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Armie Hammer broke his silence.
As you know, the 36-year-old actor made headlines in 2021 when several women came forward accusing him of emotional abuse, manipulation, and sexual violence. His DMs to the victims were leaked on social media at the time, revealing that he not only cheated on his ex-wife Elizabeth Chambers but also had some violent sexual fantasies and cannibalistic fetishes. But it went beyond just that.
Things soon took a serious turn when Armie was accused of rape and battery by a woman named Effie, prompting the Los Angeles Police Department to open an investigation. The Call Me By Your Name star’s exes Courtney Vucekovich and Paige Lorenze also accused him of sexual abuse and have detailed his cannibalistic desires. Armie was dropped from his agency WME and numerous projects, including Jennifer Lopez’s Shotgun Wedding, amid the scandal.
Since then, he has kept a relatively low profile. Well, until now. Because for the first time in two years, Armie sat down for an interview with Air Mail on Saturday to talk about the allegations of abuse and sexual misconduct leveled against him. While The Social Network star denies all criminal wrongdoing as he’s done in the past, he admits to being emotionally abusive toward former partners, saying:
“I’m here to own my mistakes, take accountability for the fact that I was an a**hole, that I was selfish, that I used people to make me feel better, and when I was done, moved on. I’m now a healthier, happier, more balanced person. … I’m truly grateful for my life and my recovery and everything. I would not go back and undo everything that’s happened to me.”
Armie claimed that his interest in BDSM stems from being sexually abused by his youth pastor when he was 13 years old, which was corroborated by two people including his godmother. He said he told his parents that the pastor made him feel uncomfortable at the time. However, they were allegedly dismissive of the accusation, responding like:
“This is a man of God … How dare you say these kinds of things? He wants to give you attention, and that’s nice.”
Looking back at what happened, Armie told the outlet “it introduced sexuality into my life in a way that it was completely out of my control,” explaining:
“I was powerless in the situation. I had no agency in the situation. Sexuality was introduced to me in a scary way where I had no control. My interests then went to: I want to have control in the situation, sexually. … because being out of control was very dangerous for me and very uncomfortable.”
He then goes on to discuss the sexual assault allegations. As we mentioned before, Armie was previously accused of sexually abusing a former partner identified as Effie. She specifically alleged that he slammed her head against a wall, beat her feet, and “violently raped” her for over four hours in 2017. She said during a March 2021 press conference:
“I tried to get away, but he wouldn’t let me. I thought that he was going to kill me. He then left with no concern for my well-being. I was completely in shock and couldn’t believe someone I loved did that to me. I tried so hard to justify his actions, even to the point of responding to him in a way that did not reflect my true feelings.”
So, so awful.
Armie denied the allegations, saying through his attorney that his sexual interactions “have been completely consensual, discussed and agreed upon in advance, and mutually participatory.” And now, he shut down the accusations once again, alleging that their encounter was a “consensual non-consent scene” – a practice he claimed to have learned about from Effie. The actor claimed “every single thing was discussed beforehand” between him and Effie in a since-deleted conversation on Facebook Messenger:
“If I still had these messages, I would have been able to put this to bed in .5 seconds. This alleged rape was a scene that was her idea. She planned all of the details out, all the way down to what Starbucks I would see her at, how I would follow her home, how her front door would be open and unlocked and I would come in, and we would engage in what is called a ‘consensual non-consent scene,’ CNC.”
He continued:
“That’s a very important part of the BDSM world. The consent. Because you’re doing things that are pushing envelopes. You’re doing things that are beyond the [realm of] ‘Let’s have missionary sex with the lights off.’ You have to have that trust. You have to have that vulnerability with someone. You have to have that aspect of ‘I am willingly giving my control over to this person,’ … You know, the [the submissive partner] is the one who actually has all the power. Always. They’re the ones who can say ‘stop’ at any moment. They’re the ones who set the boundaries.”
As for the rape accusation? He insisted he has “never thrust this on someone unexpectedly,” adding:
“Never. The whole point of this is mutual pleasure. If you’re engaged in some sort of sexual act with someone and they’re not enjoying themselves, for me, I’m not enjoying myself. When two people are engaged in something, especially an intense scene, the symbiosis of it is what makes it magical. If one person’s not enjoying it and you feel that energy, maybe there are people who enjoy that, but that’s not me. I get so much pleasure giving someone pleasure.”
Speaking on the other accusers, Armie denied any non-consensual sexual activity with Courtney and Paige – including carving the letter “A” near her vajayjay. According to the leading man, he “lightly traced” his initials on her skin, with her permission, and it ended up bleeding a little. However, Armie acknowledged that “the power dynamics were off” in the relationships due to his age and fame. He also admitted to being “one million percent” emotionally abusive toward the women:
“They could have been happy to just be with me and would have said yes to things that maybe they wouldn’t have said yes to on their own. That’s an imbalance of power in the situation. I had a very intense and extreme lifestyle, and 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.”
While his life was unraveling in the wake of the sexual assault and cannibalism controversy, Armie revealed to Air Mail that he contemplated suicide while quarantining in the Cayman Islands in early 2021:
“I just walked out into the ocean and swam out as far as I could and hoped that either I drowned or was hit by a boat or eaten by a shark. Then I realized that my kids were still on shore, and that I couldn’t do that to my kids.”
Following the accusations, he also said he hasn’t been able to keep a job:
“No one will touch me, because if they hire me, then they are the people who support abusers.”
But after going to rehab for alcohol and drug addiction last year, Armie shared he is working as a sober companion for a recovering addict. He still hopes to return to acting one day like his friend Robert Downey Jr. did following his drug charges and stints in jail:
“There’s examples of people who went through really difficult times and experienced what Joseph Campbell would call ‘the hero’s death.’ And the hero must die so the hero can be reborn again. There are examples everywhere, Robert being one of them, of people who went through those things and found redemption through a new path. And that, I feel like, is what’s missing in this cancel-culture, woke-mob business.”
He continued:
“The minute anyone does anything wrong, they’re thrown away. There’s no chance for rehabilitation. There’s no chance for redemption. Someone makes a mistake, and we throw them away like a broken disposable camera. Robert and others are examples of what it looks like for a human being to experience pain and then growth. And that aspect of it is something that I aspire to.”
At this time, none of the victims have spoken out about the interview.
If you or someone you know has experienced sexual violence and would like to learn more about resources, consider checking out https://www.rainn.org/resources. If you or someone you know is contemplating suicide, help is available. Consider contacting the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988, by calling, texting, or chatting, or go to 988lifeline.org. If you have sincere cause to suspect child abuse, call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child or 1-800-422-4453, or go to www.childhelp.org.
The post Armie Hammer Breaks His Silence On Sexual Assault Accusations: ‘I’m Here To Own My Mistakes’ appeared first on Perez Hilton.
