After years of chiefly drawing the public spotlight for his performances in movies and TV shows, Armie Hammer has been drawing more attention in recent months for what’s happening in his personal life. The actor has been keeping a relatively low profile ever since sexually explicit text messages were leaked where he expressed cannibalistic fantasies, and more recently, it was revealed that he’d reportedly sent his now-estranged wife Elizabeth Chambers texts that were meant for someone else by accident. As of today, Hammer is also now facing accusations of sexual assault.
During a press conference on Thursday with attorney Gloria Allred, a woman identified only Effie stated that Armie Hammer “violently raped” her and repeatedly banged her head against a wall during an encounter in Los Angeles back in 2017, among other “violent acts.” Effie said she thought the actor was going to kill her, and that he left “no concern” for her well being. She continued (via The Wrap):
I have come to understand that the immense mental hold he had over me was very damaging on many levels.
Effie, who is now 24, allegedly met Armie Hammer when she was 20, and they had an on-again, off-again relationship from 2016 to 2020, with their most recent communication occurring last year. Her press conference was in response to Hammer’s lawyer having previously said that all “interactions” the actor had with his former partners were “consensual.” Effie also claimed that she’s been in contact with some of the women with whom Hammer exchanged salacious text messages. While those messages were shared on an Instagram account House of Effie, neither she nor Gloria Allred confirmed if she’s the same individual running the social media page.
Armie Hammer’s attorney, Andre Bettler disputed the claims coming from Effie, who he identified as Effie Angelova. In his words:
[The accuser’s] own correspondence with Mr. Hammer undermines and refutes her outrageous allegations. As recently as July 18, 2020, Ms. Angelova sent graphic texts to Mr. Hammer telling him what she wanted him to do to her. Mr. Hammer responded making it clear that he did not want to maintain that type of relationship with her.
We’ll just have to wait and see how this latest chapter of the Armie Hammer saga unfolds, but it’s certainly taken an already-complicated situation down a darker path. For those unfamiliar with Hammer’s personal life, he and Elizabeth Chambers married in 2010 and have two children together, but in summer 2020, they announced their separation. Hammer sending Chambers text messages not meant for her occurred after Hammer flew back to the United States without his family, as up until that point, he’d been quarantining with his wife, children, father and step-mother in the Cayman Islands, and it got to the point where he reportedly couldn’t take being there anymore.
In addition to the extra focus on his personal life, these events have also dealt a huge blow to Armie Hammer’s professional career. Back in October, it was announced that he would co-star alongside Jennifer Lopez in an action-comedy entitled Shotgun Wedding. However, shortly after the leaked text messages starting circulating in January, Hammer exited the project, saying at the time that he could not “in good conscience” leave his children for four months to shoot a movie in the Dominican Republic. Josh Duhamel has since been brought aboard to take over Hammer’s role.
Armie Hammer has also departed the Paramount+ series The Offer, which would have seen him playing The Godfather producer Al Ruddy. Hammer most recently starred in Crisis and has Death on the Nile and Next Goal Wins lined up in the near future, but for now, his acting work looks to be on pause while all this turmoil is happening.
We here at CinemaBlend will keep you apprised of the latest news concerning the various accusations that have been leveled against Armie Hammer.
