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Armie Hammer breaks silence on cannibalism accusations he said led to his “career death”
“Call Me by Your Name” actor Armie Hammer opened up about cannibalism accusations that led to his “career death” in a recent podcast interview.
Hammer spoke about the allegations that surfaced three years ago on the “Painful Lessons,” which he said he now finds “hilarious.” The episode was published on Sunday.
“People called me a cannibal, and everyone believed them,” he said. “They’re like, ‘Yep, that guy ate people’… Do you know what you have to do to be a cannibal? You have to eat people. How am I going to be a cannibal? It was bizarre.”
“Even in the discrepancies, even in the whatever it was that people said, whatever it was that happened, I’m now at a place in my life where I’m grateful for every single bit of it,” Hammer added.
Christopher Polk/E! Entertainment/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images
In 2021, multiple women claimed the actor shared violent sexual fantasies in social media messages with them – some of which contained cannibalism references. Hammer called the allegations “bulls**t” at the time, Entertainment Tonight reported.
That same year, a woman, only identified as “Effie,” came forward and accused Hammer of violently sexually assaulting her for more than four hours in 2017. She said she tried to get away, but she “thought that he was going to kill me.” In the wake of the misconduct allegations against him, he was dropped by his talent agency and he left two projects – “Shotgun Wedding” starring Jennifer Lopez and the Paramoun+ series “The Offer.” His downfall from Hollywood and accusations became the subject of a Discovery+ docuseries “House of Hammer.”
Two years later, prosecutors in Los Angeles County said Hammer would not face criminal charges in the case involving Effie. Following their decision, Hammer said in a deleted Instagram post that he was looking forward to “what will be a long, difficult process of putting my life back together now that my name is cleared.”
On the recent podcast, he revealed that he was “never in a place where I was happy with myself” before the accusations and explained how they caused “an ego death, a career death,” prompting him to eventually turn to rehab and a 12-step program.
“It’s almost like a neutron bomb went off in my life,” he said. “It killed me, it killed my ego, it killed all the people around me that I thought were my friends that weren’t. All of those people, in a flash, went away. But the buildings were still standing. I’m still here. I still have my health and I’m really grateful for that.”
Damascus — In a remote corner outside Damascus, a now abandoned potato chip factory has shone a light on one of the ousted Bashar al-Assad regime’s many dark, but open secrets.
A CBS News team gained access to the site, finding a storeroom lined with hydrochloric acid and acetic acid on an industrial scale, which are precursor chemicals needed to make Captagon, one of the most popular street drugs in the Middle East and beyond.
Ahmed Abu Yakin is with Syria’s Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, one of the main groups in charge of the country after Assad fled on Dec. 8. Yakin says this massive underground stash of Captagon was found just days after the rebel group’s takeover. The pills stuffed into large stacks of household volt regulator kits ready for shipment.
Often referred to as “poor man’s cocaine,” Captagon is a highly addictive amphetamine-type stimulant.
“We feel bad for the young people who were addicted to it,” Yakin said. “The Assad regime was destroying a generation and couldn’t care less. They only cared about making money.”
And that money is staggering. Analysts estimate the Assad regime raked in $5 billion per year from the trade, dwarfing Syria’s official budget and making it a vital lifeline for the bankrupted state. The drug costs just pennies to make but can sell for up to $20 for a single tablet. The haul seen at the abandoned factory is potentially worth tens of millions of dollars.
For years, neighboring countries accused Assad’s Syria of being the world’s main supplier of the illegal drug. In March 2023, the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned several Syrians for their alleged involvement in the “dangerous amphetamine”, including two of Assad’s cousins.
“Syria has become a global leader in the production of the highly addictive Captagon, much of which is trafficked through Lebanon,” said Andrea Gacki at the time, who was then-director of the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control. “With our allies, we will hold accountable those who support Bashar al-Assad’s regime with illicit drug revenue and other financial means that enable the regime’s continued repression of the Syrian people.”
Now, his wildly lucrative drug business appears to have been crushed, along with his brutal and corrupt regime. For Yakin, Captagon has no place in Syria’s future.
“We will destroy it all,” Yakin said. “We will eliminate anything that has to do with drugs, and anything that has to do with the criminal Assad regime.”
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