Photo Credit: Painful Lessons Podcast
Armie Hammer recently addressed the scandal that derailed his career during an appearance on the "Painful Lessons" podcast. The actor spoke candidly about the "bizarre" accusations of cannibalism and sexual misconduct that emerged years ago, drastically impacting his life and career.
“There were things that people were saying about me that just felt so outlandish. That I was a cannibal. People called me a cannibal and everyone believed them. They’re like, ‘Yep, that guy ate people.’ You’re just 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.”
The allegations first surfaced in early 2021, when several of Hammer's former partners accused him of various forms of abuse. One ex-girlfriend, Effie Angelova, accused him of violent rape and abuse in 2017, while another, Courtney Vucekovich, claimed he expressed a desire to "break my rib and barbecue and eat it."
Reflecting on the scandal, Hammer described it as an "ego death" and a "career death," comparing it to a "neutron bomb" going off in his life. “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,” he said. The fallout led to his removal from several high-profile projects and being dropped by his agency, WME.
Despite the turmoil, Hammer expressed gratitude for the personal growth that followed. “Whatever it was that happened, I’m now at a place in my life where I’m grateful for every single bit of it. 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.”
Hammer also revealed that the intense public scrutiny led him to contemplate suicide. “I just walked out into the ocean and swam out as far as I could and hoped that either I drowned, or was hit by a boat, or eaten by a shark,” he recalled, but decided against it for the sake of his children.
