Armie Hammer is trying to rebuild his career three years after abuse allegations were revealed in February 2021.
Hammer said during the “Painful Lessons” podcast that while his acting career is “nowhere now,” he is writing a screenplay.
“It was an ego death, a career death,” Hammer said of being accused of abusing and assaulting women. “A neutron bomb went off in my life. It killed off [everything]. […] I am not a viable commodity for the entertainment industry, in terms of the Hollywood system. I am not welcome to play in that sandbox, for right now. I am not allowed in that sandbox. But I’m an artist. This is what I love to do. I have done nothing in my adult life except make films and do plays. It’s what makes my soul speak, it’s what makes me happy. It’s what I love.”
Hammer continued, “Even though I’m not welcome in their sandbox, I just decided I’m going to make my own sandbox. If you won’t let me play in yours, I’ll go play in mine. I’ve written a script with my buddy Jerry. We’re in the middle of trying to put that project together. I don’t want to go into the details of it right now but we have a script and it’s something that we’re passionate about and it’s something that I’m going to go do. I don’t know what the future of that is going to look like, I don’t know what the response of that is going to be, but those are things out of my control. I’m powerless over what peoples’ response to it is going to be, essentially. But I can go do something that I’m passionate about. Just because they tell me I can’t do it doesn’t mean that I have to listen.”
The script “mirrors [Hammer’s] life,” according to the podcast host.
“Writing this script has been incredibly cathartic,” Hammer said. “We took an original piece of source material that was then turned into a film that we looked at and said, ‘There’s a lot of parallels here, albeit some more subtle and some more overt.’ So we took that and made it much more autobiographical and adapted it so it would be something that is cathartic. I’ve got to say, working on a script and writing was just as fulfilling in terms of using creative muscles as being on a set, and in some ways, more. This is ours. We can do whatever the fuck we want. We’re really proud of it.”
The star compared the “deaths” of his career to a “hero’s journey.”
“I’m not saying that I’m a hero. I’m using Joseph Campbell’s words,” Hammer explained. “But if you can access the idea of death as a transitory phase into the next part of your life, then you end up being grateful for all of these little micro-deaths.”
Hammer added that it “felt like I was in a tornado” when the allegations came to light.
“I wanted to go out there and be like, ‘This is crazy! What is everyone talking about?’” Hammer said. “Now I’m able to sort of look at it in a distance with some perspective. And now I’m like, ‘This is hilarious.’”
The “Social Network” alum also was at the center of rumors of cannibalistic fetishes, including allegedly telling women he wanted to eat them. An LAPD investigation began after the claims were made public. Hammer was dropped from roles in Amazon’s “Shotgun Wedding,” Paramount’s “The Offer,” Starz’s “Gaslit,” and Broadway’s “The Minutes.”
“People called me a cannibal, and everyone believed them,” Hammer said. “They’re like, ‘Yep, that guy ate people.’ 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.”
Now, Hammer is “grateful” for the accusations, despite the “discrepancies” in the claims.
“I’m actually now at a place where I’m really grateful for it because where I was in my life before all of that stuff happened to me I didn’t feel good I never felt satisfied I never had enough I never was in a place where I was happy with myself where I had self-esteem,” Hammer said. “I never knew how to give myself love. I never knew how to give myself self-validation but I had this job [as an actor] where I was able to get it from so many people that I never had to learn how to give it to myself.”
The actor previously spoke out in a 2023 interview with Air Mail and admitted to having a suicide attempt at the time of the controversies.
“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,” Hammer said. “Then I realized that my kids were still on shore, and that I couldn’t do that to my kids.”
