Armie Hammer is the cover star on latest issue of British GQ where he’s promoting his roles in Rebecca and Death on the Nile. This is also his first big interview since he and Elizabeth Chambers announced their split over the summer. He talks about that a little bit, but the craziest sections of the interview are where he’s talking about Trump’s America and Joe Biden and stuff. It actually does sound like he and Elizabeth decided to split because they lived together in lockdown in really close quarters and they grew to hate each other. He tells the mag, “I felt like a wolf who got caught in a snare. A wolf who wanted to chew his own foot off. I was just like, ‘I can’t do this.’” RUDE! Anyway, this piece is A LOT. Some highlights:
In lockdown in the Cayman Islands: “We got stuck down there during quarantine. My dad lives out there with his new wife….The experience sucked so badly. The island itself handled the situation really efficiently, but they also handled it in a really intense way. It was a very draconian lockdown. They wouldn’t fly anywhere, or at least not to America. Everything was closed. I mean, everything – the gas stations, the grocery stores… Everyone just locked themselves in their house. If you’re out and they see you, you go to jail for a year. I am not kidding. One guy violated curfew by five minutes and they put them in jail for four months. They were not f–king around. I was in an apartment with my dad, his new wife, Elizabeth and our two kids. We’d be looking out at the ocean, but couldn’t go in the ocean; looking at the beach, but couldn’t go on the beach. We couldn’t leave the apartment, couldn’t go in the pool, couldn’t do anything. So it was a really concentrated family time, which is really great with the kids, but it was intense.
He didn’t handle the lockdown well: “It was a very complicated, intense situation, with big personalities all locked in a little tiny place. It was tough, man. I’d never dealt with anything like that before in my life, so I didn’t have the tools. It was just this thing that snuck up on everybody. I don’t think I handled it very well. I think, to be quite frank, I came very close to completely losing my mind. I just felt completely powerless. And I was on an island where the lockdown was so severe that mail couldn’t even come in.
He sought therapy: “I was more or less on my own, just trying to get through it. I knew I was not doing a very good job so I called my buddy in the States. I was like, “Hey, man, I know you work in mental health. Do you have someone I can talk to?” And I just started talking to a therapist, twice a week. It just sort of regulated everything and gave me the tools for dealing with things. It gave me a fresh perspective and it was incredibly helpful. I’ve been in therapy before, but this was a dire situation. And now I just think everyone needs to be in therapy, period, across the board. Everyone needs to be talking to someone and if you’re not, you’re doing something wrong.
On America in 2020: “America has turned into a raging dumpster fire. I don’t know how this happened, but at the same time I know we get what we deserve and we elect the president we deserve. So we got Trump; it wasn’t an accident… People here just aren’t paying attention to what needs to be done. In America, people don’t believe what they’re told and people don’t believe other people should be telling them what to do, because that somehow infringes on their freedom. So America is on a horse named “Freedom” and we’re riding full speed at a f–king precipice and there’s no slowing down. The CDC today just announced that if you have been in contact with someone who has coronavirus, you don’t have to get tested. I’m not even joking.
On BLM: “Look, we all have things we need to relearn in our lives that we were taught by a different generation. Anyone who simply says, “I’m not racist”? Just go. Period. Everybody has something that needs work. We all have work that we have to do as a country in a very big way. It’s interesting, because, you know, I’ve donated and I’ve supported causes and foundations and donated to families and done that.
He has experienced prejudice too! “I also grew up, you know, on an island [Hammer lived in the Cayman Islands from ages seven to 13] where I was one of the few white people in my class. My daughter right now is in school down there, [the one] that I went to, and she’s the only white girl in the class. I think that is very important, for me, in terms of shaping how I view racism and prejudice, because, you know, I was called “White Boy” and all that sh-t. Whenever I’d go to the movie theatre people would throw shit at the back of my head. I know this is nothing compared to what black people go through in America today but it’s a taste of something.
What he thinks of Joe Biden’s chances of becoming president: “Not good. If I was an optimist, I’d say it was 50/50. I mean, a lot can happen, but also a lot can happen in a bad way. Historically speaking, incumbent US presidents are almost always elected in times of war. So, I mean, look at everything that’s going on in the Middle East. If a war kicks off there… Also, if Biden wins I don’t know how different things will be. I guess it will no longer be socially acceptable to be racist… But remember, he’s the guy who claims he wrote the Patriot Act. Do you think Biden cares about these private military police kidnapping US citizens off the street? Doing extraordinary rendition on our own citizens? He doesn’t give a sh-t. By the way, Obama did exactly that same thing by sending shock troops up when we had the pipeline protests. They sent a load of troops to just go basically beat the sh-t out of a bunch of natives when we were encroaching on their land. Sure, we have to get Trump out, period, but I lost my faith in politicians long ago.
What the actual f–k is this interview. The first part, where he talked about how intense everything was during lockdown, I was like “okay, he’s actually coming across alright here.” But by the political sections (and there’s a ton more in the interview), he’s just fully insane. And privileged. And barely able to see beyond his own privilege. He really is saying that America is screwed up because Americans are screwed up (something I agree with) and that Donald Trump is the result we get… but also Joe Biden sucks and ALL politicians suck and why even buy into the system? Spoken like a guy who has lived within the system with an enormous amount of privilege his entire life.
Photos courtesy of British GQ Instagram, Backgrid and WENN.
I’m not even going to start on his interview, I’m just really disappointed to learn that he’s in Death on the Nile. I love that book (and all her books TBH) and was so excited to hear there was a new film. I avoided Murder on the Orient Express out of loathing for Depp and while my feeling for this guy aren’t as strong he’s definitely not an actor I’d choose to watch.
Murder on the orient express sucked. It was basically the Kenneth Branagh show. He was totally annoying. You didn’t miss much.
I agree ! I am a huge AC fan and I thought the Orient Express movie was just a huge Kenneth Branagh ego trip. It was painful to watch because there is nothing in it where you can find Christie’s spirit.
I don’t hate Hammer as an actor, and I am still going to watch the Rebecca movie because I love the book. And I understand him going crazy being quarantined with his estranged Stepford wife.
That being said, I find him really annoying because he just doesn’t realize how privileged he is. The truth is, the only reason he can speak as freely as he speaks is because him being an actor is a hobby and not a job. He doesn’t care if he jeopardizes his career because he will always have his family’s wealth to fall back on. He tries to be a rebel and everything but he is still living off his family’s money – when his family is super pro-Trump and his father lives in a tax heaven so…
There is only one Poirot: David Suchet.
I did not watch Murder and will not be watching this one.
Snowslow—amen to that. Branagh is sorely miscast here.
Coincidence, I just watched Evil Under the Sun with the fabulous Diana Rigg (rip) and many other greats, awesome scenery too..
This is the thing though, we don’t change the system by re-electing Trump. Biden is a life raft. He just needs to get us back to land, then we can buy a new boat.
Perfect analogy. Thank you.
Exactly. The bus analogy too – it’s not exactly what you want, but you take the one that gets you closer to where you want to go, rather than just standing there. And definitely, not the one driving backwards…on fire…heading over a cliff.
This. People can be so short sighted. Biden isn’t the be all end all, he’s a safe transition to a hopefully more progressive future. I think he’ll make a fine president for the time being. I have no time for the people act like he’s nearly as bad as Trump.
I intensely dislike that guy.
Not all people born into wealth are worthless jerks- but he is.
It’s like he keeps finding himself at a crossroads, where his options are
Option A “Expand my universe, try to become an aware, compassionate human being”
or
Option B “Just keep being who you are bro-dude! You’re cool! Yeah, things are crazy right now, but don’t you worry your pretty, rectangular, white, block headed self about it.”
And time after time after time, he chooses Option B.
I’m totaly done with him.
Wow,! Highly unlikely that he was the only White kid in Cayman Island school. I’m next door and expats and white rich Americans established their own schools, charge exorbitant fees to limit the locals from attending. That’s a flat out lie. For all his “I’m the onlyWhite, he sure as heck did not learn anything from that experience, empathy or historical context.
He is childish, ignorant and “White male grievance lite” .
I get he’s divorcing but his comments as so dang disrespectful to ex-wife and kids. Hard pass!
I am white and went to high school in Hawaii and it *is* an enlightening experience to be the “minority” and low-key hated for being an ongoing representation of the colonialism that destroyed a culture. But it’s not racism in the sense that minorities experience racism in the US. In my experience, white kids take different things away from the experience of being the minority. Some just remember being excluded and bullied or beat up and therefore think they experienced racism. And I definitely remember that (I was never beat up but I knew kids who were), but I also just remember finding it extremely humbling and I couldn’t really blame them. Hawaii is also just a whole different can of worms because there’s so many races together, and there’s a bit of a pecking order and it’s relatively segregated in terms of who hangs out with who. So interestingly some mainland Asian people are disliked almost as much as haoles (ie white people).
That said, I would never describe it the way he does. I’m always very careful to not say I experienced racism, because I did not. What I experienced was people who low key resented white people for very, very good reasons, while I was literally on their island, using their resources, where I had no real right to be.
You are right that many white people just establish their own schools that are too expensive for most natives to attend. My parents could not afford them. We’re talking 20k a year 20 years ago.
@Millenial
And he also didn’t say that he experienced racism. He clearly said “It’s a taste of something”, and he acknowledged it was nothing like what people live in America. I don’t like the guy at all, but he was careful, come on.
And I’m sorry, resenting little kids of any race for what their ancestors have done is wrong and no way forward. Nobody has to accept being bullied for their race because it doesn’t help anyone. It’s not like by bullying a white kid we can help a black or brown kid, and even then… Now, if we could bully Trump and help a black kid – I’d be down with that.
I grew up in Hawaii as well as a White person. I wouldnt say I’ve experienced systemic racism, like being pulled over because of the color of my skin or not having access to privileges others do. There was a definite exclusion, othering and less-than towards White kids, especially the non-Kamaʻāina ones in and outside of school, they had it very rough. It was a small town where almost everyone including White people we’re poor so socioeconomically we were all pretty equal in that respect. Armie was a rich White boy live/vacationing in another country. I feel that I have a certain unique perspective and understanding a lot of White Americans may not because of my experience. I would never say I’ve experienced the wide spectrum and systematic racism the way BIPOC have.
All that being said Hawaiians are incredible. They have endured a lot because of colonialism. My best friends are muti-cultural Hawaiians and I miss living there every single day.
@Winterforever Yes, I should add that I was a “mainland” white person when I lived there, and you are right that white folks who are born in Hawaii seem to fit in better. Everyone has a unique experience, for sure. I could never crack the nut. Agree that Hawaiians are incredible. I just felt his “taste of something” comment didn’t quite hit the nail on the head for me.
Armie was describing being *bullied for being different*. It isn’t the same thing as discrimination — losing opportunities or being held back because people think you’re less-than — and he didn’t claim as much.
I get the impression that it can be really fraught in Hawaii. There are a lot of entitled tourists and wealthy white retirees who are driving up the cost of living, and both those groups just don’t care about the environment and preserving Hawaii like other people do.
I grew up in the Middle East and from what I can remember there were several international schools, American International school (good mixed of other nationalities but very expensive tuition fees and not to mention extra curricular activities), British International school (during my time, racism was very rife there), Singaporean International school, Philippine International school amongst other things. In cities where there are a lot of expats chances are there are exclusive schools that will cater for their children.
I can’t quite put what it is that bothers me about him but in this interview, it just goes to show how privilege he is and has a lot of issues to work out.
How lame he must be in person to not get the good movie parts even being white, good looking and rich?
Lol. +1
F**k Right Off, Armie!
HRC won the 2016 election by the number of votes actually cast by We.The.People.
I’m really starting to hate this tall, non too clever, overly wealthy, pretty white boy.
Exactly. Putin took the puck to the net and Comey fired it in.
F–k Comey forever and forever. I hate that guy so much.
Butterfly, you win the internet today for succinct truth that gets to the (painful) heart of the matter. And yeah, Comey has a tier in hell surely for what he chose to do.
Uhm, Jim Sensenbrenner, not Joe Biden, is responsible for the PATRIOT Act, Armie.
He’s not very smart. He’s not necessarily wrong. He’s just not intelligent enough to contextualize or prioritize all of these things properly.
Rebecca also stars Lily James. Her lawyers have been sending threatening letters to British publications regarding mentioning them together. Presumably because of her affair with Dominic West, and Armie’s recent divorce proceedings. Unfortunate timing for her.
She seems just as messy as Armie seems to be.
Oh no, the horror of being forced to spend time with your family on a beautiful island in the middle of a pandemic. It must have been so awful for you. I’m so tired of celebrities complaining about being quarantined. Read the room, guys. People are worried about where their next meal is coming from and whether they’ll be able to pay the rent.
But I’m even more tired of white men telling me that Biden and Trump are the same. Just shut up. One is a wannabe dictator who is encouraging white supremacy while making millions from his presidency, while the other is a decent man who will work to unify our country. Shut up, Armie.
The first part I can understand. If they were literally not allowed by law to go outside…the only thing that got me through the NY lockdown was I live in a big complex and it was very empty at the time, so many left, I don’t know what happened. (probably lost their jobs and relocated) And it wasn’t even a year old at the time of the shutdown so it was never anywhere near full to begin with. So I was easily able to hop down one flight of stairs ( i wouldn’t use the elevator at the time), out the side door, and walk and walk and walk. I didn’t even see anyone. The sun and fresh air saved me. So what he is talking about mentally there, I get that.
The other isht, no. He’s an ignorant fool and someone needs to inform him Biden did NOT write the Patriot act.
False equivalence 🙄
Joe Biden didn’t write the Patriot act. Fool.
I think he has a point .In the last election , people were still not prepared to vote for a woman or were happy to vote for a guy who promised a return to the American Dream…the biggest problem though was complacency with people not bothering to vote .So Trump is what they got as a result of prejudice and inaction .
He’s so messy and entitled and thinks he knows it all. I love reading his interviews. Pure entertainment.
Sounds like he’s not fond of his dad’s “new wife”. And I’m sure that “apartment’ is huge and luxurious, and his wife posted a lot of photos of them on the beach, the pool. Maybe the first few weeks were indoor only, but I think he’s exaggerating it because he was so miserable.
Yeah, how did the authorities keep him out of _his_ pool? And his house doesn’t have a private beach? Who is he kidding…
Just watched him in Rebecca. Anybody else?
Watched last night. The film was sooooo bad and Lilly James is such a bad actress.
He’s yummy in a white-tall-dude-broad-shoulder-blue-eye kind of guy and didn’t have much to do in the film. I think he was absolutely breath-taking in CMBYN so I am blaming the film director…
I’ve only seen Lily James in one role and she was actually pretty good. But that one role was in Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, so I was not expecting a lot. 🙂
(Sidenote to appreciate zombie slaying Darcy though. Yum.)
He’s majorly miscast, to put it mildly. And this is a classic case of a remake that did not need to exist.
Kristin Scott Thomas and Keeley Hawes are the highlights, Armie and Lily can just go away
Yep. You know a mystery-thriller ain’t working when you’re spending more time wondering where evil-dead-wife got her exquisitely cool vintage fountain pens/desks than being gripped by suspense. 🤣
Cringe worthy article
What a POS
Hopefully his children don’t google the article and read about how horrific it was for him to be there with them and family
Stop the presses! Another Mediocre Rich White Dude Has Thoughts.
I wonder who would win in a “most obnoxious” contest. Baking Soda or Worst Chris?
He’s just so unlikeable
He’s up there with Henry Cavill for me as being one of the most boring, overrated working actors.
…who unaccountably get plum roles all the time…
Barf. He got the America *he* deserved. F him.
Uhm, what happens when a say, a political group or a foreign power, *cheats* to put someone in? Like what happened in 2004 (Shrub) and 2016 (Moldy Orange Traitor). WE *DIDN’T “elect” them, and we sure as shit didn’t deserve to have to deal with them!
No one will ever convince me the 2016 election was legit. Trump and crew just weren’t caught.
Somewhere his manager and PR people are curled up in a fetal position, crying. Dude-stfu.
Some people got the president they deserve. A lot of others just got to suffer needlessly through it; over 200K didn’t get the privilege of surviving it.
He’s not wrong on certain things about how Biden and Obama represent a different kind of rot in the system. I just don’t know what he thinks he’s doing that’s so much better or more special than those of us in progressive orgs have been doing. You’re part of the unprepared demographic if you aren’t doing the work to fix it.
Sad. Another celebrity whose personality is not aging well at all.
In one part he talks about losing his mind under “Draconian” rules on The Cayman Islands and in another rants against Americans and the Murica mindset of personal freedoms. I think Armie tries REALLY hard to play at woke but can’t keep the facade up for very long because he doesn’t know when to shut up and he’s not that good of an actor. He always tells on himself and the parts where he does that are when he’s talking about race and politics.
And never forget: his mother is a raging Trump supporter and Armie has “liked” a few of her pro-Trump IG posts. He voted for Trump. But he wants to continue to work in Hollywood so he pretends that he didn’t.
Seriously. It’s an ISLAND. Of course it’s draconian, for the same reason Hawaii was draconian. People on islands separated from quick access to mainland resources are not going to screw around with infection. They can’t afford a massive outbreak.
Better question is how they got stuck there. First thing you should’ve done after the information came out was hopped on a plane home if you didn’t want to get trapped.
Who is “we”? Black women didn’t vote for this sh!t.
Another entitled pseudo intellectual, spoiled man baby.
He Chris Pratt and RDJ should start a club
I will never not think of baking soda when I hear his name.
From the reviews I’ve read of ‘Rebecca,’ a box of baking soda would have had just as much screen presence as he does.
If your votes counted per person, maybe, but I found so strange the US system.
Upon reading that, he sounds like he is actually losing his mind. In one big circle jerk, he’s flailing his hands with the absurdity of everything and no end in sight. He’s lost his ‘religion’ so to speak. He’s had to give up control in every aspect of his life (he feels), and he’s gone mad buried in bewilderment.
Most of us have stories. For me, I was born and raised five minutes from Mexico’s border and the only white girl in classes most of my life. In a high school of more than 5,000, I was one of four gringas in my class. I realize everyone’s experience is their own, but I still felt privileged. Even after finding various notes in my locker inviting me to an after school brawl over something stupid, my circle of friends just grew. I’m not a fighter lol. I treasure those years. Miss them actually.
Also, I have extended family members that have been living in Grand Cayman for more than a decade. Their kids are not the only white kids, but more than color, the pockets of wealth are deep and wide. If anyone’s been down there where the mansions are being steadily built (staying to the right of the circle drive a few miles before the turtle park), you know exactly what I’m saying. I can’t shed tears because some actor or some hedge fund manager isn’t happy with the demographics on Cayman. It’s insulting. He’s lost control. And he’s lost his mind.
Ugh, what an insufferable prick. I’m boycotting Rebecca (Even though it’s one of my fave books) because I can’t stand to look at his smug face. I’ll just watch the Hitchcock version for the hundredth time.
I don’t mind Armie Hammer as an actor but this interview leaves me thinking he is a selfish prick. Something’s happening with white men. They’re losing their marbles, big time. The ones who can’t get their heads around the massive changes taking place in global society today are really coming apart, mentally and emotionally. I’m not sure what to do about them but they’re not doing well.
Leaving aside the privileged, white dude for a sec (if that’s even what he is; he just seems messy and desperate to be A-list to me), he seems to be just another person who married too early and had a family too quickly and realised they’d become someone different. She was the older, wiser woman to his gawky boy-man. I think it’s fine to get married very early but people should really hold off having kids until they’re 35 or something – putting aside the biological challenges of conceiving when you’re older for the moment. Agree he was good in CMBYN and perfectly serviceable in other films.
He sucks. Awwww, I feel so sorry you couldn’t swim in the pool or go in the beautiful ocean in the Cayman Islands stuck in the condo with your new monster in-law! 🤣
Armie, try being in lockdown in a one bedroom apt in Milwaukee with a window facing a brick wall. This dude is so hot and so out of touch.
Right? My place is small but has an incredible view 16 floors up: city skyline and hills and sky and birds forever, and unreal sunsets. EVERY DAY I think about being in lockdown in other past flats I had, or all the people now with basement apartments or limited views. That view keeps me sane.
Luxury apartment and ocean view. Man baby.
I have a lot of empathy for him when it comes to that description of why he was losing it in the Caymans. “Big” personalities in a small space, and you can’t even leave your house? Maybe he doesn’t get along great with his dad; maybe he’s got issues with his “dad’s wife”; maybe his marriage was on its last legs. I can see how it could have been hard to take, emotionally.
Nevermind moderator. I don’t understand why my previous comment was deleted so I’m not gonna bother…
Think their D is getting pretty nasty. After this GQ thing his wife has been leaking all kinds of stuff to the media about Lily James / whoever Adeline was and Armie accidentally texting her instead of yet another woman in Miami. He’s such a messy character! No one should have kids before their brain fully develops and the research suggests this could be after 35 in some people!