Armie Hammer is opening up about the aftermath of shocking allegations of cannibalism and sexual abuse that brought his Hollywood career to a grinding halt, telling a podcast that he is "grateful" for the experience.
In 2021, the "Rebecca" actor, 37, was accused by multiple women of abusive and disturbing behavior, including a claim that he openly fantasized about cannibalism. The Instagram account House of Effie kicked it off sharing screenshots allegedly showing Hammer asking a partner if he could "cut off one of your toes and keep it with me in my pocket so I always had a piece of you in my possession" and describing himself as "100 per cent a cannibal."
Effie Angelova, 26, accused Hammer of raping her and abusing her "mentally, emotionally and sexually" during their relationship in 2017. Another ex-girlfriend, Courtney Vucekovich, told Page Six that Hammer told her "he wants to break my rib and barbecue and eat it."
Hammer has denied the claims. During an appearance Sunday on the "Painful Lessons" podcast, Hammer said he is now "grateful for every single bit" of the fallout from the accusations.
"People called me a cannibal, and everyone believed them," Hammer said. "They're like, 'Yep, that guy ate people.' Like, what? What are you talking about? Do you know what you have to do to be a cannibal? You have to eat people! How am I going to be a cannibal?! It was bizarre."
Hammer claimed there were "discrepancies in whatever it was that people said," but said that he is nevertheless "now at a place in my life where I'm grateful for every single bit of it."
"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 where I had self-esteem," Hammer said.
"I never knew how to give myself love. I never knew how to give myself self-validation but I had this job where I was able to get it from so many people that I never had to learn how to give it to myself," he said.
Along with his career, Hammer also lost his marriage. Ex-wife Elizabeth Chambers filed for divorce in 2020 after ten years of marriage, just months before the shocking claims came to light. They share daughter Harper, 9, and son Ford, 7.
"It was an ego death, a career death. A neutron bomb went off in my life. It killed off [everything]," Hammer said. He even admitted attempting suicide.
"There were a lot of times when I thought I can't take this anymore. I was getting hate," he said. "I was standing at the shore and I swam out really far and just laying there..a half-assed suicide attempt...But I thought I couldn't do that to my kids."
But Hammer hasn't entirely given up on working in Hollywood. Although his acting career is over, Hammer said he has been writing a screenplay.
--with reporting by TMX
