The “Armie Hammer redemption tour” has begun, even though no one wants it. In early 2021, Hammer was outed as a sexual assailant, a wannabe cannibal, a guy who treats women like sh-t and an addict. There were texts about his cannibal and BDSM fantasies, there were ex-girlfriends and ex-lovers coming out of the woodwork to tell their stories of being used, abused and abandoned by Hammer. And there was Effie’s story of being raped and tortured by Hammer, a story which led the LAPD to open up a criminal investigation. It now appears that Effie’s story is much more complicated than many believed, and her lawyer (Gloria Allred) has already stepped away from representing her. It’s likely nothing (in the way of criminal charges or even a civil case) will come out of Effie’s claims, in general, and that was true before Hammer commenced with this redemption tour. Hammer sat down with Air Mail for a self-pitying and self-centered interview. Some highlights:

Hammer claims the “rape” of Effie was a scene they planned together: “If I still had these messages, I would have been able to put this to bed in .5 seconds. This alleged rape was a scene that was her idea. She planned all of the details out, all the way down to what Starbucks I would see her at, how I would follow her home, how her front door would be open and unlocked and I would come in, and we would engage in what is called a ‘consensual non-consent scene,’ CNC.” Hammer says that, while he and Effie had sex multiple times, “we only had one, scheduled CNC event,” and that Effie introduced him to the practice.

He always asked for consent: “Every single thing was discussed beforehand,” he says. “I have never thrust this on someone unexpectedly. Never. That’s a very important part of the B.D.S.M. world. The consent. Because you’re doing things that are pushing envelopes. You’re doing things that are beyond the [realm of] ‘Let’s have missionary sex with the lights off.’ You have to have that trust. You have to have that vulnerability with someone. You have to have that aspect of ‘I am willingly giving my control over to this person,.’ You know, the sub [the submissive partner] is the one who actually has all the power. Always. They’re the ones who can say ‘stop’ at any moment. They’re the ones who set the boundaries.”

He’s glad all of this has happened: “If someone came up to me and gave me a magic lamp and said, ‘There’s a genie in here, but it only gives you one wish. If you rub this lamp, the genie will come out and take you back two years in the past, and you could undo all of this,’ I wouldn’t do it. I’m now grateful for everything that’s happened to me, because, as it says in the ‘Twelve and Twelve’ [Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, the guidebook of Alcoholics Anonymous], pain is the touchstone of spiritual progress. 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 able to be there for my dad as he’s dying in a way that I would have never been able to be. 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.”

He was abused at 13: At the age of 13, Hammer says, a youth pastor at the church his family attended sexually abused him for a period lasting nearly a year. “What that did for me was it introduced sexuality into my life in a way that it was completely out of my control,” he recalls. “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.” According to Hammer, the sexual abuse he endured as a young boy “set a dangerous precedent in my life.” As a result of that experience, Hammer says that his “sexual interests became about being in control, because being out of control was very dangerous for me and very uncomfortable.”

He fully admits he was emotionally abusive: “I had a very intense and extreme lifestyle, and 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.” Asked if it’s fair to say that he was emotionally abusive to his accusers, he replies, “One million percent.”

[From Air Mail]

He also claims, at one point in the interview, that he was suicidal. I had stopped reading the piece by then. One of the quotes which made the most sense to me was from one of Hammer’s friends, who was basically like: I’m glad his life fell apart, his behavior was stupid and harmful and he deserved what he got. That’s how I feel too – while the article tries to parse what is “vivid BDSM fantasy” versus what is actually line-crossing abuse, the sheer number of women coming forward with these horrible stories about him leads me to believe that we’ve actually only heard a small fraction of what he’s really done to women for years.

I’m glad I didn’t stick around and read until the end.

The Armie Hammer piece might be a *smidge* more redeeming if he didn’t go on a rant about woke cancel culture at the end.

— Jessica Ellis (@baddestmamajama) February 4, 2023

armie hammer is not such an indispensable artist that we can’t just toss him aside and carry on with our day. mega rich scion of a despicable family, middling to poor actor, pretty boring human being that also happens to be a full on predator. we can throw him away, it’s okay.

— world famous art thief (@CalmSporting) February 4, 2023

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid.