Armie Hammer said in an interview that all of the cannibalism accusations that tanked his Hollywood career were "hilarious" but maintained that he was "grateful for every single bit of it."
In 2021, The Call Me By Your Name actor faced a slew of sex abuse allegations from multiple women who came forward after an anonymous Instagram user under the account name House of Effie posted explicit messages suggesting Hammer fantasized about "slave" kinks, cannibalism, and other forms of extreme BDSM acts.
At the time, Hammer called the allegations "bullsh*t claims" and “patently untrue" after the posts went viral, leading to his exit from the Jennifer Lopez movie Shotgun Wedding and other projects.
The scandal was covered in the three-part documentary titled House of Hammer on Discovery+.
Amid the controversy, his publicist and his agency, WME, dropped him.
Looking back on the experience, Hammer said on a recent episode of the Painful Lessons podcast that he felt grateful for all of it.
The 37-year-old said:
“Even in the discrepancies, in whatever it was that people said, whatever it was that happened, I’m now at a place in my life where I’m grateful for every single bit of it."
He continued:
“I’m actually now at a place where I’m really grateful for it because where I was in my life before all of that stuff happened to me."
“I never felt satisfied; I never had enough; I never was in a place where I was happy with myself, where I had self-esteem."
"I never knew how to give myself love. I never knew how to give myself self-validation, but I had this job where I was able to get it from so many people that I never had to learn how to give it to myself.”.
“I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy," he said, adding, "but for the people in my life that I truly love, I hope some version — preferably smaller than what I went through — would happen to them as well so they can learn everything that I’ve learned.”
When reflecting on the cannibal accusations, Hammer shook his head and noted:
“There were things that people were saying about me that just felt so outlandish."
"Now, I’m 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… What!? What are you talking about? You know what you have to do to be a cannibal? You have to eat people.”
People were divided on their opinion of Hammer, with some hoping for his comeback while others couldn't ignore the sex abuse allegations.
You can watch the full interview here.
Armie Hammer Breaks Silence: Overcoming Adversity and Finding Inner Peaceyoutu.be
Hammer said the allegations led to “an ego death, a career death.” But after assessing his reckless behavior, he joined a 12-step program.
“I did something wrong. I had behaviors that were not acceptable and I paid a price," he admitted.
"Was that price I paid disproportionate to my behaviors? I think so. But does that change the fact that my behaviors were bad and I have to take accountability for that? No.”
He added:
“It’s almost like a neutron bomb went off in my life."
"It killed me, it killed my ego, it killed all the people around me that I thought were my friends that weren’t — all of those people, in a flash, went away."
“But the buildings were still standing. I’m still here, I still have my health, and I’m really grateful for that.”
Hammer said that in terms of his acting career, he was currently "nowhere" and was not a "viable commodity" for the entertainment industry in terms of Hollywood. He noted that he wasn't welcome to play "in that sandbox."
In response to the limitations placed on him, Hammer said he's "created" his own sandbox by pursuing script writing and said without going into detail that he was in the process of working on a project with a friend.
On a final note, Hammer said his takeaway from the painful lessons was:
"There's no way around that."
He likened those painful lessons to being at a crossroads and said you can choose to "get more angry at the world, and the world doesn't become a better place."
"Or, you can be at that crossroads and go, 'Wow. Why did this happen?' 'What do I need to learn from this situation?'"
"And you can take the high road and that high road is not going to be smooth sailing."
Hammer acknowledged that painful lessons never end in life.
However, he prayed that every single person who chooses to take the higher road gets the same amount of perspective as him and will be rewarded with the same level of gratitude.
