Armie Hammer compares ‘cannibal’ accusations to a ‘neutron bomb’ going off in his life
Embattled actor Armie Hammer is breaking his silence years after alarming allegations of sexual abuse and cannibalism were made by several women, ultimately stalling his once successful career.
"In my case it was an ego death, a career death," Hammer said of the turbulent cancellation he experienced in 2021 while making an appearance on the "Painful Lessons" podcast.
Citing writer Joseph Campbell's work, "The Hero's Journey," Hammer explained that "the hero," (which he isn't calling himself) "must die, so the hero can be born again. If you don't experience these deaths, you're gonna just keep going with whatever that life is. But if you can access the idea of death as a transitory phase, into the next part of your life, then you end up being grateful for all of these little micro-deaths," he explained.
ARMIE HAMMER'S SCANDAL INVOLVING ALLEGATIONS OF DISTURBING FANTASIES, CANNIBALISM EXPLAINED
"I'm really lucky that my death wasn't a physical death. Because the path that I was on before, you know, I was burning the candle pretty hard. On both ends. And you know, there’s only a couple different ways that that story ends. And I’m really grateful that - It’s almost like a neutron bomb went off in my life, right? It killed all the people. 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 these people [gone] 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 admitted.
In January 2021, the "Call Me By Your Name" star's life drastically changed after an Instagram account named House of Effie began sharing screenshots of alleged graphic conversations between Hammer and a woman. The messages, which were unverified, showed Hammer reportedly calling an unknown individual his "slave." In one jarring message, he allegedly admitted to being "100% a cannibal."
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After the initial allegations went viral, other women came forward with similar stories. Courtney Vucekovich told Page Six that during her and Hammer's relationship, he allegedly expressed interest in eating her body parts.
"He said to me, he wants to break my rib and barbecue and eat it," Vucekovich said.
Paige Lorenze, another of Hammer's exes, told Fox News Digital about her relationship with the actor. "He was talking about finding a doctor to remove my ribs that I don't need -- the ribs that are on the bottom -- and that he had a smoker at his house. He wanted to smoke them and eat them. He wondered how they would taste and he basically was like, 'I bet you they would taste good.'"
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"When all of this really kind of started for me, it felt like I was in a tornado," Hammer told host and friend Tyler Ramsey on the podcast. "It felt like the only thing I could do was cover my head and protect my neck, even though I had instincts of lashing out, even though I wanted to go out there and be like, ‘This is crazy. Like, what is everyone talking about?’"
"There were things that people were saying about me that just felt so outlandish…That I was a cannibal," he acknowledged. "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. They’re like, ‘Yep, that guy ate people.’ And you're just like, ‘What? Like, what are you talking about? Do you know what you have to do to be a cannibal? You have to eat people! Like, how am I gonna be a cannibal?' It was bizarre."
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"But here's what I will say about it, even in the indiscrepancies…whatever it was that people said, whatever it was that happened, I'm now at a place in my life where I'm grateful for every single bit of it," the almost 38-year-old actor confirmed. "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 felt satisfied. I never had enough. I never was in a place where I was happy with myself or I had self-esteem," he explained.
"I never knew how to give myself love. I never knew how to give myself validation. But I had this job where I was able to get it from so many people, that I never learned how to give it to myself. If ever I was feeling s---ty about myself, I'd go on Instagram. And look at the comments under a selfie that I posted."
Hammer said that kind of validation was ultimately futile. "I had this tap that I could turn and get all of that. And when that tap ran dry - and I mean it didn't just run dry - instead of adoration or whatever, it started running with just hate."
"It was a crisis. A spiritual crisis, an emotional crisis, and the way I saw it was I have two options here: I can either let this destroy me, or, to the point of your podcast, I can use this as a lesson."
"Now at the time, I didn't have the wherewithal or frame of mind to understand that this was a lesson. But now, being, not only removed from the initial chaos of it, but also having learned everything that I've learned as a result from it, I look at it now and I go, ‘You know what, like, it was awful. And I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy, but, for the people in my life that I truly love, I hope some version, preferably smaller than what I went through, will happen to them as well so they can learn everything that I've learned. And I feel great about it now."