US actor Armie Hammer has revealed he was sexually abused as a teenager and considered taking his own life following allegations made against him.
The 36-year-old’s career has been in freefall since a series of damaging allegations emerged over explicit messages he allegedly sent on social media and allegations of rape by a woman in Los Angeles in March 2021.
Hammer, who vehemently denies all criminal allegations and entered rehab for drug and alcohol abuse in May 2021, has maintained that he would not quit for the past two years.
In his first interview since the allegations were made, he told digital newsletter Air Mail: “I am now grateful for everything that has happened to me. I am now a healthier, happier and more balanced person. I am able to be there for my children in a way that I have never been before.
“I’m really grateful for my life and my recovery and everything. I wouldn’t go back and undo everything that happened to me.”
The Call Me By Your Name actress later said: “I had a very strict and extreme lifestyle.
“I’d hit these women, get them into it, into this frenzy of travel and sex and drugs and big emotions flying around, and then as soon as it was done, I’d let them out and move on to the next one . woman, leaving that woman feeling abandoned or used.
“I’m here to own my mistakes, take accountability for the fact that I was an asshole, that I was selfish, that I used people to make me feel better, and when I was done, I moved on. And they treated people worse than they should have been treated.”
During the interview, Hammer claimed that his interest in BDSM arose from being sexually abused as a 13-year-old by a youth priest for a period of almost a year.
“What that did for me was that it brought sexuality into my life in a way that was completely out of my control,” he said.
“I was powerless in the situation. I had no agency in the situation. My interests went to: I want to be in control of the situation, sexually.”
He claimed that “the sexual abuse he suffered as a young boy” set a dangerous precedent in my life” which allowed his sexual interests to dominate.
After the initial alleged controversy, Hammer stepped down from his starring role opposite Jennifer Lopez in the comedy Shotgun Wedding, and was replaced by Miles Teller in the TV series The Offer, a drama about the making of The Godfather.
“My financial status is not only that I’m broke, I’m in a lot of debt,” he said.
Hammer said after being “totally broke and blackballed”, he tried to take his own life while in quarantine in the Cayman Islands in February 2021.
“I just walked out into the ocean and swam out as far as I could and hoped I drowned, or got hit by a boat, or got eaten by a shark.
“I realized then that my children were still on the shore, and that I couldn’t do that to my children.”
Last summer, Hammer explored the possibility of selling timeshares in the Cayman Islands, visiting a resort office where his friend worked and watching him pitch to customers.
He said: “Somebody took a video of it, sent it to TMZ, and blew it up. I ended up under immigration investigation because I didn’t have a work permit, even though I wasn’t salaried, I wasn’t making money, I wasn’t on payroll.
“What can I do? It’s like, you don’t want me to act, but then you won’t let me have a normal life, either?
“No one will hire me. Nobody will insure me. I can’t get a bond for a project – nothing. And no one will contact me because if they hire me, they are the people supporting abusers. And then they might cancel themselves.”
Hammer said that there is “no chance of redemption” in the society “to undo the business of culture, to wake up” in which we live.
He added: “Someone makes a mistake, and we throw them away like a broken disposable camera.”
In September, a three-part Discovery+ series titled House Of Hammer, presented by Hammer’s aunt Casey Hammer, featured on-camera interviews with two of Hammer’s alleged victims in which they detailed some of their alleged abuse.
Hammer previously played the Winklevoss twins in The Social Network and starred opposite Timothee Chalamet in the acclaimed drama Call Me By Your Name.
He married US TV personality Elizabeth Chambers in May 2010 and the two share two children.
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