Amid an LAPD investigation into a sexual assault claim following serious allegations from various women that Armie Hammer physically and emotionally abused them, the actor continues to be pulled from, or step down from, high profile jobs.
Hammer announced on April 2 that he will be leaving the Broadway play The Minutes, written by Tracy Letts. Originally, the play was supposed to debut in March 2020, but was put off due to the pandemic and is now slated to open during the 2021-2022 season.
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“I have loved every single second of working on ‘The Minutes’ with the family I made from Steppenwolf. But right now I need to focus on myself and my health for the sake of my family. Consequently, I will not be returning to Broadway with the production,” Hammer said in a statement.
With this announcement, Hammer officially has no more future projects (that we know of) in store. The exception is Disney's Death On The Nile, the sequel to 2017's Murder on the Orient Express, which was shot well before the actor's scandal surfaced and is still slated to premiere in 2022.
Hammer first started disappearing from upcoming roles in January 2020, after explicit DMs started circulating around social media. The DMs, allegedly sent between Hammer and a former partner, depicted an abusive relationship which included threatening and non-consensual sex acts. Almost immediately, Hammer announced he would "step away" from upcoming action comedy movie Shotgun Wedding, which also stars Jennifer Lopez. At the time, he called the claims against him "bullshit" and "vicious and spurious online attacks." Later that month, he also exited the upcoming Godfather making-of series The Offer on Paramount+. On March 29, Hammer was dropped from the Cold War drama Billion Dollar Spy, as well as an upcoming Watergate series Gaslit opposite Julia Roberts and Sean Penn. Dan Stevens has been re-cast in Hammer's role.
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Hammer has categorically denied all the allegations of misconduct, saying that any interactions with any of his former sexual partners were “completely consensual in that they were fully discussed, agreed upon, and mutually participatory.” This includes the most recent serious claim by a woman going by the name Effie, who alleged during a press conference in Los Angeles on March 18 that Hammer sexually assaulted her in 2017. She alleged that Hammer slammed her head against a wall, which caused her to bruise her face, beat her feet with a riding crop, and "committed other acts of violence against me, to which I did not consent."
At this time, the LAPD has released no further details about the ongoing investigation into Hammer, which opened on February 3.
If you have experienced sexual violence and are in need of crisis support, please call the RAINN Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).