This story began to come out a bit over the weekend but it felt a bit too TMZ for my taste so I didn’t think much of it. In the days since, there appears to be some validity to the alleged leaked & disturbing messages from Armie Hammer about his sex life & fantasies & now it has caused him to exit an upcoming romantic comedy with Jennifer Lopez. It has just broke that Hammer has voluntarily stepped down from co-starring in the film Shotgun Wedding amid his social media controversy.
A studio spokesperson had this to say about his exit:
“Given the imminent start date of Shotgun Wedding, Armie has requested to step away from the film and we support him in his decision.”
The messages began to leak over the weekend and they were exposed by an anonymous social media account under the name of the House of Effie. The alleged messages were reportedly direct messages from Hammer detailing his disturbing sexual fantasies about rape & drinking his partner’s blood, among others. Some of the messages have Hammer allegedly calling his sexual partners “kittens” while in others he talks about raping his partner on the floor with a knife against her with her crying and screaming. He also talks about drinking his partner’s blood & “thinking of holding your heart in my hand and controlling when it beats. I’m 100% a cannibal. I want to eat you.” You’ll have to go online to read the rest. It gets awfully explicit.
Messages like this can be faked, but there is leaked audio that hasn’t been verified, but it definitely sounds like Hammer expanding on these sexual fantasies. If it’s not him, someone should be getting paid to impersonate him. This also isn’t the first time Hammer has been at the center of explicit leaked DMs, which can also be searched online. The new messages of domination echoes a “Playboy” interview in 2013 when he described himself as a “dominant lover” who enjoyed “grabbing women by the neck and hair” during sex. This all changed for him when he married his life, Elizabeth Chambers, according to the actor. They announced their split in a joint statement last July.
Hammer has responded to the claims yesterday by not quite addressing them, but he acknowledged, from his side, why he had to exit the film:
“I’m not responding to these bullshit claims but in light of the vicious and spurious online attacks against me, I cannot on good conscience now leave my children for 4 months to shoot a film in the Dominican Republic. Lionsgate is supporting me in this and I’m grateful to them for that.”
The film is, of course, Shotgun Wedding, & his role will be recast but they want to move quickly since filming was expected to begin ASAP. Shotgun Wedding follows Darcy (Lopez) and Tom (who Hammer was cast to play) who gather their lovable but very opinionated families for the ultimate destination wedding just as the couple begins to get cold feet. If that stress wasn’t enough, suddenly everyone’s lives are in danger when the entire party is taken, hostage. Pitch Perfect’s Jason Moore is directing the film.
