Yahoo Lifestyle Here’s A Full Breakdown Of Armie Hammer’s Seriously Awkward New Interview With Louis Theroux, Which Led To A Pretty Heated Confrontation
This article mentions sexual assault allegations and graphic text messages that readers may find distressing.
Armie Hammer went off on British star Louis Theroux after he asked him about the cannibalism and sexual assault allegations during Armie's recent appearance on his podcast, The Louis Theroux Podcast.
For some quick context, multiple women made several disturbing allegations against Armie at the beginning of 2021, with concerning “cannibalism” claims being leaked at the time.
Armie was also accused of rape, and alleged survivor Effie made the following statement during a virtual press conference: “On April 24, 2017, Armie Hammer violently raped me for over four hours in Los Angeles, during which he repeatedly slapped my head against a wall, bruising my face.”
"He also committed other acts of violence against me, to which I did not consent,” she added at the time. Armie denied all of Effie's claims.
Other women came forward in the Discovery+ documentary House of Hammer, which examined Armie’s texts and alleged behavior.
Armie has always vehemently denied all of the allegations made against him, and has repeatedly insisted that all of his sexual encounters were consensual.
In 2023, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office told CNN that Armie will not be facing criminal charges following their investigation.
"Sexual assault cases are often difficult to prove, which is why we assign our most experienced prosecutors to review them. In this case, those prosecutors conducted an extremely thorough review but determined that at this time, there is insufficient evidence to charge Mr. Hammer with a crime,” Director of the Bureau of Communications Tiffiny Blacknell said.
Armie acknowledged this in an Instagram post at the time, writing: "I am very grateful to the District Attorney for conducting a thorough investigation and coming to the conclusion that I have stood by this entire time, that no crime was committed. I look forward to beginning what will be a long, difficult process of putting my life back together now that my name is cleared.”
A year after his controversy first unfolded, a source told Variety that Armie was “totally broke” and working as a timeshare salesperson in the Cayman Islands, where his ex-wife, Elizabeth Chambers, and their kids were based. Armie has since confirmed this to be true.
However, he has slowly started to reenter the public eye, and launched his own podcast back in October.
As part of his comeback, Armie appeared on Louis’s popular Spotify podcast this week — but he was left incredibly unhappy with how the esteemed journalist started the hour-long interview.
The episode began with Louis asking Armie about his own podcast, which he referred to as a “comeback.” In his reply, Armie said: “I have just found over the last couple of years that those things that make you uncomfortable are actually the things you should lean into.”
“Well, I’m going to take that as my cue to make things a little more uncomfortable,” Louis replied, with Armie admitting that he had “a feeling this was coming” with a smile on his face.
Launching straight into it, Louis began: “This is a tough interview, because obviously opinions run very hot on you, on what you did, on what you allegedly did. Even the kind narrative needs unpacking, right? And then there’s the less generous, kind of more critical take, that is extremely dark, right?”
The host went on to say that the allegations against Armie suggest that his sexual interests are “unsavory at best” and “possibly predatory.”
Armie responded by comparing himself to Icarus in Greek mythology, who flew too close to the sun and fell to his death, but Louis interrupted to discuss the affair that Armie began with Effie while still married to Elizabeth.
“I lost control of my desires,” Armie said as he confirmed that the two relationships overlapped. “I lost the availability to safely navigate my life because my desires were unchecked. I had money, and I had fame, and I had attention, and — more importantly — I had access to anything I wanted.”
“Are we saying that your desires became more extreme?” Louis asked.
“I wouldn't say that there was any sort of transgressive nature of it,” Armie replied. “Everything was consensual between willing partners and people who seemingly enjoyed the same things that I did.”
Louis went on to recite one of Armie's concerning text messages that had been leaked, reading: “I am 100% a cannibal, fuck, that’s scary to admit. I’ve never admitted that before. I’ve cut the heart out of a living animal before and eaten it while still warm.”
“I think the most important context to give these kinds of things is they are one side of conversation,” Armie said in response, claiming that the replies to his messages had been cut from the conversation, which made it look like he was “rambling” to himself.
“Any digitally altered evidence is immediately inadmissible because you have no context,” he went on. “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 want to jump in,” Louis interjected. “Because all that’s valid, I’m giving you a chance to explain… Are you a cannibal? I guess that is the question.”
“I guess to actually be a cannibal, you have to actually eat human flesh, so no,” Armie replied.
“Sorry to be so literal, but because these texts were taken literally, and you know, that had an enormous impact on your life, I think it’s probably helpful to clarify which parts of it are literally true,” Louis countered. “Did you cut the heart out of an animal and eat it while still warm?”
“No, you don’t eat the whole heart,” Armie said. “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 overly charged male rite of passage when you go hunting for your first time. Everyone that I know who went hunting for the first time had to do something similar.”
“So, you did that?” Louis pressed, to which Armie confirmed: “Yeah, not for the purpose of any cannibalism or any sexual gratification.”
Louis went on to say that Armie appeared to be “fascinated by cannibalism” in his texts, referencing another message where he said that he wanted to cut off a piece of his partner’s skin and eat it.
“There was never any real intention to do that,” Armie argued, before bluntly asking Louis if he watches pornography.
When Louis confirmed that he had watched pornography in the past, Armie made an analogy. He said: “Maybe there was a period in your life at some point where you didn’t have much to do, and you spent an hour straight looking at pornography on the internet. Where you start that hour and where you end that hour are usually very different places.”
“I would like to push back very gently on that,” Louis argued. “It’s not so much about me. I appreciate people's right to consent to things that I might not enjoy; that's the basis of freedom and living in a free society, nevertheless, I have no interest in BDSM.”Armie countered that for Louis, his “extreme” could be watching a video of a threesome, but Louis pushed back again, while insisting that he wasn’t “trying to be difficult.”
The two men then talked over each other, with Armie ultimately saying that he understands it’s “uncomfortable when people poke around on your sexual preferences,” but Louis said that he took no issue with that.Armie explained that it is “fun” for him to “push the envelope” with the person he is dating, and told Louis: “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.”
“I hear that,” Louis replied. “And I feel like I’ve put you in a position of being defensive, and that’s not where I wanted to be… I sort of agree; we all say things that, out of context, sound weird… But I am genuinely curious about what that is for you. There’s some part of you that gets a thrill out of that, whereas most people don’t get a thrill out of that idea.”
“There’s not a part of me that gets a thrill out of the idea of actually eating someone, like, that’s absurd,” Armie replied. “That’s not reality.”
After some more back and forth, Louis read out another one of Armie’s messages, citing: “This is the quote: ‘Raping you on your floor with a knife against you, everything else seemed boring. You crying and screaming, me standing over you. I felt like a god, I’ve never felt such power or intensity.’”
Although Louis paused for Armie to speak, the actor pointedly remained silent. After a couple of seconds, Louis broke the silence by saying: “Someone can read that and think: ‘Wow, that sounds a lot like someone raping someone.’”Armie agreed that, “out of context,” it did seem that way, but insisted that in actuality it had been a “back-and-forth conversation” where the other person involved expressed that they had enjoyed it and the act had been consensual.
“A big part of the BDSM world, when taken out of context, looks not great,” Louis replied, before asking Armie if he wanted to explain what “CNC” means. For reference, this stands for “Consensual Non Consent.”
“No, I’ll let you take that one, Louis,” Armie replied. When asked why, he said: “Because I honestly feel like I’ve talked about this a lot… I’ve answered these questions before.”
“I appreciate that,” Louis said. “I sense that your patience is maybe wearing a little thin. I also think there’s a lot of people out there, just the idea of me talking to you, they’ll be like: ‘Why did you platform that guy?’”
“Sure, yeah, yeah, I get it,” Armie retorted, to which Louis continued: “For me, it’s just part of the process to deal with what’s in people’s heads.”
The conversation eventually moved on, leading to Armie saying that after losing jobs due to the allegations, he is now in a place where he has “offers coming in every week” and has even had to turn down jobs.
But as the interview drew to a close, tensions flared up again when Louis asked Armie if there was anything else that he wanted to say.
“I don’t love the way the interview started, just to be perfectly honest,” Armie retorted. “I’m not crazy about drudging up all of this stuff, because for me, a lot of these issues have been resolved, whether it be legally or within myself.”
“A lot of these waters have been settled,” Armie continued. “I think doing things like that stirs up the water again unnecessarily. It definitely wasn’t my favorite beginning. I’m glad we moved past that and got to a place where we could have a civil, normal conversation that felt good, but drudging up all that stuff; I don’t love it.”
“I hear it, and I sensed that during the chat,” Louis replied. “I think in the court of public opinion, the jury is still out.”
“But my thing now is, the court of public opinion… Pick anything the court of public opinion has an opinion on, and there’s a very good chance they will not be fully informed, there’s a very good chance they don’t have the full story, and there’s also a very good chance that they’re probably wrong,” Armie hit back. “So I don’t pander to the court of public opinion anymore.”
“I get that on things like this, that stuff needs to come up, but I’m just very happy to report that that’s not a part of my life anymore,” he concluded.
“I hear you,” Louis repeated. “It’s tough because I get that this is not a therapeutic space and you don’t owe me accountability, certainly not in the sense of your personal growth.”
“But nevertheless,” Louis went on. “Any time you do an interview with anyone, the burden of attempting to take on the narrative is that it exists in the public space now. This is what you will be going through.”
“Yeah, and I get it,” Armie replied as the interview abruptly ended.
Speaking to the audience in a voiceover recorded after the interview had been filmed, Louis acknowledged that he has “an appetite for going to places that are difficult, morally complex, or even deeply controversial.”
“The kink world has been through, historically, a lot of stigmatization,” he added, before posing the hypothetical question: “At what point does consensual abuse become something slightly more complicated?”
You can watch a clip of the final confrontation below, and listen to the full podcast here — let me know your thoughts in the comments.
The Louis Theroux Podcast / Via tiktok.com
If you or someone you know has experienced sexual assault, you can call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673), which routes the caller to their nearest sexual assault service provider. You can also search for your local center here.
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