Armie Hammer's fall from grace was nothing short of jaw-dropping. The Call Me By Your Name star, 38, was at the height of his fame when he was hit by a series of allegations. In 2021, he was accused of rape and physical abuse - as well as being a cannibal. Having denied the claims made against him, Armie is now attempting to rebuild his career and defend himself against what he calls are "people wanting attention".
Speaking on The Louis Theroux Podcast, the actor, who is the grandson of one of the world's most prolific billionaires, Armand Hammer, seeks to set the record straight on the shocking allegations, including the affair that broke this marriage... Armie's nine-year marriage with the mother of his two kids, Elizabeth Chambers, ended following his affair with a woman named Effie. Talking to Louis about why he was unfaithful, the actor said: "I pursued an affair because things weren't going well.".
Claiming he grew apart from his wife, he continued: "You know, I'm certainly not here to air the dirty laundry of my marriage, but it was a classic tale of two people growing over a long course of a long marriage, and I was married for nine years, and I got married when I was 23, 24 years old, very young, and didn't even have a firm sense or understanding of myself.". Louis says that one of the things that Effie contended was that Armie was cheating on his wife, not just with her, but with other people as well. However, Armie responds: "No, Effie was the first time that I ever stepped out of my marriage. I'd never cheated before that, and then that caused, um, a separation and all that stuff. Um, so, no, there was, in the marriage, there was not.".
There were claims that his affair with Effie lasted four years, however Armie denies this and says the "physical aspect" lasted four months. However, he admits to texting over a "period of time", saying: there was sometimes a sexually heated exchange, between me and the person I had the affair with. You know, I mean, I was getting extremely graphic, sexual messages. And sometimes, late at night, if I was drunk, or if I was feeling lonely or upset.".
In 2021, texts were released following Armie's affair, which showed the actor talking about cannibalism. In one of the now viral messages, the he says: “I am 100 percent a cannibal. F**k, 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.”. When asked by Louis how he can justify the texts, Armie claims they've been "digitally altered" to only show one side of the conversation. He claims: "As you'll notice, of all of the text messages that were released, the person who released them, their side was cut out of the entire conversation. It makes it look like I was just rambling to myself. I mean, if you look, there's really no response in any of the excerpts.".
When pressed on whether he is a cannibal, Armie denies the suggestion, saying: "You know what you have to do to actually be a cannibal? You have to actually eat human flesh. So no. "Did I ever have any intention of cutting anything off of anyone or eating anything off of anyone? No. There was never really anything that I wanted. Was it fun to joke about if I was stoned or drunk or like laughing as I was typing these messages? Sure. That's where context comes in. You make jokes, I'm sure, with your friends that if I took your phone, and made them public, and removed your friend's half of the jokes, you would probably be in hot water.".
Armie was accused of raping a woman in Los Angeles in 2017. The woman, named only as Effie, made the allegations during a virtual news conference, which the actor denied. In 2023, prosecutors confirmed Hammer would not be charged over allegations of sexual assault. Armie said at the time he was "very grateful" to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office, following its decision not to charge him.
Since the scandal, an internet account called Armie Hammer Victims shared posts of a man accusing the actor of raping him. Emphatically denying the claims, which are brought up by Louis, Armie says: "I heard about that. I've never had sex with a man in my entire life. Someone told me that on there, there was a man who accused me of raping him and doing all of these and the second I heard that Armie Hammer victims or whatever it is, was sort of like touting this as one of my victims, when, as I said before, I've never even had sex with a man.".
He continued: "Then I immediately just go, 'oh, okay, well then this source, this site, this page, whatever it is, if they're going, this guy said this, it must be true', when in fact, I know for a fact that it's not, then that makes me question every other thing that's ever been on that page. "Because it's like, well, I don't know where that story came from. I can tell you where I think it came from. Where do you think it came from? From, you know, people wanting to jump on a wave. People wanting attention, people wanting to be a part of a community. They get a lot of attention, they get a lot of support.
