster.

A Debut Feature With a Documentary Pedigree

Oppenheim is best known for documentary work, including Some Kind of Heaven and Ren Faire. Primetime is his first narrative feature, and it takes a form that few would have expected from him. Set in 2006, it follows the moment To Catch a Predator moved to a primetime slot, when the pressure of ratings pushed the show’s team toward riskier decisions. The screenplay draws loosely on the real history of the NBC series and on a 2007 Esquire article about it, and some events and characters are dramatized.

The director has been open about the fact that this is not a standard biography. He described the film to NME as a fever dream and an elaborate form of fan fiction, which helps explain its stylized tone. The supporting cast includes Merritt Wever, Skyler Gisondo, Matthew Maher, Bokeem Woodbine, Anna Faris and the musician Phoebe Bridgers.

That background shows in the film’s choices. Some Kind of Heaven, his 2020 documentary, looked at retirees in a Florida retirement community with an eye for the surreal, and Ren Faire treated a medieval-themed fair as a stage for real-life drama. Both projects found strangeness in everyday settings, an instinct that carries over into a story about television producers staging confrontations for the cameras and for an audience at home.

Critics Rally Around the Lead

The film premiered in competition at the Venice Film Festival, where it drew a standing ovation, and critics have been broadly positive. Reviewers have been close to unanimous in praising Pattinson’s performance, even when they disagree about the rest of the movie. Variety’s Owen Gleiberman called Pattinson a new kind of movie star, and the performance has generated Oscar buzz.

The Man He Plays Is Not Impressed

Hansen himself has been a harsh critic. He has called the film a complete work of fiction, and reports say he declined a private screening because he was asked to sign a nondisclosure agreement. Pattinson has since responded to Hansen’s remarks in an interview. The disagreement is not surprising for a film that treats a living journalist as a character, and it raises familiar questions about how much freedom a dramatization should take with real people. Oppenheim has said that the cast, which includes several former child actors, informed a film that considers the exploitation of children.

A Busy Year for Pattinson

The role arrives in the same year as The Odyssey, in which Pattinson also appeared, and the two projects have kept him at the center of awards discussion. An early Rotten Tomatoes tally ahead of release put the film at 94% on 17 reviews, and the final score may shift as more notices come in. For an actor who has spent much of his career alternating between large franchises and small, strange films, Primetime belongs firmly in the second category, and its producers have used his involvement as a selling point from the first teaser onward.

At the Box Office and Abroad

A24 released Primetime in the United States on September 25. It opened to about $19.2 million from fewer than 2,900 theaters, a strong per-theater average for the distributor, and fell 58% in its second weekend, a drop typical for adult-skewing dramas. International rollout continues, with Australia and New Zealand set for October 29 and the United Kingdom and Ireland on October 30.

Why the Zyn Story Stuck

The anecdote has traveled quickly because it sums up the film’s approach: serious subject matter handled with a sharp sense of absurdity. It also shows how much of independent filmmaking depends on persistence and a willingness to improvise when a star says no. Whether or not the nicotine did the persuading, the result is a performance that critics are already placing among the most talked-about of the year, and a producer-turned-lead whose decision to step in front of the camera has changed the film’s profile.