Timothée Chalamet has addressed the sexual assault allegations against his “Call Me by Your Name” co-star Armie Hammer.
Asked about Hammer in a new interview, Chalamet made his first comments on the widely publicized scandal, giving a brief response.
“I totally get why you’re asking that,” Chalamet said in a profile that appeared in Time magazine on Monday, “but it’s a question worthy of a larger conversation, and I don’t want to give you a partial response.”
Hammer was accused of rape in March. He has strongly denied the claim and all other sexual abuse allegations against him, but his career faces irreparable fallout.
Chalamet and Hammer co-starred in the 2017 film “Call Me by Your Name,” which gave Chalamet his breakthrough role. A sequel to the critically acclaimed movie was long-rumored to be in the works, but filmmaker Luca Guadagnino never penned a script, and ever since the Hammer allegations, the project appears to be dead in the water.
The rape allegation against Hammer came from a woman named Effie, who is believed to run a now-infamous, anonymous Instagram account, which first published wide-ranging accusations against Hammer from various women, who said he had cannibalistic fantasies and was emotionally abusive. Effie, represented by power attorney Gloria Allred, accused Hammer of violent rape and physical abuse, during their on-and-off four-year relationship from 2016 to 2020.
Hammer has repeatedly denied all wrongdoing and has maintained that all of his relationships were consensual. At the time of the rape allegation, Hammer’s attorney issued a statement, saying, in part: “From day one, Mr. Hammer has maintained that all of his interactions with [Effie] — and every other sexual partner of his for that matter — have been completely consensual, discussed and agreed upon in advance, and mutually participatory.”
The rape accusation led to an investigation by the Los Angeles Police Department.
The accusation followed a scandal that erupted on social media when Hammer’s alleged DMs were published on Effie’s anonymous Instagram account. When the messages first leaked online, the controversy was covered in a salacious manner, given the nature of the allegations, but as more serious claims surfaced, the women accusing Hammer said the actor used his sexual proclivities as a smokescreen for emotional abuse, manipulation and coercion.
In the wake of the allegations and social media storm, Hammer was fired from numerous projects and dropped from his agency, WME.
