I saw that Armie Hammer was on the cover of British GQ like a week ago but I really didn’t bother to read any excerpts. I don’t know why – Armie is actually great at giving interviews, and he usually says something notable, either notably good or notably bad (usually bad). He’s not sitting around and pontificating on his actorly process like so many – no, Armie is usually spilling some tea or throwing shade at someone. In the March issue of British GQ, the victims of Armie’s shade are: white people who don’t recognize their privilege, trust fund a–holes, Milennials and anyone who met Stan Lee and posted a photo of themselves with Stan Lee when Stan Lee passed away. Some highlights from Armie’s GQ interview:
On white privilege: “There are white people who exercise their white privilege with or without knowing it and I would be foolish to sit here and say, ‘Well, that has nothing to do with my career.’ I can’t sit here and say that. But also, people must be aware of the work ethic it takes. I get it. Guys like me have got a lot from being guys like me. Even if white privilege does have anything to do with it, there is a lot of work I put into this.”
He’s not taking money from his family: “It was a conversation I had with myself: you can be this person or you cannot. I would rather not. It wasn’t about cutting ties or bonds with my parents or anything like that. It was about strengthening myself.”
On his shade for people posting photos of themselves with Stan Lee: Although Hammer here apologises again for having a pop at those who genuinely had a long relationship with Lee, he also underlines the thing that truly bugs him about celebrity culture. “Let me be clear. I do not feel badly for the people that I offended who met Stan Lee once and were capitalising and masking self-promotion as false grief.”
Whether he feels like a Millennial (he was born in 1986): “I am a millennial… And I can’t say I am not a millennial, but I’m not a millennial. I don’t get it. It doesn’t resonate with me. I don’t know why millennials will go to a wedding and take a picture of themselves on the dance floor and then post it on social media and be like, ‘Congratulations to Sarah and Jeff, so happy for you guys!’ Just what the hell is that? That just doesn’t make any sense to me.”
There’s a lot to unpack, as there always is with an Armie Hammer interview. Let’s start with the conversation about Millennials… I’ve believed for some time now that the so called “Millennials” should be split into two separate generations, possibly three. I’m Xennial, and Armie misses the cusp of Xennial too, because people believe Xennials were born 1977-1985. In general, I don’t think someone born in 1982 has any generational connection to someone born in 1999, but technically they’re the same Millennial generation. It’s stupid. So, I actually agree with Armie that technically, he’s a Millennial but his world-view is probably more Gen-X/Xennial.
As for what he says about white privilege and his trust fund/family money… on one side, I appreciate that Armie acknowledges his privilege and is at least aware of it. But he still thinks that he’s mostly benefiting from a meritocracy where his hard work is the main thing being rewarded. And… that’s not true. No one is saying he doesn’t “work hard.” We’re saying that white privilege has been institutionalized across the board to an extent where 99% of the time, it’s only the “hard work” of white people which is being rewarded. Armie didn’t need his family’s money – he had his family’s name, and he has white skin and blonde hair.
Cover courtesy of British GQ, additional photos courtesy of WENN.
He looks really different in these pictures.
And he might want to avoid the opening credits of Captain Marvel or he might explode.
It’s a bad take on white privilege. He’s basically saying, “white privilege has maybe helped me, but it’s no big deal cause I work hard and deserve it” anyway. Total bunk.
Which – we’ve seen his performances. He certainly wouldn’t have gotten where he is without being GREATLY benefited by his family name and being a white dude.
Neither his family nor his white skin nor his blue eyes are his achievement nor are they his fault.
It was chance. Don’t hold chance against him. Society or “the system” is what needs to be hold accountable and changed.
Can we hold his obliviousness against him Herta? Is that OK?
Because in this interview, as much as he’s posing as someone acknowledging his tall white rich dude privilege, he seems to be quite oblivious to it.
He seems oblivious to all his privileges, being from a rich connected family also helped him greatly but he doesn’t seem to want to acknowledge that.
I think he’s acknowledging it, but defensively. In a “yeah, I benefit but I work hard!” kind of way, instead of saying something more like
“It opens more doors – yes you have to work to maintain your career, but the privilege gives you more opportunities than those who don’t have it.”
See, now if he had just said THAT then I wouldn’t be so annoyed.
I get that it might feel dismissive to be told that you got to where you are because of privilege, and I’m willing to bet that Armie’s been shut out of roles before or told that he’s not right for the partor whatever-you know, like MOST actors. But to say “I benefit from white privilege” and then in the next breath say “BUT I work hard!!” undermines the very definition of white privilege. He’s benefiited from both white privilege AND from working hard–there’s no need to draw a delineation there–no need for a “but”. Because he would have never had the opportunity to work hard in the first place were it not for his privilege.
I just want to remind everyone that, two years ago, when a serious journalist made the same conclusion in very detailed study, he was furious! He felt prosecuted!
never forget:
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/annehelenpetersen/ten-long-years-of-trying-to-make-armie-hammer-happen
Arnie, you’re SYMBOL of white privilege.
Sigh… I don’t get it with him and others like him. Dude, nobody said you don’t work hard. White privilege is about cluelessness – specifically, the cluelessness that makes you believe that hard work is all it takes and that anyone can succeed with the same hard work.
I am never not irritated by his interviews. “White privilege is a thing that people have to acknowledge except for me because I work hard.” 🙄
I do agree on the Xennial thing (hadn’t heard of that before today).
Isn’t this old news????? I swear I saw an article with excerpts with exactly these same quotes somewhere on exactly the same topics — all of them!! Are you sure this isn’t a reprint of another interview? I know I have heard this all before.
He’s just….a human Ken doll. With about the same amount of depth.
Shut up and look pretty.
He just ruins that every time he opens his mouth.
Wow. Just… wow!
Reverse the sexes here: if you were a man, saying that about a woman, heads would EXPLODE here (and rightly so!). A woman saying it about a man isn’t any more acceptable.
You don’t even need to see him to know he’s a white rich man. He’s so full of himself, so pretentious and bitter for someone who had and has an easy life. Well, it must stings to be a white rich man in a job and enviroment that priviliges people like you and still don’t be on the top of what you do.
+10000000000
He’s handsome but so annoying. Of course he can afford to be an actor he’s so rich and does not acknowledge how lucky he is.
I read this interview and he sounded really rude. Especially his anecdote about how he can put his feet on table was really stupid. Ithink he is just an insecure and fame hungry person who constantly tries to prove himself as a woke man.
For someone who appears to be photographed a lot, he has an odd outrage about others taking/posting photos of themselves. Of all the terrible things people are doing lately, posting a selfie from a dance floor seems pretty innocuous.
I think we all have stupid things that bug us, but when you’re in the public eye and have a platform like he does…maybe just complain about them to your family and friends instead of whining about it on twitter?
Exactly. That’s what’s so silly about those who feel the need to virtue-signal about being too smart, secure, self- respecting, and altruistic for selfies/ having social media accounts. People sometimes seem to have a hard time not being into a particular hobby, passtime, or franchise without thinking it makes them superior. Someone else may not like watching sports. It doesn’t make them in any way better than those who do.
I didn’t think he was talking about being part of a meritocracy. I think he was simply saying that his willingness to work hard isn’t incompatible or mutually exclusive from the fact that he’s benefitted from white privilege. I don’t disbelieve him on that — I would likely disbelieve Jared Kushner, but in Hollywood, there’s always somebody willing to take the role away from you if you don’t want to work for it.
I don’t feel like watching him in movies, but I don’t think what he’s saying about having to work hard in a competitive Hollywood context where only 0.01 percent are working actors is untrue either. Anybody in that particular field, barring a few exceptions, is easily replaceable.
Everybody has to work hard though…? He’s whining. Let’s call it what it is, instead of bending over backwards to find other meaning in what he said.
I don’t think I’m bending over backwards to find any other meaning. I’m reading exactly what his words say based on the question asked. I never saw any mention of a meritocracy from him. I just don’t think the two concepts — that of privilege and that of having a work ethic – he’s raising are incompatible in his case.
In my opinion, he IS easily replaceable — he’s not unique as an individual. There’s nothing about him that stands out in terms of how he acts and looks. Someone else who is the same race and sex as him can easily pick up his job tomorrow in an easily disposable industry where you’re only as good as your last job. In that sense, I don’t doubt that he has to work hard. A better actor, both in looks and in talent, can easily pick up his job tomorrow. I don’t see a denial of his privilege in his answer — I think he’s simply also stating that he does put work into what he does.
If I was looking for a highly academic, articulate, and flawless answer about social injustice that could account for every single scenario under the sun, I’d go ask a professor, not an actor. I think his answer is kind of benign to be honest — all he said is that he has privilege but that he also works hard. It’s not quite as annoying as what Scarlett Johansson or other actors who take roles from other races has said. Even some of Meryl Streep’s answers have been a little irritating at times.
I agree with you @Perplexed +10000000000!!
He’s LESS replaceable than others though, by virtue of the fact that he was born super-connected and you’re not going to replace someone who can be of use to you.
He doesn’t get points for saying his life isn’t easy. No one’s life is easy. His is easier, though, so he needs to accept that and not shut up about how he deserves everything he has barely worked for.
A lot of people aren’t happy with selfie culture. He says it and he gets criticism? Good for him for not taking his family money cause I would. To say he doesn’t work hard though isn’t right. Look at him from the start of his career to his latest indie films. He’s clearly worked on his craft. Sorry to Bother You and Call Me By Your Name were very different but excellent performances. As for his family name, who are the Hammers that they can get him auditions? Plenty of rich kids audition and get no where. Judging by how his parents disowned him for pursuing acting for a few years, they clearly didn’t help him get auditions.
One interesting thing about Armie is how his mother is a Trump supporter. she also refused to see Call Me By Your Name because he played a gay man. Timothee Chalamet said she thinks Armie is “brainwashed” in an Andy Cohen interview. To be raised in that and publicly criticize the Trump administration like he has is important. we all like to think that if we grew up in conservative households that as adults we wouldn’t support a hateful Republican like Trump, but that’s statisically not true.
His parents…I’m sorry…they sound…TERRIFYING…rich, Christian Evangelicals that started a Christian school in the Cayman Islands….
It’s the infrastructure of EVERY real life horror story that’s spewed upon current society…
I completely forgot that about his parents. Ugh.
Shhhhhhhhh
Well, to be charitable, he’s coming around on the privilege issue, slowly, but he’s coming around.
Comment about the cover: Ah, yes, Standing in Water/Soaking Wet. A men’s magazine/men’s layout classic. Right up there with Abandoned Roadside Diner and Vintage Motorcycle/Leather Jacket.
I appreciate this comment. For many people being woke is a journey. I work everyday at dismantling my privilege, racism, and entitlement… I don’t know from what he says in this interview if he is doing the daily work, but I am a proponent of letting people grow.
his comments on selfie culture are VERY INTERESTING consider his wife is literally the most opportunistic person on instagram. she puts herself in the middle of every. single. thing. she. posts. baby shower? front and center. wedding? how great do i look? oscars? 25 pictures of her getting her hair done? other people’s kid’s birthday? photo of herself posing with a cake. all of those pictures i mentioned above have at least 10 tags of sponsors on them. i stopped following her b/c she is literally insane. i bet that comment went over like a lead fart at his house.
LOLOLOL I love her and follow her on IG bc I kinda think she’s amazing but your comment is hilarious
really? i think she is so damn thirsty. i think what bothers me the most is that she can’t sit still and is putting her toddlers on planes literally every week to go do something for one day only to drag them back to LA or Texas and back and forth at 4am or whatever. it is so unfair. or doing like 6 birthday parties in one day? that is stupid.
No lies detected…
@lizzie, you need to start your own blog, this is hilarious!
@Lizzie, you’re correct about his wife being an IG addict. She looks like she losing it with posing and weird makeup these days. She looks crazy in her IG pics and on the red carpet with the eyebrows and – sorry, this is body shaming somewhat but it’s so striking – her thinness. She doesn’t come across as promoting her bakery (10%) but mostly herself, her kids, and her lifestyle as Armie’s wife (90%). She really does look completely crazy these days with the skinny leg poses, the eyebrows, and constant tight ponytail.
I don’t follow Armie Hammer closely but he was kind of beautiful looking yet so bland in the Social Network. And every time he’s in the gossip news now it’s not for a good reason it seems. He’s one of those people who should be good looking but is just not very attractive when you do the accounting/processing. There’s something very bland and dated about his looks. I don’t think he’s a bad actor but I haven’t gone out of my way to watch his films.
Millennials should be divided between those who grew up with internet and cell phones and those that didn’t.
Born in 1988. I was in Grade 8 the first time I used a computer to type up a homework assignment rather than hand write it and I used the public library to do it. I got a laptop and cellphone when I started university.
For younger millennials social media and selfie culture is a given (always been there) and not a shift in culture like it was for me when I was holding out on joining Facebook at 19/20.
You didn’t have computer classes in elementary school? My older sibling and cousins are early 80s kids and they did.
Different places, different school programs. Not that surprising.
His comments about people grieving Stan lee are still garbage. Oh if you only met someone once and talk about it you are being performative grief. It’s about quality and impact.
I met Michelle Obama once and you better believe if anything ever happened to her I’d be devastated and talk about the one time I met her and how nice she was. She’s had a impact on my life long term, and Stan Lee also had that affect on people.
I’m over the topic of ‘white privilege’.
What is the end goal here? Besides starting/having ‘a conversation’ or bring ‘awareness’?
As a black woman I just don’t care. I don’t feel angry or envious.
I’m just tired of constantly hearing about it (mostly online) and it just makes white people behave like bullied victims being cornered.
I create my own opportunities in life and will never seek validation or understanding from someone who could never possibly begin to understand…
I don’t even expect that from other so called “POC”.
Armie doesn’t have to acknowledge whatever privilege he has in life and he doesn’t owe me or anyone anything. He was born into wealth and had advantages some could only dream about. And? So? Same thing with gwyneth goop. I don’t know why people feel so strongly about their lack of self awareness. Or why they want them to acknowledge their “privilege!!!” So much . Why is it so important for them to understand? Why do you need their understanding? Honestly, they annoy me less than “POC” who go on and on about it instead of creating their own privileges in life.
Sigh, I’ll see myself out..
Thank you a billion times @Just Sayin for expressing what I’ve been feeling about this whole thing! It’s like people just want to hear the things they want to hear, suited to their taste and perfectly worded to placate them or something. And am like, then what? It’ll be different if this was someone involved in actively creating opportunities for POC, then I’ll be interested in hearing their acknowledgment about white privilege. But he says he’s privileged and also works hard and people are out here re-writing it in a way that THEY think should be worded…it feels so…performative
I just roll my eyes with people who criticize selfie culture. All it tells me is that you’ve never once stepped into a museum – because if you had, you would know that people have been making pictures of themselves for thousands of years. Except, instead of paying somebody to paint you over the course of dozens of hours, you use your camera phone. I’m not a selfie person, but whatever, they aren’t hurting anybody by doing it.
(And it’s not lost on me, either, that a lot of selfie criticism seems particularly aimed at female Millenials, which is hilariously hypocritical of a society that demands women put hours of work into their appearance for the pleasure of others. God forbid they get to enjoy it themselves.)
Taking pictures of oneself isn’t new. But seeking validation for it does appear to be a new thing. I think how you respond to a selfie posted online depends on how you feel about there person, and also the accompanying comment. Sometimes the comment us more annoying than the selfie itself, imo.
Eh, IMO, nothing about human behavior is new. The same people inserting their self into every picture are the same ones that were interrupting conversations or making a scene at social gatherings before the advent of cameras. Technology is just giving us new outlets for it with a public reach that didn’t exist before. That’s where the change is – the level at which young people feel they’re expected to perform.
But frankly, the last person who should be criticizing self-involved validation culture is a Hollywood actor whose entire career hinges on being able to command the spotlight. Literally everything about a pop culture magazine interview is about having people validate your experience in the public eye. And certainly more people are going to see his magazine cover than six hundred photos of a teenager plastered on Facebook.
If you’re a mom of little kids, it’s also often the only way you get in the picture. I’m trying to learn to take better selfies because it’s important for my kids to have memories of us together.
“And it’s not lost on me, either, that a lot of selfie criticism seems particularly aimed at female Millenials, which is hilariously hypocritical of a society that demands women put hours of work into their appearance for the pleasure of others. God forbid they get to enjoy it themselves.”
Exactly. A lot of it does seem to be rooted in vilifying women for behaving in a feminine way and policing female modesty. It’s all about control.
@Lizzie beat me to it. Why is Hammer complaining about selfies when his wife is doing the same for profit? She looks like a lollipop and everything is an ad including the old timey clothing their kids wear. It’s bizaare the children are front and center in some of her posts. Are they not concerned about their privacy and security?
I loved the quote about Stan Lee and social media. He is right on!
It would be easier to unpack the issue about “Millenials” if we stopped using the word as a insult. Instead of making up reasons why this year or that year aren’t really Millennials, how about we just stop trashing Millenials? It’s supposed to describe a generation and instead it’s being used as a stereotype. Replace it with “women” or “black people” in a sentence and we wouldn’t hesitate to condemn these generalizations as offensive.
– Cranky GenXer
It’s also a stupid misnomer at this point because it’s often used as a substitute for “young people” when really it’s referring to a generation whose oldest members will be turning forty in a few years. Suddenly, all those articles criticizing the wage “complaints” and work cultural views of Millenials make a lot more sense when you consider the fact that thirty-somethings should absolutely have well-established careers and making decent income by that point. Just another way to pit the working classes against each other.
The whole generations thing (Millenials, Gen X, Gen Z, etc.) doesn’t make any sense. Someone born in 1999 probably had Snapchat in highschool while someone born in 1982 probably created his Facebook account in his mid-20s, after college. One’s career is supposed to really be starting to get going while the other is still in college. Their lifestyle couldn’t more more different just like their cultural references couldn’t more be different as well.
My sister and cousins were born in ‘82 & ‘83 and they had facebook in college (back when it was collage kids only). I was born a decade later and yes I had Snapchat in high school. I don’t feel as if we’re that different.
Selfie culture is not exclusive to millennials. I know a lot of older people who love selfies.
And could we please stop using millennials as a derogatory term please?
I was born in 81 and I do not identify with the millennial label at all. I didn’t get a cell phone until sophomore year in college. I mean I had to actually use a landline to call my friends house and speak with their parents in order to talk with them! Can you imagine? Lol. You didn’t know what everyone was doing or thinking at any minute of the day. Life was slower then. I remember going to my friends house in middle school getting on AOL and going to chat rooms pretending to be people we were not. I also got a MySpace before a FB acct and that was in 2006. I’ve also never been a selfie taker. I’ve done it with my kids just because, like another commenter mentioned, as a mom sometimes that’s the only way to get a picture with them. My cousin’s daughter who is 9 years younger then me, so also considered a millennial, could not be more opposite. I have nothing in common with her. She’s always been on social media posting selfie after selfie, mostly of her laying out or drinking at a bar, with really “edgy” captions. So I agree with breaking the millennial range into subgroups. I think technology has a lot to do with how different everyone is.
I love him. He is exhausting, yes. But I love him. Can’t wait to see his two movies coming out this year and at least one more next year.
I was born in 85 and I consider myself a Millennial. I don’t understand self-loathing Millennials. We are a generation with the unique experience of being raised both with and without internet, especially those of us who were born in the 80s and can actually remember the experiences that came with this huge change. I think that’s pretty f’ing cool. I get tired of hearing how awful Millennials are, especially from other Millennials. Armie always says judgmental, myopic stuff like this. He’s too pouty and negative. I think he’s one of the sexiest men I’ve ever laid eyes upon but his attitude sucks.
His white villain in “Sorry to Bother You” was a privileged asshat, so I think he knows what he’s talking about. But the threat of acknowledging his privilege is the increased competition that comes with dismantling the system. He’s making those sounds like most white sympathizers/allies who want do the right thing and be rewarded for it, in what is a highly unlikely scenario.
He is the most unremarkable actor of this generation. I’ve seen a lot of his movies and his performances are mostly forgettable. Why is he still a thing?
Also I’m super salty about him playing the lead in the upcoming Rebecca remake. Way to spoil my favorite book, sigh.
He was amazing in Call me by you name and pretty badass in Free fire and Uncle… stole the show from Superman. I like his big goofy personality in contrast with his physique.
I’ve actually enjoyed a few of his roles, in the right film he’s good, but IRL I don’t think I would like him very much. He seems way too full of himself.
how many time has armie hamer been allowed to fail up?
Many many times.
I finally realized one of the many reasons why I find him annoy.
It’s that he looks enough like Adrian Pasdar, who IMO is a really interesting actor even if he hasn’t always made the best work choices, that when I see a thumbnail of AH, part of my brain thinks it’s Pasdar and then I’m disappointed that it’s not. And then of course, Hammer managed to say something clueless and obnoxious, so I get doubly irritated. He’s like Henry Cavill that way.
Less than Chris Hemsworth and Henry Cavill…
Armie, let’s be honest about a few things.
1) This is not about white privilege. It is about PRIVILEGE. Coming from a fantastically wealthy family opens every door for you.
2) At your level of wealth let’s be honest, it is not about your parents giving you money. They don’t need to. Again, you know how this works. You have access to pretty much anyone you want and every door open to you.
Talentless + ignorant = …