Stuart Little’s Jonathan Lipnicki all grown up in new full frontal role
Jonathan Lipnicki is all grown up (Getty Images)
Jonathan Lipnicki has opened up about filming a full-frontal nude scene for Primetime, the psychological thriller starring Robert Pattinson as To Catch a Predator host Chris Hansen.
Stuart Little star Lipnicki, 35, plays a paedophile character in the film, and said the combination of nudity and subject matter made the role “intimidating”.
Speaking to Hollywood Reporter, Lipnicki said he had been eager to take on more challenging work, adding that he’d “prayed for dark material” to sink his teeth into as an actor.
He also said he had prior experience with nudity on stage. “I’ve done full frontal before in a play, Lost Girls, so that part didn’t bother me as much,” he explained.
Lipnicki went on: “The paedophile element by itself is terrifying to tackle, and then you add the nudity. Not only are you a paedophile, you’re a naked, full-frontal pedophile. It was intimidating, to say the least.”
What happens in the full-frontal scene?
The Daily Mail says that in the scene, Lipnicki’s character is shown nude as Hansen “busts” him while he is trying to meet an underage boy for sex.
The film is directed by Lance Oppenheim, his first fictional feature film after specialising in documentaries. It revisits the world of televised predator stings associated with To Catch a Predator, a recurring segment on Dateline NBC in which Hansen confronted suspected child predators who were allegedly attempting to meet minors they had met online, who were actually adult decoys.
Primetime premiered earlier this month at the Venice Film Festival, where it received a seven-minute standing ovation.
From child stardom to adult roles
Lipnicki became famous as a child for playing Ray Boyd in Jerry Maguire (1996), and later starred in family films including Stuart Little (1999) and Like Mike (2002). He has spoken publicly about the difficulty of transitioning into adult roles.
In an ABC News interview, he recalled an audition at 19 where a producer told him: “You used to be cute. What happened?”
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.”
Speaking in a 2017 Instagram post, which has since been removed, he opened up about the bullying he received as a child. The actor, who is straight, said: “I didn’t go a day without being called some form of gay slur, or a hateful slur pretty much every day of middle school.”
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