Disgraced film star Armie Hammer has sensationally hit back at the ‘cannibal ’ texts which derailed his Hollywood career, claiming they were “digitally altered” and therefore “immediately inadmissible” - but did admit he has cut the heart out of a living animal and taken a bite.
The Call Me By My Name star, 38, was at the height of his fame when texts were released in 2021 in which the actor appeared to declare himself a cannibal, saying: “I am 100% a cannibal. F**k, that's scary to admit. I've never admitted that before.”
Another message read: "I need your blood. I crave it.” And another said: “I want to see everything… I want to see your brain, your blood, your organs, every part of you… I would definitely bite it … 100%… or try to f*** it. Not sure which… probably both.”
The texts were sent to Effie Angelova, with whom he was having an affair which led to the breakdown of his nine-year marriage to wife Elizabeth Chambers, the mother of his two kids.
Angelova also accused Hammer of rape and physical abuse, which the actor denied, and in 2023 prosecutors confirmed he would not be charged over the allegations. But the actor was dropped by his acting agency and lost multiple high-profile roles as a result of the scandal.
Now, in a new Louis Theroux podcast released today the actor rubbishes the damaging claims as he attempts to resurrect his career ahead of his first film comeback in Frontier Crucible, which he recently shot with William H. Macy.
Responding to the infamous cannibalism texts, Hammer didn’t deny the conversation took place but claimed the shocking dialogue was just "a very funny conversation between two people who were joking and pushing one another.
He said: “I think the most important context to give these kinds of things is they are one side of a conversation. As you'll notice, of all of the text messages that were released, the person who released them, their side was cut out of the entire conversation.
It makes it look like I was just rambling to myself. I mean, if you look, there's really no response in any of the excerpts. You know, any digitally altered evidence is immediately inadmissible because you have no context.
“You, like, that could have been a very funny conversation between two people who were joking and pushing each other and egging each other on. In the way that sometimes you see comedians pushing the boundary further and further when they're having a conversation. I'm not going to argue the messages.”
When Theroux asked him to categorically deny he is a cannibal, he replied: “My point is this. Sometimes when you're involved with a person and you're dating and you guys are having sex and you are a bit of a provocateur and you are exacerbated by alcohol or drugs or anything like that like It's fun to ruffle feathers and it's fun to push the envelope little by little.
“Did I ever have any intention of cutting anything off of anyone or eating anything off of anyone? No. There was never really anything that I wanted. Was it fun to joke about if I was stoned or drunk or like laughing as I was typing these messages? Sure.
“That's where context comes in. You make jokes, I'm sure, with your friends that if I took your phone, and made them public, and removed your friend's half of the jokes, you would probably be in hot water.
“And that's why, this is why I say to everybody who wants to have an opinion on what they've seen or what they've read about me is like, okay, you can say whatever you want. You can judge me as much as you want from any public platform that you want. Give me your phone for 45 minutes before you do it. And almost everyone goes, Ooh.”
But the actor did admit that one text message he sent wasn't fantasy, when he told the woman: “I’ve cut the heart out of a living animal before and eaten it while still warm.”
Hammer said that really did happen, while hunting with friends, telling Theroux. “You don’t eat the whole heart, you don’t do that. You take a bite out of the heart, and you've got all your buddies around you, they're goading you on, it's sort of like an almost overly charged male rite of passage when you go hunting for your first time. Everyone that I know who went hunting for their first time had to do something similar.”
Hammer also denied claims he was cheating with multiple women behind his wife’s back, insisting: “Effie was the firm time that I ever stepped out of my marriage. I never cheated before that”.
And he said all the accusations of rape and physical abuse were lies, claiming that the woman who began them “is a person who’s not well, you know? This is a person who everybody, without choosing to vet or choosing to sort of critically examine, said, yep, this all must be true. Armie must be a cannibal rapist.”
The actor, who says he is single and “very much happy to not be in a relationship” says he is beginning to rebuild his career, and credits the allegations with helping him examine his life.
“It killed off all of the ego. It killed off all of the bullshit. It killed off all of the pretence. And I spent three years and change really having to examine myself and really having to look at myself and really having to go ‘woosh’ to all of the external validation that I was getting.
“I needed to figure out what I was about. And basically, I spent the last couple of years taking care of my father as he died. Taking my kids to and from school every single day. Spending time with myself, alone. Learning to love myself. Now, with a sense of distance and perspective from it, it's the greatest thing that ever happened to me.”