Remember Jonathan Lipnicki, the adorable kid from Stuart Little? Well, that little boy is now 35, very much an adult actor, and apparently very willing to get completely naked for a role — although his latest full-frontal scene comes with a subject matter that is anything but sexy.
Lipnicki stars in Primetime, the psychological thriller starring Robert Pattinson as To Catch a Predator host Chris Hansen. In the film, Lipnicki plays a paedophile who is caught while attempting to meet an underage boy, leading to a full-frontal scene that even the actor admits was intimidating.
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And if the words “Jonathan Lipnicki” and “full frontal” were not already enough to make you do a double take, Lipnicki has revealed that this is actually not his first time filming full-frontal nudity.
The internet, naturally, has already found its own way to process the information. One person hilariously tweeted a photo of Chris Evans in a movie scene with whipped cream as a visual representation of their apparent movie preference, captioning it simply: “Jonathan Lipnicki in Primetime.”
It is, admittedly, a very internet way of saying oh, so this is what we’re talking about.
Jonathan Lipnicki Says Full Frontal Wasn’t the Scariest Part
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Lipnicki explained that he knew exactly what he was signing up for when the role landed in his inbox. His initial reaction was apparently a mixture of amusement and anxiety.
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“Yes, they sent the scenes. I laughed, but it also gave me a lot of anxiety. It’s a crazy thing to wrap your brain around. As actors, we pray for dark material and for things we can really sink our teeth into. At the end of the day, you have to ask yourself, “Am I as courageous an artist as I say I am?” I had to answer that question, and I was courageous enough to take the plunge.”
So, no, Lipnicki was not exactly casually wandering into a nude scene. He knew the material was going to be difficult — and deliberately chose to tackle it.
The actor has previously said he wanted more challenging roles, explaining that he had “prayed for dark material” to sink his teeth into. Primetime certainly delivered on that request.
The Stuart Little Star Has Done Full Frontal Before
If the nudity itself sounds like the biggest hurdle, Lipnicki would like to clarify that he has already crossed that particular theatrical boundary. When asked whether he was more uncomfortable playing a paedophile or appearing fully nude, he admitted that the two were difficult to separate.
“I don’t know if I separated them. I’ve done full frontal before in a play, Lost Girls, so that part didn’t bother me as much. It was probably the combination. If you’re full frontal in another type of scene, it’s different. 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. Even after I shot it, I thought, “I really hope I made the right decision.” But I’ve tried to live by the idea that, when it comes to art, if something scares you, most likely you should do it.”
And honestly, “you’re a naked, full-frontal pedophile” is probably one of the more unusual descriptions an actor can give of their own film role.
For Lipnicki, though, the nudity was ultimately part of what made the character so uncomfortable — and therefore potentially more challenging as an acting exercise.
What Happens to Jonathan Lipnicki in Primetime?
In Primetime, Lipnicki’s character is shown nude during a predator sting as Hansen catches him while he is attempting to meet an underage boy for sex.
The film takes inspiration from the real-world To Catch a Predator format, the Dateline NBC segment in which Hansen confronted suspected child predators who believed they were meeting minors online. The people they encountered were actually adult decoys.
Directed by Lance Oppenheim, Primetime marks his first fictional feature after his work primarily focused on documentaries. The film premiered earlier this month at the Venice Film Festival, where it received a lengthy standing ovation.
From Stuart Little to Seriously Dark Material
For anyone who still has Jonathan Lipnicki mentally filed under “cute kid from Stuart Little,” Primetime is a fairly dramatic reminder that the actor grew up.
Lipnicki is now taking on roles about as far removed from talking mice and wholesome family comedy as you can get. His latest character is deliberately disturbing, the full-frontal scene is hardly conventional, and the actor himself admits that the combination made him question whether he had made the right call.
But that discomfort is also precisely why he wanted the part.
The kid who once helped make Stuart Little a childhood favorite is now asking audiences to watch him tackle material that is genuinely difficult to sit with. And if his goal was to prove he can sink his teeth into dark material, well… mission accomplished.