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A brief timeline of Armie Hammer’s wild cannibal controversy & abuse allegations
With Hammer addressing his "career death" on a recent podcast, here's a look back at the timeline of his controversies & allegations.
It’s been a few years since Call Me By Your Name and The Social Network star Armie Hammer stepped out of the spotlight after a swirl of controversies that range from the odd (what’s with this guy and feet?) to the downright disturbing.
In 2021, Hammer was the subject of a number of allegations of sexual abuse and other alarming behavior by multiple women, which led to the actor being swiftly dropped by his agency and a number of projects, only to resurface again in the Cayman Islands later that year.
Though much has gone down in the time since, Hammer’s kept fairly quiet—until now. For some reason, he agreed to appear on an episode of the new self-improvement podcast Painful Lessons, breaking his silence and addressing the controversies in greater detail:
“People called me a cannibal, and everyone believed them. They’re like, ‘Yep, that guy ate people,'” he shared while laughing. “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.”
Still, Hammer says he’s “grateful for every single bit of it,” which, honestly? We’re just even more confused and weirded out now.
To help you stay on top of it all, we present to you a brief timeline of Armie Hammer’s many controversies:
Armie Hammer puts his foot in his son‘s mouth (Fall 2020)
Look, the pandemic was tough on all of us. Suddenly, we were stuck at home and running out of TV shows to stream. But while most people took to baking banana bread, Hammer picked up an odd hobby: Having his then 2-year-old son sucking his toes, which he for some reason decided to post about on the internet? Let’s just say, it set some alarms off in people’s minds about the guy, setting the scene for what was to come.
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Hammer quickly deleted the video, but not before a celebrity blog recorded and reshared it.
The first allegations surface (January 12-14, 2021)
That following winter, an anonymous Instagram user (an account named “House Of Effie”) came forward with shocking allegations against the actor—with the receipts to prove it. Multiple screenshots of text conversations showed Hammer allegedly sending messages about BDSM fetishes and cannibalism, which his representatives labeled an “online attack.”
Days later, an ex of Hammer’s, Courtney Vucekovich, came forward with her own horrifying stories of emotional abuse, which more or less affirmed House Of Effie’s posts as she elaborated on his cannibalistic fantasies. “He said to me he wants to break my rib and barbecue and eat it,” Vucekovich memorably told Page Six.
Clearing the schedule (January – March, 2021)
Shortly after the first allegations surfaced, it was announced Hammer was exiting production of the Jennifer Loepz rom-com Shotgun Wedding citing a desire to spend time with his family. Later in January, Paramount Plus shared he would no longer be involved in The Offer, the streamer’s limited series about the making of The Godfather.
On February 7, he was dropped by his talent agency WME—which did not comment publicly on the situation. On the 22nd, Starz announced Hammer would be recast in their political drama series Gaslit, citing “scheduling conflicts.” By the end of March, he was officially dropped from the thriller Billion Dollar Spy, and at that point, the actor was no longer attached to any upcoming film or TV projects.
Effie speaks, alleging a pattern of abuse (March 18, 2021)
At a press conference, “Effie”—the anonymous woman behind the House Of Effie Instagram account—came forward and accused Hammer of sexual assault while they were dating back in 2017. Over the course of their four-year, on-and-off relationship, she accused Hammer of “mentally, emotionally and sexually” abusing her.
Hammer’s lawyer denied the allegations, claiming the actor’s relationship with Effie was “completely consensual, discussed and agreed upon in advance, and mutually participatory.”
Rehab & re-edits (December, 2021)
Later that year, Hammer’s lawyer confirmed that the actor had left a treatment facility in Florida, which he had reportedly checked into a month prior, enrolling in a program to address “drug, alcohol and sex issues.”
Meanwhile, the first trailers had dropped for Kenneth Branagh’s Agatha Christie adaptation Death On The Nile—which Hammer had completed filming on before any allegations had surfaced. He was initially billed as one of two leads alongside Gal Gadot, but the internet noticed the trailer’s editors did their best to make you believe he wasn’t in the movie at all. Agatha Christie presents: The case of the missing movie star.
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Armie Hammer’s surprising new gig (July, 2022)
Throughout 2022, Hammer was spotted in the Cayman Islands, and at one point various publications cited that he was broke and selling timeshares at a hotel resort. “The reality is he’s totally broke, and is trying to fill the days and earn money to support his family,” a source told Variety. The internet had a field day with paparazzi photos of the actor sporting his “cubicle job” uniform.
Laying down the House Of Hammer (September 2, 2022)
Discovery+ released their controversial three-part docuseries, House Of Hammer, which featured some of the Hammer’s exes who recounted some of their past troubling experiences with the actor. It also, notably, delved into the dark, seedy history of Hammer’s wealthy family, with drama that played out like a season of Succession.
After premiering, Effie accused the series exploiting her trauma—and she didn’t mince words: “When I keep screaming ‘no’ and they keep going, saying they don’t need my permission, they remind me of Armie.”
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Settling up (April – June, 2023)
In April, CNN reported that the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office was investigating Hammer over the claims of sexual assault, but a month later it was announced he would not be facing charges.
As a representative for the DA’s office told People, “Sexual assault cases are often difficult to prove, which is why we assign our most experienced prosecutors to review them. In this case, those prosecutors conducted an extremely thorough review, but determined that at this time, there is insufficient evidence to charge Mr. Hammer with a crime.”
Later that summer, Hammer and ex-wife Elizabeth Chambers reached an settlement agreement in their divorce, which she had filed for three years prior.
A bloody coincidence? (October, 2023)
Somewhere between all of this, Hammer’s Call Me By Your Name director Luca Guadagnino reunited with his former co-star Timothée Chalamet for a new movie called Bones And All… about a nomadic pair of young cannibals. You can’t make this stuff up!
While the filmmaker maintained the whole thing was purely coincidental—the romantic horror film was adapted from a 2015 of the same name—it was hard for folks to not draw parallels. Still, Chalamet managed to stay silent on the subject for the entirety of Bones And All‘s press cycle. It was only in last fall’s GQ cover story that he finally commented, remarking on the irony of the situation and adding his feeling about it all: “These things end up getting clickbaited so intensely. Disorienting is a good word.”
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Armie Hammer returns to social media (November, 2023)
Though Hammer’s Instagram page had previously been wiped of any prior posts, he made his big return to the social networking platform last fall in the strangest way possible: A video recording of a laptop playing a clip of a shirtless man running alongside a horse, which was sitting on Hammer’s lap as he rides in a seemingly empty train car. Hmm… alright then!
His follow-up post a few days later was a shirtless selfie on an LA beach alongside friends. Many found it eerie seeing his smiling face given everything from the years prior, but you could at least describe this as recognizably human behavior (unlike that horse video… again, what???).
Later in the month, he shared a photo with some cousins at a restaurant, and that was his last post to grid, until….
Armie Hammer shares his Painful Lessons (June 16, 2024)
Hammer was a tagged collaborator on a post from Painful Lessons podcast host Tyler Ramsey, which announced the interview and shared a photo of the two standing side-by-side.
In the caption, Ramsey writes, “Armie is honest and real about learning a very painful lesson. We are very grateful for his perspective.”
“It’s almost like a neutron bomb went off in my life,” the actor shared on the podcast. “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 those people, 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.”
Near the end of the conversation, Hammer says his acting career is “nowhere” due to the fact that he’s no longer “a viable commodity” in Hollywood. However, he updated he’s creating his own “sandbox” for himself as an artist, revealing he’s currently writing a script with a friend.
Fingers crossed its not a new take on a Hannibal Lecter story.
For the morbidly curious, you can watch the video version of the Painful Lessons podcast conversation below:
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