UNITED STATES: The popular American actor Armie Hammer, who has been embroiled in controversy since 2021 after numerous women accused him of sexual abuse, has finally broken his silence, denying all the rape allegations while acknowledging that he was emotionally abusive in his relationship.
The Social Network star opened up about his dark time in a recent interview, saying, “I had a very intense and extreme lifestyle.” “I would scoop up these women, bring them into it—into this whirlwind of travel and sex and drugs and big emotions flying around—and then, as soon as I was done, I’d just drop them off and move on to the next woman, leaving that woman feeling abandoned or used.”
Additionally, he disclosed that a youth pastor had sexually assaulted him while he was a teenager and that he had suicidal thoughts after the scandal surfaced.
“What that did for me was introduce sexuality into my life in a way that was completely out of my control.” I was powerless in the situation. I had no agency in the situation. My interests then went to wanting to have sexual control in the situation,” he said.
Hammer vehemently denied any criminal wrongdoing, claiming that all of the interactions that were the subject of the 2021 charges against him were consensual. However, he said that in his relationship with the women, the “power dynamics were off.”
In the same interview, Hammer says he accepts responsibility for his mistakes and has gone into rehab for his substance abuse. He claimed that he was now “a healthier, happier, more balanced guy.”
As Hammer dealt with a flurry of charges of sexual assault and abuse in February 2021, he explained the situation as “swimming out of the ocean” with suicidal thoughts.
“I just walked out into the ocean and swam out as far as I could and hoped that either I drowned, was hit by a boat, or was eaten by a shark,” he stated, adding, “Then I realised that my kids were still on shore, and that I couldn’t do that to my kids.”
Hammer, who is a father of two, got divorced from his wife of ten years in summer 2020. Six months later, accusations against Hammer began to surface in January 2021, when an unidentified Instagram user by the name of @houseofeffie posted screenshots of violent and explicit texts that Hammer had written.
Soon after, other women came forward with similar claims of emotional and sexual abuse in their interactions with Hammer between 2017 and 2020.
Hammer was ultimately fired from his talent agency and was either let go of or withdrawn from several high-profile projects.
The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) launched a probe into Hammer’s alleged sexual assault in February 2021.
Inquiries on the inquiry were not immediately answered by LAPD, and the department has not given any updates to the general public regarding its progress.
Hammer began his acting career with a number of minor appearances on the television series Desperate Housewives, Gossip Girl, and Arrested Development.
His breakthrough performance was as Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss in David Fincher’s 2010 film The Social Network. During filming, actor Josh Pence stood in as a body double.
After that, he was offered a number of important parts in movies including J. Edgar (2011), The Lone Ranger (2013), and The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (2015).
For his role in Luca Guadagnino’s “Call Me by Your Name” (2017), he received a Golden Globe nomination for “Best Supporting Actor.” His most recent appearance was in the Kenneth Branagh movie Death on the Nile (2022).
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