Armie Hammer is tall, impossibly handsome, and heir to a massive oil company fortune created by his great-grandfather, Armand Hammer, founder of Occidental Petroleum. He was raised in the Cayman Islands, grew up in a stately home, and could probably have lived a dissolute life as an international playboy.
Yet, he chose to drop out of school when he was 18 to pursue a career as an actor. His parents hated the idea, but Armie was determined to make his way in life rather than fulfill his supposed obligations as the privileged scion of a family business empire.
The gamble paid off. Following roles in The Social Network (as the Winkelvoss twins), J. Edgar (as F.B.I. director J. Edgar Hoover’s assistant/lover), the title role in The Lone Ranger, and The Man From U.N.C.L.E. (as Ilya Kuryakin), Hammer has been well on his way to becoming a reliable Hollywood leading man, even if a big part of the actor wants to stay indie, reserved and even a touch aloof.
In everything, though, the challenge has been to push past convention and try new things. In the sexually provocative Call Me By Your Name, for instance, in xx, Hammer did just that as Luca Guadagnino’s beautifully directed sleeper hit of love between two men ruffled feathers and challenged stereotypes. Although ultimately moved Armie, who was recently married to T.V. host Elizabeth Chambers, closer than ever before to Oscar recognition.
The exposure and fanfare was an ironic byproduct of the movie, not least given Armie’s initial reluctance to take on a role that required him to engage in a nude, same-sex love scene.
“There were a lot of things in the script that scared me,” Hammer says. “My first reaction was to pass on it because it scared me. There was a lot to the story that I had never done before, and I thought it was going to push me too far. But then I read it again, had some conversations with Luca, and he convinced me of the sensual beauty of his story. Finally, I saw that I had to do the film mainly because of how it scared me.”
Hammer’s change of heart might well be the best decision of his career and has given him the kind of respect which his big studio flops (Ranger and U.N.C.L.E.) failed to deliver and may well have even damaged his credibility.
Despite the movie industry’s dormancy in 2020, the actor is still pushing forward with new ideas. He recently wrapped up Death on the Nile, a Hercule Poirot whodunnit from the pen of Agatha Christie. The film has been in the can for over six months, though distributors 20th Century Fox continues to shift the film’s release date back. Originally due for release in December 2020, it has been moved back to this summer.
There’s also Crisis, a film that explores other different relationships interwoven in an opioid epidemic. Next Goal Wins, a football comedy based on the American Samoa soccer team, boasts a surprisingly good cast, including Michael Fassbender and Elisabeth Moss.
STRIPLV interviewed Mr. Hammer before news broke that he is currently under investigation by the L.A.P.D. after a woman accuses him of rape. The woman whose full name at printing has not been released first brought her accusations against the actor in a civil suit. She taped an emotional account of how he physically assaulted her over four years ago. Mr. Hammer’s legal team vehemently refutes her testimony with screen captures of texts sent to the actor from the same woman. With other witnesses coming out against him with their abuse accounts against the Hollywood heavyweight, it’s hard to know what to believe. It doesn’t bode well for the actor that the police are now launching a criminal investigation. We have to give him the chance to prove himself in a court of law.
STRIPLV: Was there a point where you were trying to shift your attention more towards art house projects… such as Final Portrait [about the life of the Swiss sculptor Giacometti] and then much-discussed Call Me By Your Name? HAMMER: I was never trying to avoid studio movies, nor would I. The truth is from day one; I have always been trying to find the best stories and work with the best filmmakers. Right now, I think we’re seeing that a lot of the most talented people are heading towards television and independent movies. It’s a really interesting evolution, and it was happening progressively over the past few years. What Covid has done to it, though, is accelerate it out of all proportion. It’s very sad to say cinema is dead because, of course, it’s not. But what is fair to say is it’s been on life support for a year now, and it’s in a bad way. And all the way, there’s been a party on the television premium T.V. side. STRIPLV: Even though new movies aren’t being made in any real quantity? HAMMER: Well, that’s the thing, even the premium subscription services are soon going to be crying out for new content. We can’t all just stop and expect people to sit at home watching old Police Academy movies. There will be a time. when the deal from the premium T.V. channels needs to be good enough to convince these distributors to stop sitting on these movies in waiting for the cinemas to reopen. It’s just not sustainable for anyone. It’s a really tough time. STRIPLV: Do you think we’ll be able to go back to where we were? HAMMER: Definitely not – I think the landscape has changed forever. The film industry has changed forever, the actors’ perceptions of who they are and what they do has changed, as has the public perception. No one is going to be getting away with anything in this new world. We thought the Harvey Weinstein situation was a milestone in film that was going to rock the industry for a decade. Well, this quickly replaced it as the big story, and this will stay the big story for the next three, four, five years, I am sure. We are all way behind, and it’s going to take a long, long time to recover. And when we do recover, the whole industry will look, talk and operate completely differently. STRIPLV:But you will still have the opportunity, as an actor, to act. And that is undoubtedly all you want to do. HAMMER: Absolutely. When you get a chance to be part of movies that explore relationships or art or tell stories in an intense and enlightening way, you want to be part of that. It’s something you know you will miss when it’s gone, but when it’s taken away from you so quickly, it’s shocking. STRIPLV: Am I right in thinking acting is something you committed to despite your parents’ objections? HAMMER: I first wanted to start acting when I was 11, and I’m very glad that my parents told me very firmly, “No.” Because looking back, I see how so many child actors suffer from being rejected and living a distorted life. I can lose out on a part as an adult and maybe suffer a little, but I won’t let it affect how I see myself. A child is very different, and I don’t know what the effects would have been on my sense of identity. At least when I decided to quit high school (at age 18), I was much surer of who I was, and I was ready to pursue that life. STRIPLV: It took time though before your career got any traction? HAMMER: I spent six years trying to find work, and nothing happened. I didn’t have a clue as to what I was doing. It took me that time to figure out that I wasn’t approaching it as seriously as I should have been, and I needed to work much harder at studying acting. When my agent threatened to fire me, I knew I had to change my attitude and be a lot more focused and determined if I wanted to have any chance in this business. STRIPLV: You’ve worked with a wide variety of directors ranging from Clint Eastwood to David Fincher to Tom Ford (Nocturnal Animals). What are some of the signature characteristics that distinguish them in your memory? HAMMER: The difference between working with a director like Clint Eastwood and David Fincher is night and day. Clint likes to shoot the absolute minimum number of takes because he believes he gets the best work out of you that way, while David Fincher will shoot 60 takes or more to get what he needs. He’s a meticulous perfectionist. So it’s a contrast of styles. But one very important similarity they share is that both have a very clear vision of what they want, and that’s something that I’ve learned a lot from because one day I would like to direct and I’ve tried to pick up as much as I can from every director I’ve worked for. And with Tom Ford, the thing I appreciated about him is his incredible attention to detail. There’s nothing on the set that isn’t exactly the way he wants it to be. STRIPLV: You have two children to look after. How do you reconcile your private life with your life in the public eye as an actor? HAMMER: I live for my children. They are the center of my world. I love acting and the creative side of my work, but my primary concern is my family and enjoying our life together. STRIPLV: Of all your films, which one do your fans who stop you on the street want to talk about? HAMMER: Call Me By Your Name will always be there because I think it grabbed a mood and a voice and amplified it in a way very few movies had done before that. Apart from that, I think most people are still fascinated by The Social Network (where he played the Winklevoss twins – E.D.). One funny thing about working on the film was that none of the main actors (Jesse Eisenberg, Kate Mara, Andrew Garfield and himself) were on Facebook!