Actor Armie Hammer said he is a changed man following his precipitous fall from leading man to public pariah.
In the first episode of his new Armie HammerTime Podcast, Hammer sat down with fellow actor Tom Arnold to discuss the ups and downs of their careers, marriages, and how their respective childhood traumas influenced who they are today.
“I have to be aware of when I’m using charm or niceties to get something that I want,” said Hammer, adding that he inherited his father Michael Armand Hammer’s charm, which can sometimes come off as manipulative.
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“I look back at my dating history. I was a successful actor, I had all of these things working for me. It was very easy for me,” said Hammer—until it wasn’t.
Amid mounting allegations of rape, sexual and emotional abuse and being a “cannibal” after his private exchanges were leaked, Hammer was dropped by his agent and publicist and forced out of Hollywood. He denied the allegations in an interview with Piers Morgan, describing the ordeal in his podcast as “a train that is running away.”
Hammer quipped that he “kind of likes” the rumors surrounding him now.
“I’m not gonna lie, I kind of like the cannibal stuff now. I’m just like, ‘Hey, I’m a cannibal,’” Hammer told Arnold.
“What makes more noise? ‘Armie Hammer is a cannibal’ or ‘Armie Hammer might not be a cannibal?’”
“When something like this happens we do all this work on ourselves not so that we can get the jobs back, but so that we don‘t care if we get the jobs back, and I think that’s where I feel like I am now.”
Getting more introspective about his sexuality and the “type of sex that I like,” Hammer said he realized that it is tied to the sexual abuse he suffered as a child, allegedly at the hands of a priest.
“My sexuality moving forward was affected by the way that I was introduced to sexually,” said Hammer. “I was introduced to sex in a way where I was completely out of control in the situation. So my response was I am going to engage in a kind of sex where I am in complete control. And that is a safe way for me to take my power back.”
In the end, Hammer said he is “grateful for having gone though all of that bull shit because now where I am is so much better than if all of that never happened.”
