Armie Hammer doesn’t care that people call him a “cannibal” anymore. Now, the actor – whose time in the spotlight was derailed after he faced accusations of sexual assault and rape – is welcoming the label that’s followed him for years.
In the debut episode of his new podcast, Armie HammerTime, the 38-year-old actor explained how his perception of the rumor has changed since his social media scandal in 2021.
Hammer launched the new podcast on October 28, with actor Tom Arnold as his first guest. During the episode, the Social Network star confessed he’s embraced being labeled a “cannibal.”
“I’m not gonna lie. I’m just like, ‘Hey, I’m a cannibal,’” he told Arnold. “What makes more noise? ‘Armie Hammer is a cannibal’ or ‘Armie Hammer might not be a cannibal?’
“You don’t get an apology tour in this world. Someone says something about you, everyone believes it and then they move on with their lives to whatever it is that they’re focused on, because they’ve got their own lives,” Hammer said.
The Call Me By Your Name actor became the center of a social media scandal in 2021, after messages he had allegedly sent detailed graphic sexual desires and cannibalistic fetishes. He was subsequently accused of rape and abuse by various women, but has consistently denied any criminal wrongdoing and was not charged with sexual assault following an investigation by Los Angeles police.
His attorney has repeatedly stated that all of his relationships with women were consensual. Still, the allegations ultimately caused his career to come crashing down.
While Hammer has seemingly come to terms with being called a “cannibal,” he used to be extremely irritated by the accusations. Speaking on the Painful Lessons podcast in June, the actor called the rumors “outlandish.”
“There were things people were saying about me that felt so outlandish… that I was a cannibal,” he said.
Hammer admitted that he now finds humor in the accusations, saying: “Now I can look back with some distance and think, ‘That’s hilarious.’ Like, people called me a cannibal, and everyone believed them.”
The actor also detailed his confusion surrounding the cannibalism allegations, as he recalled thinking at the time: “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?”
Hammer’s podcast marks his first project since his most recent on-screen appearance in the 2022 film, Death on the Nile. Prior to the social media scandal, Hammer and his ex-wife Elizabeth Chambers, announced their separation in July 2020. They finalized their divorce in June 2023.
The former couple share daughter Harper, nine, and son Ford, seven.
