Source: theguardian.com 2/4/23
Armie Hammer gave his first interview since the beginning of 2021, when multiple sexual misconduct and abuse allegations were made against the actor, saying all the encounters involved were consensual while acknowledging he was emotionally abusive in his relationships.
“I had a very intense and extreme lifestyle,” Hammer told Air Mail, a digital newsletter. “I would scoop up these women, bring them into it – into this whirlwind of travel and sex and drugs and big emotions flying around – and then as soon as I was done, I’d just drop them off and move on to the next woman, leaving that woman feeling abandoned or used.”
Hammer also revealed that he was sexually abused by his youth pastor for nearly a year at age 13, an experience which eventually would lead to his interest in BDSM.
“What that did for me was it introduced sexuality into my life in a way that it was completely out of my control,” he told Air Mail. “I was powerless in the situation. I had no agency in the situation. My interests then went to: I want to have control in the situation, sexually.”
Talking to Air Mail, Hammer vociferously denied any criminal wrongdoing, saying the encounters at the center of the 2021 accusations against him were all consensual. However, he said, the “power dynamics were off” in the relationships he had with the women.
He said: “I would have these younger women in their mid-20s, and I’m in my 30s. I was a successful actor at the time. They could have been happy to just be with me and would have said yes to things that maybe they wouldn’t have said yes to on their own.”
The Call Me By Your Name actor said that his behavior does amount to him being “an asshole”.
“I’m here to own my mistakes, take accountability for the fact that I was an asshole, that I was selfish, that I used people to make me feel better, and when I was done, moved on,” Hammer said. “I’m now a healthier, happier, more balanced person.
“I’m able to be there for my kids in a way I never was … I’m truly grateful for my life and my recovery and everything. I would not go back and undo everything that’s happened to me.”
As Hammer faced a cascade of sexual assault and abuse allegations in February 2021, he described swimming out into the ocean in the Cayman Islands with suicidal thoughts.
This guy needs to stop stealing parts of my life! Wasn’t a youth pastor….but there were multiple others that made me feel totally powerless and constantly afraid…like my family! They were great at that!
They were Mid-20’s I was 30’s….power dynamic….control…stop stealing my life! Stop pretending you chose all they same fear based acts of desperation that I did!
Of course it was all consentual….obviously. why force someone to do anything, when there’s 1,001 others who will be happy to do….whatever? Just show the spoil sport the door, and stat over with one of the crowd of more…accommodating. Any one….person….is just as good as the next…dozen or so. They all start looking the same after the first couple hundred.
Good thing you pulled out early… because otherwise it eventually sinks down to a fantasy life lived entirely in computers…one that can get you arrested! I wasn’t so lucky as you Hammer.