The embattled actor also opened up about contemplating suicide and being sexually abused at 13.
For the first time since sexual misconduct allegations were leveld against him, Armie Hammer is breaking his silence on the rape allegation (which he claims was a meticulously planned out "scene"), being emotionally abusive and selfish, contemplating suicide and being sexually abused at 13.
In an in-depth interview with Air Mail Weekly, the embattled 36-year-old actor addressed head-on the number of sexual misconduct allegations. It's the first time he's spoken about it in such detail since direct messages allegedly written by him first surfaced in January 2021. In those DMs, he allegedly described graphic sexual fantasies, some with references to cannibalism.
Hammer released a statement calling the allegations "bulls**t," but the damage was done. He was subsequently let go from multiple projects he had in the works at the time. Then, two months later, Hammer was accused of rape and battery by a then-24-year-old woman only identified as Effie, since identified as Efrosina Angelova.
Hammer tells Air Mail Weekly the alleged rape was actually a "scene" that he claims they planned out meticulously in advance via conversations over Facebook Messenger. Hammer claims he deleted those messages, and his lawyers vigorously tried to compel Facebook's parent company, Meta, to hand them over to prove his innocence, to no avail.
"If I still had these messages, I would have been able to put this to bed in .5 seconds," Hammer says. "This alleged rape was a scene that was her idea. She planned all of the details out, all the way down to what Starbucks I would see her at, how I would follow her home, how her front door would be open and unlocked and I would come in, and we would engage in what is called a ‘consensual non-consent scene,’ CNC."
Hammer added that, while he and Effie hooked up multiple times, they "only had one, scheduled CNC event." He also claimed it was Effie who introduced him to the "consensual non-consent" world.
The actor said he'd never bring this on anyone without their approval first.
"Every single thing was discussed beforehand," he said. "I have never thrust this on someone unexpectedly. Never."
Hammer, who says his affair with Effie lasted until summer 2017, says things went downhill when he says Effie realized he was never going to leave his wife, Elizabeth Chambers.
"I think she just realized that my marriage was always going to be in the way of us being together,” he said, "and so she called me one day and said, ‘I’m going to tell your wife.’"
Hammer says he begged her not to go through with the threat. He ultimately decided to tell Chambers about the affair, and she took the news "really poorly, which is fair."
After 10 years of marriage, Hammer and Chambers split in July 2020.
Hammer didn't shy away when asked if it's fair to say he's emotionally abusive.
"One million percent," he said.
"I had a very intense and extreme lifestyle,” Hammer added, "and I would scoop up these women, bring them into it -- into this whirlwind of travel and sex and drugs and big emotions flying around -- and then as soon as I was done, I’d just drop them off and move on to the next woman, leaving that woman feeling abandoned or used."
The Social Network actor insists that if he's guilty of anything, it's being emotionally abusive, selfish and an "a**hole."
"I’m here to own my mistakes, take accountability for the fact that I was an a**hole, that I was selfish, that I used people to make me feel better, and when I was done, moved on," he said. "And treated people more poorly than they should have been treated."
In the wide-ranging interview, Hammer also, for the first time, revealed being sexually abused as a child. He claimed it happened at the hands of a youth pastor at the church his family attended. He says he was 13, and that experience is what he says ultimately led him to his explicit interest in B.D.S.M.
"What that did for me was it introduced sexuality into my life in a way that it was completely out of my control," he recalled. "I was powerless in the situation. I had no agency in the situation. My interests then went to: I want to have control in the situation, sexually."
While no charges were ever filed against him in wake of the allegations -- and the attorney who represented Effie has since parted ways with her -- Hammer says it all weighed heavily on him, so much so he says he contemplated suicide in February 2021 in the Cayman Islands.
"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. "Then I realized that my kids were still on shore, and that I couldn’t do that to my kids."
Despite being "not only broke" but "massively in debt," Hammer says he's in a better place now, especially after entering rehab in May 2021.
"I’m now grateful for everything that’s happened to me, because, as it says in the ‘Twelve and Twelve’ [Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, the guidebook of Alcoholics Anonymous], pain is the touchstone of spiritual progress," he says. "I’m now a healthier, happier, more balanced person. I’m able to be there for my kids in a way I never was. I’m able to be there for my dad as he’s dying in a way that I would have never been able to be. I’m truly grateful for my life and my recovery and everything. I would not go back and undo everything that’s happened to me."
Hammer's father, Michael, died on Nov. 20, three weeks after the Air Mail Weekly's interview with the actor.
RELATED CONTENT:
