Armie Hammer has announced a career comeback after a series of damaging accusations were made against him three years ago.
The 38-year-old was at the height of his fame – best known for starring in Death on the Nile and Call Me By Your Name – when he was accused of ‘rape, emotional abuse and violence’ by multiple women in 2021, which he denied.
It was also claimed Hammer had a ‘fetish for cannibalism’, as women claimed he made comments about wanting to ‘take a bite’ out of their body parts. He vehemently denied these accusations, previously branding them ‘outlandish’ and ‘bizarre’ on an episode of the Painful Lessons podcast.
Hammer has not worked in the industry since Death on the Nile in 2022, and shortly after the allegations he checked himself into rehab for drug, alcohol and sex issues, and he was dropped by his agency, and removed from upcoming projects.
In a lengthy interview in 2023, Hammer denied any criminal wrongdoings including the ‘sexual abuse and rape’ claims – maintaining all his sexual encounters have been consensual – but did admit he was ‘one million per cent’ emotionally abusive to them.
Now, Hammer is making a big return to screens, as he posted a photo of him in Western film Frontier Crucible, and captioned the photo: ‘Back in the saddle.’
The film, directed by Travis Mills and starring Thomas Jane, follows an ex-soldier haunted by his past as he links up with outlaws to navigate the Arizona frontier in the 1870s.
It came days after he announced he was launching a podcast titled Armie HammerTime, which he billed as a ‘chronicling of putting my life back together”’ with comedian and actor Tom Arnold confirmed as his first guest.
In 2021, Hammer’s lawyers issued a statement to Metro denying the allegations that he ‘violently raped’ a woman named ‘Effie’ in 2017.
‘Effie’ claimed she first met the actor on Facebook in 2016 and they had an on-off relationship between 2016 and 2020.
In a press conference alongside high-profile US lawyer Gloria Allred, ‘Effie’ alleged she was ‘violently assaulted’ for four hours, with the Social Network actor repeatedly ‘hitting her head against a wall’.
Reading from a prepared statement, ‘Effie’ said: ‘I thought he was going to kill me’, adding that Hammer then ‘left with no concern for my well being.’
Hammer’s legal team said their correspondence ‘undermines and refutes’ her claims, and argued that she sent graphic texts to Hammer ‘telling him what she wanted him to do to her’.
‘Mr. Hammer responded making it clear that he did not want to maintain that type of relationship with her. The screenshot below is just one of hundreds [she] sent to Mr. Hammer,’ they said.
Initially, accusations surfaced online via screenshots of direct messages which were claimed to have been sent by Hammer.
Hammer denied the online claims, as he was trending on social media, labelling them ‘bullsh*t’ and ‘vicious’.
None of the messages alleged to have been sent by Hammer were verified.
In a statement, Hammer detailed to Deadline: ‘I’m not responding to these bulls**t claims but in light of the vicious and spurious online attacks against me, I cannot in good conscience now leave my children for four months to shoot a film in the Dominican Republic.
‘Lionsgate is supporting me in this and I’m grateful to them for that.’
A production spokesperson added: ‘Given the imminent start date of Shotgun Wedding, Armie has requested to step away from the film and we support him in his decision.’
In May 2023, the sexual assault charges against Hammer were dropped after an investigation.
‘As prosecutors, we have an ethical responsibility to only charge cases that we can prove beyond a reasonable doubt,’ read a statement by the DA office seen by Variety.
The statement went on to add that ‘due to the complexity of the relationship and inability to prove a non-consensual, forcible sexual encounter we are unable to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt,’ and would not be going forward with the case.
In 2023, Hammer’s divorce from his wife and mother of his children, Elizabeth Chambers, was confirmed after the pair initially split in 2020.
The actor was engaged to 26-year-old IT Consultant Marina Gris, but in January 2024 it was announced that the engagement was called off.
In a June podcast appearance on Painful Lessons, Hammer said he was ‘grateful’ for the accusations, in hindsight.
‘There were things that people were saying about me that just felt so outlandish,’ he said.
‘Yeah that I was a cannibal, now I’m sort of able to look at it with a sense of distance and perspective and be like, “That’s hilarious.” People called me a cannibal and everyone believed them.
‘They were like “yep, that guy ate people.” Like what? What are you talking about? Do you know what you have to do to be a cannibal? You have to eat people! How am I going to be a cannibal?! Like, it was bizarre.’
‘But here’s what I will say about it. Even in the discrepancies, in whatever it was that people said, whatever it was that happened, I’m now in a place in my life where I’m grateful for every single bit of it.’
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