In 2021, multiple women came forward with claims of abuse against Hammer.[1][2][3] Hammer denied the allegations, calling them an "online attack". The allegations derailed Hammer's acting career; he abandoned several future projects and was dropped by his talent agency and publicist.[2][4] From April to May 2023, there was an investigation by the Los Angeles District Attorney's office and the LAPD regarding Hammer.[5] The authorities declined to pursue criminal charges against him, citing insufficient evidence.[6]
Early life and background
Armand Douglas Hammer was born on August 28, 1986, in Santa Monica, California.[7][8] His mother, Dru Ann (née Mobley), is a former bank loan officer,[9] and his father, Michael Armand Hammer, owned several businesses, including Knoedler Publishing and Armand Hammer Productions, a film/television production company.[10] He has a younger brother, Viktor, named after their great-granduncle Victor Hammer.[11]
Hammer resided in Highland Park, Texas, an affluent town in the Dallas area, for several years. When he was seven, his family moved to the Cayman Islands, where they lived for five years, and then settled in Los Angeles.[21][22] While residing in the Cayman Islands,[23] he attended Faulkner's Academy in Governor's Harbour and Grace Christian Academy (a school founded by his father) in West Bay, Grand Cayman. As a teen, he attended Los Angeles Baptist High School in the San Fernando Valley. He dropped out of high school in eleventh grade to pursue an acting career. However, he subsequently took college courses at UCLA.[22] Hammer said his parents disowned him when he decided to leave school and take up acting but later became supportive and proud of his work.[24]
Career
2005–2015: Early work and breakthrough
Hammer's professional acting career began with small guest appearances in the television series Arrested Development, Veronica Mars, Gossip Girl, Reaper and Desperate Housewives. His first ventures into film began with a minor role in the 2006 film Flicka, as well as co-starring in a 2008 psychological thriller, Blackout. His first leading role in film came with his portrayal of the Christian evangelist Billy Graham in Billy: The Early Years, which premiered in October 2008.[15] The film garnered Hammer a "Faith and Values Award" nomination in the Grace Award category, which is awarded for the Most Inspiring Performance in Movie or Television by Mediaguide, an organization that provides movie reviews from a Christian perspective.[25]
In 2010 Hammer's breakthrough film role was in David Fincher's The Social Network, about the creation of Facebook. He portrayed the identical twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, with actor Josh Pence serving as a body double during filming. The filmmakers utilized computer-generated imagery during post-production to superimpose Hammer's face over Pence's as well as the use of split-screen photography in certain scenes. In preparation for the film, Hammer stated that he had to learn how to row on both sides of a boat in order to play the twins, who are rowing champions.[28] Hammer and Pence also went through 10 months of extensive twin boot camp in preparation for their roles, in order to "drill the subtle movements and speech patterns that the Winklevosses would have developed over two decades of genetic equality."[29] This film earned Hammer his first critical plaudits, with Richard Corliss of Time magazine remarking that Hammer's portrayal of the twins was "an astonishingly subtle trompe l'oeil of special effects".[30] For his role in the film, Hammer won Toronto Film Critics Association Awards for Best Supporting Actor.[31]
His next role was that of the first associate director of the FBI, Clyde Tolson, in Clint Eastwood's 2011 film J. Edgar. The biographical drama, written by Dustin Lance Black, focused on the expansive career of J. Edgar Hoover, of which the titular role was portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio. The acting was largely praised, with David Denby of The New Yorker calling Hammer's performance "charming", and The Hollywood Reporter's Todd McCarthy describing it as "excellent".[32] McCarthy goes on further in his review to particularly praise the chemistry between DiCaprio and Hammer, specifically in their depiction of the often speculated romantic relationship between their characters, pointing out that, "...the way the homoerotic undertones and impulses are handled is one of the best things about the film; the emotional dynamics, given all the social and political factors at play, feel entirely credible, and DiCaprio and Hammer excel during the exchanges of innuendo, covert desire, recriminations and mutual understanding."[33] Despite this, the film received mixed reviews overall, in part due to the direction and writing, as well as pointed criticism of the makeup used to age DiCaprio and Hammer's characters.[34] Both actors received Screen Actors Guild Awards nods.[35]
The following year, Hammer played Sam Turner in the 2016 film The Birth of a Nation, directed by Nate Parker.[41] The film, which premiered in competition at the Sundance Film Festival, won both the Audience Award and Grand Jury Prize in the U.S. Dramatic Competition. In January 2016, it was revealed that since 2013,[42] Hammer was in contact with the family of the infamous drug lord Edgar Valdez Villarreal and secured the rights to film the life story of the cartel leader.[43] He then had a role in the ensemble of Tom Ford's psychological thriller Nocturnal Animals,[44] played Ord in the action film Free Fire, which was written and directed by Ben Wheatley,[45] and played U.S. Marine Mike Stevens, in Mine.[46]
In the same year, he voiced Jackson Storm, the main antagonist, in Disney-Pixar's animated film Cars 3, as well as starred alongside Geoffrey Rush in Stanley Tucci'sFinal Portrait. The film premiered at the 2017 Berlin International Film Festival and received a theatrical release the following year by Sony Pictures Classics to favorable reviews. Owen Gleiberman of Variety magazine praised Hammer's ability to "suggest turbulent eddies of thought beneath the blondish Clark Kent looks and preppie manners."[51]The Village Voice critic found the performances "uniformly strong" and cited Hammer's portrayal of American author James Lord as the "comic highlight".[52]
In 2021, Hammer both dropped out of and was dropped from a number of acting productions in development in the wake of sexual and emotional abuse allegations, including a sexual assault investigation.[68] Hammer dropped out of the film Shotgun Wedding[69][70][71] and his leading role in the Paramount+ drama miniseries The Offer,[72][73] stepped away from the Starz series Gaslit[74] and the Broadway play The Minutes,[75] and was removed from Billion Dollar Spy.[76] Talent agency William Morris Endeavor dropped Hammer as a client,[77] and it was reported that his publicist would no longer represent him.[78] In December 2021, it was revealed his role in the Taika Waititi film Next Goal Wins had been reshot, with Will Arnett taking over Hammer's role.[79]
Personal life
In May 2010, Hammer married television personality Elizabeth Chambers.[80] Hammer's friend, artist Tyler Ramsey, introduced the pair.[81] They have two children.[82][83]
In 2011, Hammer was arrested at a United States Border Patrol checkpoint in West Texas after marijuana was discovered in his car. El Paso's attorney declined to prosecute the case, as the amount of marijuana Hammer had would only amount to a misdemeanor.[84] In 2013, Hammer said the arrest "was a misunderstanding of laws and interstate laws versus state laws and apparently federal laws supersede state laws."[85]
On July 10, 2020, Hammer and Chambers announced their separation via Instagram.[86] In 2022, Hammer was living in the Cayman Islands to be near Chambers and their children; he was said to have a job selling timeshares, after a previous stint working as a manager for an apartment complex.[87] In June 2023, it was announced that Hammer and Chambers had reached a divorce settlement.[88]
In the summer of 2024, Hammer, who was now without a Cayman Islands work permit, publicly revealed that he was now living in a new apartment in Los Angeles and was now in a bad financial state, with the sex abuse accusations against him resulting in him being unable to find any more acting work.[89][90] Another reason for his financial problems would also be the fact that Hammer now lacked access to his family's money.[89]
Abuse allegations
In January 2021, an anonymous Instagram account released screenshots it claimed were text messages Hammer had sent to various women.[91] He denied that the messages were real and called them an "online attack".[91] The messages contained references to various sexual fantasies. Hammer's legal team has subpoenaed Meta for messaging records they believe will completely exonerate Hammer, but have received no response from the tech company.[92][93][94][95]
One woman who claimed she had been in a relationship with Hammer told the New York Post's Page Six that he had subjected her to emotional abuse and had expressed a desire to cook and eat one of her ribs. She said she attended a hospitalization program for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as a result of the relationship.[96] Another woman who stated that she had been involved with Hammer told Page Six that he had "branded her, purposefully left her covered in bruises, and also talked about 'consuming her'". An attorney for Hammer stated: "These assertions about Mr. Hammer are patently untrue. Any interactions with this person, or any partner of his, were completely consensual in that they were fully discussed, agreed upon, and mutually participatory."[97]
After the allegations were made, Hammer was dropped from a number of film productions and dropped out of others himself.[68]
Also in January, the Grand Cayman police spoke to Hammer about videos leaked from his private Instagram account in which he stated that he had engaged in sexual relations with "Miss Cayman" in the Cayman Islands.[98] The actor subsequently issued an apology in an audio message to the Cayman Compass, clarifying that the woman he referred to in the videos was not associated with the Miss Cayman Islands beauty pageant.[99][100]
In March 2021, the woman who initially came forward with abuse allegations on Instagram identified herself and accused Hammer of raping her in April 2017.[101][2] The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) had previously started a criminal investigation of Hammer; that investigation did not lead to any indictments.[101] Hammer's legal team has denied the allegations.[101] Attorney Gloria Allred stopped representing the woman who had accused Hammer of sexual assault. A source told Us Weekly that Allred "dropped the woman when she wouldn't sign a declaration under perjury of her accusations".[102] The LAPD concluded its investigation in December 2021 and sent its findings to L.A. County District Attorney.[103]
In April 2022, Variety ran an article where Hammer's attorney, Andrew Brettler, released a statement regarding the abuse allegations:[104]
There was never a case. A lot of people think that there was. There was never a lawsuit, never a criminal proceeding. The media are obsessed with that matter. It never turned into litigation or into a criminal charge against anyone. That was a misconception. [...] It captured the public's attention but was completely blown out of proportion — to the extent that there was never anything in court. There wasn't a matter for me to handle other than to help him manage his image in the press.
The 2022 documentary miniseries House of Hammer revolves around the allegations.[105]
In February 2023, Air Mail published a piece titled "Armie Hammer Breaks His Silence". In that piece, reporter James Kirchick examined and called into question many of the abuse allegations against Hammer.[106] In the exclusive interview, Hammer denied the criminal elements of the accusations against him, stating that he had engaged in consensual BDSM acts. Hammer did admit to being emotionally abusive in his relationships with the accusers. He also alleged that he himself had been sexually assaulted at age 13 by a youth pastor.[107]
In May 2023, the investigation by the Los Angeles District Attorney's office and the LAPD regarding Hammer[5] resulted in a decision not to file charges against him; the authorities cited insufficient evidence.[6]
In June 2024, Hammer stated that he was "grateful" for everything that happened, including the allegations of cannibalism, rape, and physical abuse, and described that the "power dynamics were off" in his relationships with women while talking about settling in the Cayman Islands after the reactions, the periods when he felt suicidal, and his plans to write a screenplay.[108] A month later, Hammer spoke about these issues as a guest on Piers Morgan Uncensored.[109] On July 30, a book written by Hammer's mother, titled Hammered, was released where she addressed the allegations.[110]
In August 2024, Hammer revealed on his Instagram page the great financial burden which the allegations put on him, as well the bad financial state he was currently in.[90][89] The prior month, Hammer appeared on Bill Maher's Club Random podcast, where he revealed that he was broke and didn't have access to any of his family's money.[89] In the summer of 2024, Hammer would, among other things, sell his home and the pickup truck which he acquired in 2017 and loved "intensely."[90][89] In the time after the sex abuse allegations surfaced in 2021, Hammer would leave the United States for the Cayman Islands.[90][89] However, Hammer noted during his Club Random guest appearance in July 2024 that he now did have a work permit in the Cayman Islands.[89] On the Instagram post, Hammer stated that he had moved backed to Los Angeles two weeks prior and was now living in an apartment.[90][89] Despite this, he was still without acting work or either a publicist or an agent.[89] According to Hammer, he was able to acquire a new, smaller hybrid car, but now could no longer afford gas money.[90][89]
^"2010 WAFCA Awards". WAFCA.com. The Washington DC Area Film Critics Association. Archived from the original on July 8, 2015. Retrieved February 19, 2019.
^"2017 Austin Film Award Nominees". austinfilmcritics.org. Austin Film Critics Association. December 18, 2017. Archived from the original on March 4, 2022. Retrieved February 20, 2019.
^"2017 Awards (21st Annual)". ofcs.org. Online Film Critics Society. March 6, 2018. Archived from the original on December 28, 2016. Retrieved February 20, 2019.
^"2017 Nominees". phxcritics.com. Phoenix Critics Circle. Archived from the original on February 20, 2019. Retrieved February 20, 2019.