Call Me By Your Name and The Lone Ranger star Armie Hammer might be a cannibal. That’s a crazy sentence to read, but in the wake of leaked DMs and audio messages purported to be from the star in which he discussed consuming blood, severing toes, engaging in rape fantasies and enslaving his sex partners, who knows? I mean, he did say “I am 100% a cannibal.”
Since the story broke, a number of his former girlfriends have come forward to reveal that they recognize this behavior and that even if you write the cannibalism stuff off as a mere sexual fetish, there still appears to be a background of mental and physical abuse perpetrated by him. It’s also worth remembering that the lurid cannibal revelations were quickly followed by videos from Hammer’s secret Instagram account that show drug use and him drinking behind the wheel, while he also posted about ways to circumvent drug tests to allow him to see his children, not to mention that bizarre controversy involving the Miss Cayman beauty pageant.
Consequences have been swift as well. Hammer is now hiding out in his family home on the Cayman Islands and has left two major projects that he was attached to. Not only that, but industry insiders are saying that all this has permanently damaged his reputation. Variety spoke to a Hollywood agent recently and they said the following:
“Armie Hammer is someone I wouldn’t want to put near my clients. Someone like that can be a liability, and I wouldn’t want to put my clients in that situation. It can be so damaging. At the very least, I’d have a conversation with the client and make sure that they’re aware with what’s going on before even setting up a meeting.”
L.A. attorney Ryan Baker also gave the newspaper some insight as to how studio heads think, saying:
“When talent is retained, it’s more than just the person who can stand up and recite the lines — there is an image and a persona that producers or others want to attach to their idea. Actions outside of the studio can have a profound impact on the public perception of attaching particular talent to a production.”
And, most brutally, a ‘high-powered publicist’ said that:
“He’s not Tom Cruise. He keeps getting cast, but it’s never a hit at the box office. Who is going to fight in this day and age for a star who has this complicated of a story surrounding him?”
Variety says that “right now, no one wants Hammer’s name anywhere near a project” and it’s unclear if he’ll be able to recover from this. Furthermore, his future movies that have already been shot may be in trouble, too.
The actor is currently scheduled to appear in Disney’s Death on the Nile as part of an ensemble cast, though the Mouse House refused to comment on the allegations. Other upcoming roles that might be in doubt include Universal’s Crisis and Taika Waititi’s Next Goal Wins, both of which were filmed long before this all became news.
There’s no predicting where this tale will go from here, but be sure to keep an eye out for the next chapter of the 2021 Armie Hammer cannibalism scandal.
