Just a few years after it looked like he would see out his days working at a desk job selling timeshares in the Cayman Islands, actor Armie Hammer appears to be staging a remarkable career revival.
If he can pull it off, it will be one for the Hollywood history books.
But there’s rarely a comeback without a confession, so in February 2025 the 38-year-old went on The Louis Theroux Podcast to tell his side of the story.
During the at-times heated interview, Hammer told Theroux that he was not a cannibal despite sending a text that read, “I am 100 per cent a cannibal.”
He had been an “a—hole” and a “d–k” to women, but didn’t break any laws.
“I was selfish, and inconsiderate, and an a—hole, and a cad, and I used people to make me feel better,” he said, insisting, “I was a d–k. That’s not illegal.”
When he was engulfed in scandal in 2021, he was dropped by his agency and from the movie Shotgun Wedding starring Jennifer Lopez. His scenes in the Taika Waititi comedy Next Goal Wins ended up on the cutting room floor, reshot with Will Arnett in his role.
Now, the Call Me by Your Name actor is back in business. He’s set to star in the upcoming Western film Frontier Crucible opposite William H. Macy and Thomas Jane. In it, he plays one of three outlaws who form an uneasy alliance with a former soldier trying to survive Arizona’s harsh elements in the 1870s. He has also started filming Uwe Boll’s latest thriller The Dark Knight.
“I’ve got offers coming in every week, basically, to the point where I’m having to turn down jobs,” Hammer told Theroux. Most pundits believed the allegations that hit Hammer in 2021 were career-ending.
Text messages he sent to an intimate partner detailing his taboo sexual desires, including cannibalism, went public. He was also accused of rape and emotional abuse, which he denied and was never charged for.
Asked directly by Theroux if he was a cannibal, Hammer offered this explanation. “Did I ever have any intention of cutting anything off of anyone or eating anything off of anyone? No. There was never really anything that I wanted,” he told Theroux, suggesting the gruesome texts were his idea of foreplay, at a time when he was reliant on drugs and alcohol.
“Sometimes when you’re involved with a person and you’re dating and you guys are having sex and you are a bit of a provocateur and you are exacerbated by alcohol or drugs … it’s fun to ruffle feathers and it’s fun to push the envelope little by little.”
Now sober, the controversial actor wants his career back and his life back, too.
In the aftermath of his fall from grace, his marriage to Elizabeth Chambers ended and he fled to the Cayman Islands, where he found work selling timeshares.
While a police investigation didn’t result in any charges, the viral text messages remain out there for all to see.
The father-of-two maintains they were taken out of context. In another podcast interview in mid-2024, Hammer hinted that he’s resigned to the fact that his reputation is in tatters, and therefore his “journey” forward is not about convincing anyone he’s a good guy.
“My journey is not explaining myself,” he told Painful Lessons. “My journey is not advocating for myself. It’s just not where I’m at.”
Now, he’s got nothing to lose and everything to gain. Crisis management expert Gary Rosen told MSN that Hammer is in a “no-lose situation”.
But while a major comeback is very possible, he shouldn’t set the bar too high. “He’s not going to be the next James Bond,” Rosen added.
