In the film, Wever’s character is wooed by a producer for rival hidden-camera reality series What Would You Do? In real life, after Predator, Keller went on to work as a producer for Dateline NBC starting in 2009 and still works there today.
Did Chris Hansen really mentor decoys during To Catch a Predator?
In the film, Pattinson’s Hansen takes a special interest in Gisondo’s Dan, taking him out to dinner, giving him advice, coaching him on set, and serving as a surrogate father. In real life, Bicks says Hansen was extremely dedicated to hosting Predator.
“The vibe was more like this was his show, because it was his idea and he started it with Dateline,” Bicks tells Vanity Fair. “Even in the late-night hours, I remember him going through the chat logs. That man stayed ready throughout, and was always in his suit and tie and took it very seriously—but also kept some levity in the back of it. He would calm my nerves. I would read through the chat logs, and he would give me what conversation he was planning to have with each one [while also coming up with these one-liners]. I would say he was one hundred percent in and focused. We didn’t speak outside the show. So he was more of a helpful guide while filming.”
Was Chris Hansen part of the Primetime production?
Once again, no. The closest Hansen came to being part of Primetime was when executive producer Abigail Rowe purchased a Cameo from Hansen for her husband, Oppenheim, before he was aware of the project. (When Oppenheim saw the script, “It felt like destiny,” he says in the film’s press notes.) Hansen told The Hollywood Reporter that he did not see the film prior to its release, claiming that A24 required him to sign a restrictive nondisclosure agreement to screen the film. He declined.
Who was assistant district attorney Bill Conradt?
Conradt had been a district attorney in Texas’s Kaufman County before being appointed chief felony assistant district attorney in Rockwall County. In fall 2006, Conradt began exchanging messages with a Perverted Justice volunteer posing as a 13-year-old boy.
Winter, who has publicly shared his experience being sexually abused as a child star, knew that playing Conradt would be a tall order. “My agent said, ‘This may be a tricky role. I’m just warning you,’” the actor tells Vanity Fair. “Obviously given my own background, I’m not immune to any of that stuff. I made a whole documentary”—called Showbiz Kids—“about my own experience as a child actor, and other child actors who have dealt with abuse. I know this issue very well.” But Winter wasn’t worried: “I had a lot of faith in [Primetime].”
Prior to joining the film, Winter didn’t know anything about To Catch a Predator. He opted to research Conradt as a standalone figure rather than as a footnote in reality TV history. “I was interested in the landscape of the world that Bill worked in and what those hierarchies were like,” he says, “what would drive him to kill himself. Trying to live with the demons that he had in that environment—what that would have done to him.”
