Armie Hammer under investigation by police following rape allegation
The 'Call Me By Your Name' star has denied violently assaulting a woman in Los Angeles in 2017.
By Will Stroude
Police in Los Angeles have launched an investigation after a woman alleged she was raped by actor Armie Hammer.
On February 3, a report was filed by a woman who said she was attacked by Hammer, a spokesperson for the LAPD’s West Bureau confirmed to the Los Angeles Times on Thursday (18 March).
The news comes as a 24-year-old woman, named only as Effie, alleged during a virtual news conference this week that she had been violently assaulted by Hammer in 2017.
Appearing alongside her lawyer, Gloria Allred, Effie said the Call Me By Your Name star raped and physically abused her on April 24, 2017.
Effie and Hammer reportedly began a romantic relationship in 2016, while Hammer was married to Elizabeth Chambers, who he separated from last year.
Hammer in 2017 gay romantic drama Call Me By Your Name
“Armie Hammer raped me for over four hours in Los Angeles, during which he repeatedly slapped my head against a wall, bruising my face”, said Effie in a pre-written statement.
“During those four hours, I tried to get away and he wouldn’t let me. I thought that he was going to kill me.
“He then left with no concern for my wellbeing. I was completely in shock and I couldn’t believe that someone I loved did that to me.”
Effie, who said she fell in love with Hammer “instantly” after meeting him via Facebook when she was 20, said that as the pair’s relationship progressed the actor used “manipulation tactics in order to exert control over me”.
Hammer played twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss in 2010’s The Social Network
She added the star of The Social Network would “test my devotion to him, finally removing and crossing my boundaries as he became increasingly more violent”.
Lawyers for Hammer denied the accusations in a statement shared with the Los Angeles Times, stating that all of Hammer’s sexual interactions with the accuser “have been completely consensual, discussed and agreed upon in advance, and mutually participatory.”
Hammer’s lawyer, Andrew Brettler, has also circulated a screenshot of a message he alleges was sent to Hammer by the accuser on 18 July 2020 which included sexual requests.
“It was never Mr. Hammer’s intention to embarrass or expose [Effie’s] fetishes or kinky sexual desires,” Brettler said, “but she has now escalated this matter to another level by hiring a civil lawyer to host a public press conference.”
In January 2021, several women came forward alleging physical and emotional abuse by Hammer.
Image: Elena Ringo
In the same month, an anonymous Instagram account called @HouseOfEffie began sharing screenshots of alleged messages sent via Hammer’s Instagram account to woman which included violent fantasies of rape and cannibalism.
Allred would not confirm that Effie was the woman behind the @HouseOfEffie Instagram account when asked on Wednesday.
At the time, a representative for Hammer branded the accusation “patently untrue”, with the actor soon dropping out of projects including the upcoming film Shotgun Wedding and TV drama series The Offer.
On 5 February – two days after the police report was filed – it was reported by The Hollywood Reporter that Hammer had been dropped by his talent agency WME, as well as his publicist.