Armie Hammer speaks out 2 years after sexual misconduct allegations

Armie Hammer is speaking out, nearly two years after he was accused of rape and abuse by an ex-partner.

The Call Me By Your Name star stepped back from the spotlight in 2021, after DMs allegedly belonging to the actor surfaced on an anonymous Instagram account. The messages attributed to Hammer included talk of cannibalism and violent, aggressive sex. Later, former partners of Hammer accused him of non-consensual behavior during their relationship, with one alleging that he carved the letter A on her body without explicit permission. A previous partner accused him of emotional, physical and mental abuse and rape, a case which the Los Angeles Police Department went on to investigate.

Hammer broke his media silence in an interview with Air Mail this week, in which he denied having non-consensual sex with any of his previous partners. (Hammer was not charged following the 2021 Los Angeles Police Department investigation into the rape and abuse claims made by Hammer’s former partner.) He spoke about his interest in BDSM, and said he believed it stemmed from sexual abuse he experienced as a child, which “set a dangerous precedent” for his future relationships.

“What that did for me was it introduced sexuality into my life in a way that it was completely out of my control,” he told the magazine. “I was powerless in the situation. I had no agency in the situation. My interests then went to: I want to have control in the situation, sexually.”

He also claimed that the rape his accuser publicly discussed was part of their BDSM relationship and a consensual 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,” Hammer said, adding that they “only had one, scheduled CNC event.”

While Hammer stated that his relationships were consensual, he added that his behavior towards his partners outside of his marriage to now ex-wife Elizabeth Chambers could be “one million percent” considered emotionally abusive.

“I’m here to own my mistakes, take accountability for the fact that I was an a*****, that I was selfish, that I used people to make me feel better, and when I was done, moved on,” Hammer explained. “And treated people more poorly than they should have been treated.”

He also acknowledged the summer 2022 stories about him working as a timeshare salesman in the Cayman Islands, where he spent much time following the allegations. Though he was not making money, he became the subject of an immigration investigation over a lack of a work permit. Finding a “normal life,” he said, was the only route to go as in Hollywood, “no one will hire me.”

“No one will insure me. I can’t get bonded for a project — nothing,” he said of his future acting career. “And no one will touch me because if they hire me, then they are the people who support abusers. And then they’re liable to get canceled themselves because this fire that is burning itself through town — when they throw someone like me on the fire to protect themselves, what they don’t realize is happening is all they’re doing is making the fire bigger. And that fire is now out of control and it’s going to burn everyone. And they’re just continually throwing people on it as sacrifices to protect themselves.”