By now, you’ve probably heard something about the Armie Hammer (star of Netflix’s recent Rebecca remake as well as critical favorites The Social Network and Call Me by Your Name, along with an especially weird Running Wild With Bear Grylls episode) controversy that started bubbling up over the weekend. There are alleged Instagram DMs (a lot of alleged DMs) about Hammer’s sex life and alleged cannibal fantasies, and he’s now dropped out of Shotgun Wedding, an action-comedy movie that co-stars Jennifer Lopez. It’s a mess, to say the very least.
Armie is now speaking out. He’s calling the whole controversy “bullsh*t” and says that he exited Shotgun Wedding out of concern for his children. Here’s his statement via Variety:
“I’m not responding to these bullsh*t claims but in light of the vicious and spurious online attacks against me, I cannot in good conscience now leave my children for 4 months to shoot a film in the Dominican Republic. Lionsgate is supporting me in this and I’m grateful to them for that.”
Deadline reports that Hammer’s role in Shotgun Wedding will be recast, and a Lionsgate representative stated, “Given the imminent start date of Shotgun Wedding, Armie has requested to step away from the film and we support him in his decision.”
To fill in some of the blanks here, let’s dig in… “cannibal,” seriously? It’s something. It’s also important to note that none of the alleged messages have been substantiated as authentic, but of course, one particular quote — “I am 100% a cannibal. I want to eat you… I’ve cut the heart out of a living animal before and eaten it still warm” — is what initially grabbed a lot of attention. Here’s what began to trickle out on Twitter, and that’s only the beginning.
cont. cause there’s literally,,, too much pic.twitter.com/s5gTOG2BlR
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au. (@gobIinesque) January 11, 2021
KnowYourMeme has a roundup of the scandal, which revolves around alleged messages from Armie to multiple women. There’s talk of his (again, alleged) taste for blood drinking and mentions of rape fantasies and “slaves” and demands that he be addressed as “daddy,” as well as apparent bragging about being unfaithful to his wife (from whom he separated last year), Elizabeth Chambers. More screencaps (initially posted by an Instagram account called House of Effie) of alleged direct messages between Armie and women have surfaced (be warned because they are stomach churning, including a fantasy about, uh, toe removal) and can be found at The Sun.
Meanwhile, a source that claims to be close to Elizabeth Chambers told Daily Mail that she’s “shocked and sickened” and believes the claims made by the women. The source further claims that Chambers was aware of Hammer not remaining faithful during their marriage, but again, none of the alleged messages posted within this controversy have been proven to be real.
(Via Variety, Deadline & Daily Mail)