Armie Hammer compared the struggles he went through after being canceled over sexual abuse allegations to the trials and tribulations of Jesus Christ in a bizarre new interview.
While speaking to The Hollywood Reporter this week, the 39-year-old actor made the comparison while recounting how his father, Michael Armand Hammer, urged him to fight back against the allegations that derailed his once-promising career.
‘He was furious,’ Hammer said. ‘”I’m going to call this person, I’m going to do this, we have to make sure they know this.” He really wanted to go on the offensive.’
But Hammer — who revealed how much of his father’s $180 million fortune he inherited in the same interview — wanted to take a public position that would make him appear meek, in which he compared himself to Jesus.
‘I said: “Look, dude, I’m already on the cross,”‘ Hammer recounted. ‘”The nails are in my hands. I’m not getting off this cross no matter what we do. And the more I struggle, the longer I’m going to be up here.”‘
Hammer had been accused in 2021 of violently raping a former girlfriend for ‘hours’ in 2017 – when he was married – while multiple other women accused him of sexual and emotional and psychological abuse, which he has denied.
Armie Hammer compared the struggles he went through after being canceled over sexual abuse allegations to the trials and tribulations of Jesus Christ in a bizarre new interview with the Hollywood Reporter; seen in 2019 in LA
An ex-girlfriend accused Hammer in 2021 of raping her back in 2017, when he was married to Elizabeth Chambers (pictured together in 2018), and multiple other women accused him of sexual and psychological abuse. Text messsages allegedly sent by him that detailed disturbing cannibalism fantasies were also leaked
Around the same time, text messages allegedly sent by him were leaked by his ex-girlfriend Efrosina Angelova, and they revealed stomach-churning fantasies revolving around cannibalism.
While the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office revealed in 2023 that Hammer was under investigation, the case was eventually closed after the district attorney determined there wasn’t enough evidence to charge the Call Me By Your Name star.
Hammer told The Hollywood Reporter that he had become convinced that the only way to weather the storm of accusations and bad publicity was to accept everything as it washed over him.
‘That which you resist persists. That which you accept transforms,’ he said, as if the statement was a mantra. ‘There was nothing I could say that was going to fix anything for me.’
At first, the actor was overwhelmed by a desire to know every negative thing that was written about him.
‘There was a period where I was obsessively reading what people were saying,’ he said. ‘And then it hit critical mass, and I thought: “There is no nutritional value in this for me. This is almost not even the real world.”‘
Hammer was said to have cited a Tyler, The Creator tweet about cyberbullying from 2012 that has gone on to be widely memed: ‘Hahahahahahahaha How The F*** Is Cyber Bullying Real Hahahaha N***a Just Walk Away From The Screen Like N***a Close Your Eyes Haha.’
‘I realized I could just focus on myself and my kids and staying healthy and growing as a person,’ Hammer continued. ‘You can make that your purpose.
Hammer said his father Michael Armand Hammer – who died at 67 in 2022 after a battle with cancer – urged him to go on the offensive against his accusers; (L–R) Victor, Michael and Armie Hammer pictured together in 2009 in LA
But Hammer was convinced he needed to act meek, and he compared himself to Jesus. ‘I said: “Look, dude, I’m already on the cross. The nails are in my hands. I’m not getting off this cross no matter what we do. And the more I struggle, the longer I’m going to be up here”‘; seen in 2019
Despite his self-pitying statements comparing himself to Jesus, Hammer admitted that he was the only one at fault for how the scandal had ballooned.
‘I made these problems for myself. This didn’t happen to me by a fluke accident,’ Hammer said. ‘I didn’t do what people are saying I did. But I brought very dangerous and unsafe people into my life, and I p****d off people in my life – and here we are.’
Hammer went on to recall his emotional and mental state shortly before the accusations began flying.
‘Healthy people don’t act the way I was acting,’ he said. ‘I would have loved if I could have had an opportunity to do it in a little bit more of a gentle way. But at the end of the day – you get what you get.’
After initially suggesting a combative posture, Hammer’s father, Michael Armand Hammer, died at 67 in November 2022 after a battle with cancer.
While speaking to the Hollywood Reporter, Hammer said that the inheritance he received after his father wasn’t enough to allow him to give up the acting game.
‘It’s just one of those things that’s so complicated, you have to be a tax attorney to fully understand it,’ claimed Hammer.
The actor’s great-grandfather, the business magnate Armand Hammer, reportedly left behind $800 million after his December 1990 death, from which Armie’s father inherited $180 million, according to multiple reports.
The actor said he became convinced that he need to accept everything and not push back. In the interview he admitted that he was the only one at fault for his Hollywood scandal, though he denied the accusations made against him; pictured in 2019 in London
Hammer also said that the inheritance he received after his late father wasn’t enough to allow him to give up the acting game; pictured in LA in 2025
The Call Me By Your Name actor said that ‘the end result’ financially following his father’s passing ‘was not I’m set for the rest of my life, or even for the next couple of years … it hasn’t been that.’
After the accusations against Hammer broke, he was dropped by his talent agency WME and lost a number of roles he had on deck, including in the Jennifer Lopez film Shotgun Wedding and the Paramount Plus series The Offer.
Hammer told the outlet that he cared for his ailing father in his final years in the Cayman Islands, where the family owned property.
‘I would bathe him and cook food for him and feed him and change his diapers and do all that stuff,’ the actor said.
Hammer said he and his late father worked through yearslong tensions in his final days.
‘We got to have all those conversations,’ Hammer said. ‘We got to have an amends with each other. We got to really move through it.
‘And then I got to be there holding his hand when he died. Which is like a gift.’
Hammer spoke with the outlet amid an attempted Hollywood comeback, as it was reported that he’s been renting a Los Angeles area home after residing for years in the Cayman Islands in the wake of his scandals.
He recounted bathing and cooking for his father in the final days of his life; pictured in March in Inglewood, Calif.
The Social Network actor said that there has been a period of readjustment amid his relocation.
‘I was back in a city that felt like it used to be my city, but it had moved on without me,’ Hammer told the outlet. ‘I made these problems for myself.
Hammer told THR he gained a measure of clarity in the days following his father’s passing as he had a discussion with ‘an old Jamaican guy’ bemoaning how friends in show business would text him with supportive messages, but not take up for him publicly.
The man laid forth an analogy to Hammer, asking if he would want his friends to get burned if his house was on fire.
‘I would want them to stay as far away from the fire as possible,’ Hammer concluded, to which the man told him, ‘Now you’re thinking like a real friend,’ before wandering off.
He said of the impactful exchange: ‘I think that was a spiritual moment – Joseph Campbell would have called it a mentor moment in my hero’s journey, whatever the f*** that is.’
