Current:Home > ScamsWhy Armie Hammer Says Being Canceled Was "Liberating" After Sexual Assault Allegations -InvestTomorrow
Why Armie Hammer Says Being Canceled Was "Liberating" After Sexual Assault Allegations
View
Date:2025-04-18 21:07:55
Armie Hammer is getting candid about his fall from public grace.
Over three years after the Call Me By Your Name actor stepped out of the public eye amid numerous allegations of sexual misconduct including rape—no charges were ultimately filed after a 2-year LAPD investigation—Armie is reflecting on why the time away was ultimately beneficial.
“It was pretty great,” Armie said to Bill Maher on being canceled during an appearance on the July 14 episode of his Club Random podcast. “It’s incredibly liberating, because so much of my life leading up to there was being preoccupied with how I was perceived, which now you don't have to care about.”
“Once everyone just decides that they hate you,” he continued, “you go, ‘Oh, well, then I don't need anything from you people anyway. I guess I should just learn to be content with myself.’ And then you go do that, and it feels f--king amazing.”
Now, if someone says they don’t like him, Armie said he’s able to brush it off, whereas before, “I needed that validation.”
Among the many allegations levied at the Social Network alum in 2021 were that he engaged in cannibalistic fantasies, coerced his partners into BDSM scenarios in the bedroom and that he carved his initial into a woman’s body—all of which he’s denied, though he discussed other “bad behavior” he engaged in during his conversation with Bill.
“I cheated on my wife,” Armie—who was married to Elizabeth Chambers for more than eight years until their breakup in 2020—admitted. “I used people to make me feel better. I was callous and inconsiderate with people and their emotions and their well-being. And I wanted what I wanted, and I was going to take it at any cost, even if it was at an emotional cost of someone else. And that is shitty behavior.”
But when Bill asked the 37-year-old whether, if he hadn’t been canceled, he’d miss “the kinky part” of his sex life, Armie said he knows where his life would have gone.
“My life would have kept going exactly as it was,” he explained. “And I know that that would ultimately only lead in one place, and that's death.”
It’s part of why he agreed when Bill called the events that happened a blessing in disguise.
“I experienced an ego death, a career death, a financial death, all of these things, right?” the Death on the Nile star continued. “You got to die. And once you die, you can then be reborn.”
Armie has previously addressed his proclivity for BDSM—experiences he’s said were always consensual—and expressed that the interest was first sparked after he experienced sexual trauma at the hands of a youth pastor.
"Sexuality was introduced to me in a scary way where I had no control," he told Air Mail magazine in comments shared In February 2023. "My interests then went to: I want to have control in the situation, sexually."
In the same interview with Air Mail, while denying any criminal wrongdoing, Armie acknowledged "one million percent" that he was emotionally abusive to former partners and admitted there was an "imbalance of power" regarding two of his past relationships, noting that the women were a decade younger than he and that he was a "successful actor at the time" they were involved.
But today, he says he’s in a healthier place, which has allowed him to make his children—daughter Harper, 9, and son Ford, 7, with ex-wife Elizabeth—a priority.
“But when I look at it now with a sense of perspective,” Armie said on the June 16 episode of the Painful Lessons podcast, “for the last couple years, I've taken my kids to school every single day. I've picked them up every single day from school. I drive them around. I take them to what they need to do and then I take them home to their mom."
"It was a crisis, a spiritual crisis, an emotional crisis, and the way I saw it was, I have two options here,” he added. "I can either let this destroy me or I can use this as a lesson."
For the latest breaking news updates, click here to download the E! News AppveryGood! (4)
Related
- Meet first time Grammy nominee Charley Crockett
- Why Ben Affleck Was Not at the 2024 Met Gala With Jennifer Lopez
- Federal appeals court upholds ruling that Zion Williamson’s 2019 contract with an agent was void
- Zendaya Debuts Edgiest Red Carpet Look Yet at Met Gala 2024
- Newly elected West Virginia lawmaker arrested and accused of making terroristic threats
- Doja Cat looks like she was caught in the rain at the 2024 Met Gala: See her daring look
- Tornado tears through northeast Oklahoma, leaves trail of damage
- Eddie Redmayne Is Twinning in a Skirt With Wife Hannah Bagshawe at the 2024 Met Gala
- Military service academies see drop in reported sexual assaults after alarming surge
- New York sues anti-abortion groups for promoting false treatments to reverse medication abortions
Ranking
- Spooky or not? Some Choa Chu Kang residents say community garden resembles cemetery
- Amanda Seyfried Reveals Kids’ Reaction to Her Silver Hairstyle and Purple Lipstick at Met Gala 2024
- Worker killed, another injured, when truck crashes through guardrail along California freeway
- You Probably Missed Sabrina Carpenter and Barry Keoghan's Sneaky Red Carpet Debut at 2024 Met Gala
- South Korean president's party divided over defiant martial law speech
- Watch as police dog finds missing 85-year-old hiker clinging to tree in Colorado ravine
- Watch all the Met Gala red carpet arrivals and see the 2024 looks
- Marvel at Brie Larson's Invisible Hoop Skirt Look at 2024 Met Gala
Recommendation
IRS recovers $4.7 billion in back taxes and braces for cuts with Trump and GOP in power
Doja Cat looks like she was caught in the rain at the 2024 Met Gala: See her daring look
Powerball winning numbers for May 6 drawing: $215 million jackpot winner in Florida
Kendall Jenner's Butt-Baring Met Gala Look Makes Fashion History
South Korea's acting president moves to reassure allies, calm markets after Yoon impeachment
Demi Moore stuns at the Met Gala in gown made out of vintage wallpaper
7 best cozy games to check out now on Nintendo Switch, including 'Endless Ocean Luminous'
Serena Williams Serves Up a Shiny Winning Look at the 2024 Met Gala