Armie Hammer has opened up about past allegations against him in the latest episode of The Louis Theroux Podcast, due for release today (February 11).
Known for his prominent roles in The Social Network and The Lone Ranger, Hammer last appeared in the 2022 mystery Death On The Nile. Months before that film’s release, he faced public accusations of sexual assault from multiple women, all of which he has refuted.
No charges were brought against the actor following an investigation, but Hammer was dropped by his agency and forced to leave the film Shotgun Wedding with Jennifer Lopez. His role in Taika Waititi’s comedy Next Goal Wins was also re-shot, his character taken over by Will Arnett.
Within the past year, Hammer has slowly emerged back into the public eye – he was announced as starring in the upcoming Western film Frontier Crucible, and he launched his own podcast, The Armie HammerTime Podcast. In a recent interview, he also claimed that his job slate has been “pretty full” enough that he’s begun to turn down other offers.
He has also previously addressed his past allegations, especially in an interview with Piers Morgan, who asked him specifically about the allegations of cannibalism.
Now, Hammer has spoken at length about the allegations and his career with Theroux in the episode, in which he said that the allegations were “the greatest thing that ever happened to me” after gaining “a sense of distance and perspective from it”.
In a teaser for the episode shared on social media, Theroux asks Hammer if he had anything else to say – to which, Hammer responds that Theroux starting the episode by asking about the allegations “stirs up the water again, unnecessarily” but was glad the two “got to a place where we could have a civil, normal conversation”.
The lengthy interview covered a broad range of topics: his previous behaviour with women – such as the cannibalism texts and his marriage-ending affair – along with his feelings about the accusations, his stint in rehab, and his future in Hollywood.
@officiallouistheroux Tomorrow… Armie Hammer is on the pod. You can find it on Spotify. #TheLouisTherouxPodcast
Theroux brought up one of the texts that revealed Hammer’s alleged cannibalism fetish, which read: “I am 100 per cent a cannibal. 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.”
“Of all 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,” Hammer said. Theroux acknowledged that the “other side” of the conversation was indeed not revealed.
“Correct,” Hammer responded. “Any digitally altered evidence is immediately inadmissible because you have no context.”
He later added: “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.”
The accusations of cannibalism were part of wider allegations involving his overall behaviour towards women: “Does it make me a dick? Absolutely. I have no problem admitting that,” he revealed. “I was a dick. That’s not illegal.”
In 2021, a former partner, previously only known as Effie, had accused Hammer of rape, which he had denied. In the interview, Hammer called Effie “a person who is not well” and someone “who everybody – without choosing to vet, or choosing to sort of critically examine – said, ‘Yep, this all must be true.'”
Effie, identified as Effie Angelova in a Daily Mail article, spoke out last July saying that Hammer’s recent interviews were “causing me more trauma and harm” and that these appearances are “where he smears me and blames me”.
He also spoke about his infidelity, which ended his nine-year marriage to television personality Elizabeth Chambers: “I was unhappy, and I did what unhappy people do in a marriage. I had an affair,” he admitted. He added that his stint in rehab revealed to him “a lot of validation issues” and “a lot of self-love issues” he’s had.
In July 2022, it was reported that Hammer had been working as a timeshare salesman at a hotel resort in the Cayman Islands to support his family after going “broke” from the allegations.
However, his stay in the Caribbean was short-lived, he told Theroux. “I applied for multiple work visas in the Cayman Islands and was rejected every single time,” he admitted, claiming that the government refused his applications “due to issues of character”.
“You know you’ve really stepped in it when an entire government doesn’t want you,” he noted.
Hammer brought up Frontier Crucible, which recently finished filming, and mentioned that he has “another movie in January” and then another one in March. “I’ve got a TV show that I was just offered. I’ve got offers coming in every week, basically, to the point where I’m having to turn down jobs,” he said.
When asked if he would work with director Woody Allen, who has faced longstanding sexual abuse allegations from his adopted daughter Dylan Farrow, he responded: “If I say, ‘no, I would never work with Woody Allen’, then all I’m doing is saying, ‘I believe in this system that cancels people.”
Allen previously spoke about being “cancelled”, telling Variety in 2023: “I feel if you’re going to be cancelled, this is the culture to be cancelled by. I just find that all so silly. I don’t think about it.” The Louis Theroux Podcast is available on Spotify now.