Armie Hammer says he feels ‘grateful’ after cannibalism allegations and time in rehab
‘How am I going to be a cannibal?’ the actor asks incredulously in a podcast, in response to the 2020 scandal that led to his divorce and demise in Hollywood. He claims that the allegations were a ‘neutron bomb’ to his life, and admitted to having suicidal thoughts
It’s been more than three and a half years since Hollywood was left speechless after learning of allegations about one of its biggest stars. Armie Hammer, 37, the well-known actor, imminent heartthrob and descendant of a millionaire family, was accused at the end of 2020 of cannibalism by one of his ex-partners. The accusations were followed by complaints of sexual abuse, although after an investigation the Los Angeles prosecutor’s office did not file charges. Hammer retired from public life — the allegations taking a toll on him both professionally (he left projects such as a series about The Godfather and a film with Jennifer Lopez) and personally (his wife and mother of his two children divorced him) — and hid in the Cayman Islands. There are hardly any photos of him since then. But, now, the Call Me By Your Name actor has broken his silence on what happened.
Almost a year and a half ago, at the beginning of February 2023, Hammer commented on his situation for the first time in an interview with the weekly digital magazine Air Mail. In the article, the actor said he wanted to “take accountability for the fact that I was an asshole, that I was selfish, that I used people to make me feel better.”
But now he has gone a step further. Although he still has not shown his face, he has taken part in a Painful Lessons podcast, in an episode chapter titled “Armie Hammer Breaks Silence: Overcoming Adversity and Finding Inner Peace.” Speaking with more lightness than he did 16 months ago, but still with some pain, Hammer explains his disbelief at the allegations. “There were things that people were saying about me that just felt so outlandish … that I was a cannibal. Now I’m able to sort of look at it with a sense of distance and perspective and be like, ‘that’s hilarious.’ Like, people called me a cannibal and everyone believed them.”
With some pain but now with a little more lightness than in his statements 16 months ago, Hammer speaks about the matter even with disbelief. “People called me a cannibal, and everyone believed them,” he said on the podcast. “They’re 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?! It was bizarre.”
In early 2021, a woman with whom he had had relations accused Hammer of sending her messages in which he told her that he was “100% a cannibal.” “I want to eat you,” he continued. “Fuck that’s scary to admit. I’ve never admitted that before. I’ve cut the heart out of a living animal before and eaten it while still warm.” In another, he says: “thinking of holding your heart in my hand and controlling when it beats” “made me so hard.”
Now, Hammer has reflected on the controversy sparked my the messages. “There were things that people were saying about me that just felt so outlandish … that I was a cannibal. Now I’m able to sort of look at it with a sense of distance and perspective and be like, ‘that’s hilarious.’ Like, people called me a cannibal and everyone believed them,” he said on the podcast.
Hammer admits that, at first, he felt some resentment, but that now he feels gratitude. “Even in the indiscrepancies [sic], whatever it was that people said… 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 didn’t feel good [...] 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.”
The nine months he spent in rehab in 2021 also helped him get out of the tunnel.
But those moments were also very hard for him. Hammer said he hit “rock bottom,” with the accusations causing “an ego death, a career death.” “It’s almost like a neutron bomb went off in my life,” he said. The actor is now trying to restore his career by writing a script.
“It’s almost like a neutron bomb went off in my life,” he said of that period. “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.”
He says that at that time he had suicidal thoughts and said he struggled to cope with all the backlash. “I was standing at the shore and I swam out really far and just laying there... a half-assed suicide attempt… But I thought I couldn’t do that to my kids,” he said, referring to his two children with Elizabeth Chambers: Harper Grace, nine, and Ford Douglas Armand, seven.
When the scandal broke out, Chambers said she was “devastated” by the allegations and offered to support all victims of abuse.
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