Former child star Jonathan Lipnicki has shocked and horrified moviegoers in his twisted comeback role.
Lipnicki, now 35, first shot to fame in ’90s hits like Jerry Maguire and Stuart Little, but is now playing a twisted pedophile in Lance Oppenheim’s Primetime.
The R-rated film details the production of Chris Hansen’s reality TV show To Catch a Predator and sees Lipnicki taking on the role of one of the show’s most evil child sex offenders.
In Lipnicki’s short but memorable scene, he plays Crazyfrog73, an online predator who attempts to meet up with a 13-year-old boy for sex.
Not only does Crazyfrog73 want to have sex with the child himself, he also wants to force the child to have sex with their pet cat.
Thankfully, Crazyfrog73 is busted by Hansen, played by Robert Pattinson, but not before Lipnicki reveals his penis covered in whipped cream during a shocking full frontal nude scene.
Former child star Jonathan Lipnicki has shocked and horrified moviegoers in his twisted comeback role in Primetime
Lipnicki, now 35, first shot to fame in ’90s hits like Jerry Maguire and Stuart Little
The scene has left quite an impression on viewers, with one posting to X, ‘I have not been able to stop thinking about Jonathan Lipnicki in Primetime.’
Another wrote, ‘Seeing child actor Jonathan Lipnicki for the first time in 20 years on the big screen as a child predator in PRIMETIME is both bone chilling and inspired casting.’
A third posted, ‘I just realized the man who showed his dick and sprayed it with whipped cream in Primetime was Jonathan Lipnicki.’
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter about the jaw-dropping scene, Lipnicki admitted that he’d ‘prayed for dark material’ to sink his teeth into as an actor.
‘I’ve done full frontal before in a play, Lost Girls, so that part didn’t bother me as much,’ he explained.
‘The pedophile element by itself is terrifying to tackle, and then you add the nudity. Not only are you a pedophile — you’re a naked, full-frontal pedophile. It was intimidating, to say the least.’
Since becoming an adult, Primetime is only the second film Lipnicki has starred in that’s been released theatrically.
He’s still best remembered for his breakout role as the adorable chatterbox Ray Boyd in Jerry Maguire when he was just six years old.
The R-rated film details the production of Chris Hansen’s reality TV show To Catch a Predator and sees Lipnicki taking on the role of one of the show’s most evil child sex offenders
Moviegoers have flocked to social media to express their shock over Lipnicki’s acting comeback
The 1996 sports rom-com starred Tom Cruise and Renee Zellweger as a couple that have major trouble with their romance, and the young Lipnicki famously stole a scene with the unscripted line, ‘The human head weighs eight pounds.’
Lipnicki’s performance won him the Critics’ Choice Award for Best Child Performance and a Young Artist Award from the Young Artist Foundation.
He then starred in the hit children’s film Stuart Little, which grossed $300 million at the box office in 1999.
From there he starred in the sports comedy Like Mike followed by Stuart Little 2 and a minor arc on Dawson’s Creek, but his acting career started to wind down after that.
When he was 19, he attended an audition and was told by a producer, ‘You used to be cute. What happened?’
Recalling the incident in an interview with ABC News, Lipnicki said, ‘He said I’m not attractive anymore and a lot of really rough stuff. I took it hard. I cried on my way home.’
Robert Pattinson portrays Hansen in the film, which is now in theatres
Lipnicki poses with director Lance Oppenheim at the film’s West Coast premiere
Lipnicki is now hoping that his memorable turn in Primetime will open the door for him to pursue meatier roles in Hollywood.
Primetime is the first fictional feature film directed by Lance Oppenheim, who previously specialized in documentaries.
The film takes a look back at Hansen’s NBC show with a more critical lens, questioning if lines were crossed in the pursuit of ratings.
Pattinson has already won rave reviews from critics for his performance as Hansen, with some claiming that the English actor will be a shoo-in at the Oscars next year.
To Catch a Predator was a recurring segment on Dateline NBC in which Hansen confronted suspected child predators who were allegedly attempting to meet with minors (who were actually adult decoys) they had met online.
The show ended in 2007 after one of its targets, an assistant district attorney in Texas called Bill Conradt, killed himself while SWAT was storming his house with Hansen’s camera crew right outside.
During and after its run, the show drew questions over its ethics, such as over the balance between law enforcement concerns and the requirements of showbiz.
Primetime premiered last month at the Venice Film Festival to a seven-minute standing ovation.
