Highlights
- Jonathan Lipnicki plays a psychologically harrowing predator in Primetime and wept after filming wrapped.
- The former child actor recalled receiving prison fan mail while preparing for this disturbing dark project.
- Lipnicki goes full frontal for the grim A24 thriller and admits he needed to wash himself clean afterward.
In case you weren’t aware, Jonathan Lipnicki is fully nude and playing a pedophile in A24’s Primetime.
The 36-year-old former child star is taking a sledgehammer to his cute legacy. He opened up about the daunting career move to Variety on November 5.
Director Lance Oppenheim recruited him for the dark thriller. “One of the elements he shared with me initially was he saw an interview with me a few years back, and he liked who I was as a person,” Lipnicki said.
A24 wanted to handle the massive leap with extreme care. “It’s a role that can easily be dismissed for shock value or for stunt casting. And I wanted to talk to him and just see how much care this would be handled with,” he explained.
Oppenheim proved his commitment early on. “He sent me mood boards. He sent me that test footage that they just released,” he added.
Stepping into the mind of a monster wasn’t easy for someone who grew up dodging Hollywood’s darkest shadows. “Growing up being a child actor, there are threats of predators,” he noted.
His parents protected him, but the reality was still grim. “You get maybe fan mail from prison. There were times and circumstances where I had extra security,” he shared.
To prepare for the Robert Pattinson-led Catch a Predator adaptation, Lipnicki consumed highly disturbing research. “It took a lot of frustration and nausea. I got really nauseous a lot of the time,” he confessed.
He called the entire grueling process “psychologically harrowing.” Exposing himself completely did not scare him as much as adopting the twisted psychology.
“After I shot it, I felt I had to wash myself clean of this and not think about it,” he recalled.
The gravity of the project completely broke him down at home. “The first thing is I went home, and I cried,” he admitted.
He cried purely from gratitude over surviving the demanding set. “I cried because you dream about being on a set like that. You work really hard, you dream to be with people like that, and they treated me so well,” he said.
Fear still crept in weeks later. “Then, the following weeks, doubts come into your brain. ‘Was it the right choice to make?’” Lipnicki recalled.
Between Primetime and his new psychological thriller Williston, the busy actor is finally thriving in the dark. “A lot of my confidence is not built off the success I’ve had. It’s built off the failures I’ve had,” he insisted.
