Actor Armie Hammer Defends His Love Of Bondage Four Years After Career-Ending ‘Cannibal’ Controversy

Actor Armie Hammer is now proudly reveling in his love of bondage.

The “Call Me By Your Name” star recently revisited the shocking allegations that halted his in-demand career nearly four years ago, clearing up some of the more “disturbing” cannibalism rumors while giving insight into how the controversial kink truly makes him feel.

Speaking on the “Your Mom’s House” podcast, the now 38-year-old entertainer expressed how collective boredom during the pandemic led to widespread mischaracterization of his sexual desires.

“The world seemed like it was falling apart,” he began, adding, “People were deeply unhappy with their own lives. Then, this salacious story comes around where this actor wants to murder and eat people.”

“All of a sudden,” Hammer then continued, “everyone’s like, ‘Oh, this is so much more fun to focus on than the fact that I can’t leave my living room.'”

As personal texts themed around his kinks “kept coming out and kept coming out” in the media, the Golden Globe-nominated performer soon realized how strange they made him sound.

“While you’re saying it, you’re chuckling to yourself, like, ‘I’m gonna f-cking cut your toe off and keep it in my pocket so I got a piece of you everywhere I go,” Hammer noted.

“Then it gets read in the court of public opinion and everyone goes, ‘You’re insane.'”

Continuing with the conversation, Hammer specified that his descriptions of certain cannibalistic acts were more directly tied to the “possession” aspect of bondage.

“I like the idea that you are so completely mine,” he disclosed, per E! News.

“I can do whatever I want, and you love it because you know you’re mine. [It’s] this possession kind of thing, that’s just fun to talk about,” the actor further clarified, “especially if you’re drunk or stoned or high at night and you’re texting.”

Hammer then likened his taboo desires to ones that are more common by noting their shared adult nature.

“If anyone took anyone’s bedroom conversations,” he said, “specifically if people were having a little bit of sexy time, and they took the sh-t that they said – even if it was completely vanilla – and read that somewhere else out of context, everyone’s gonna go, ‘You guys are f–king disgusting.'”

Once the scandal went viral, Hammer soon realized he had been hiding behind his public persona – though he wasn’t ready to give up the rouse.

“There was the mask that I didn’t really identify with, but everyone thought was me,” he admitted, though the forced removal did push him into “full panic mode.”

“That became sort of like my safety net and identity. When that gets shattered, everyone goes, ‘We no longer like this guy. We f–king hate him,’” the performer relayed.

Being stripped of such a personal aspect caused Hammer to feel more vulnerable than he ever had before.

“All of a sudden, you’re just left standing there naked in front of the world with all of your proclivities or kinks being judged by the world,” Hammer went on, before continuing, “There was definitely an aspect of your sexuality being weaponized against you. It makes it really hard for you to feel safe to engage in your own sexuality.”

Despite how most feel about Hammer since the reveal, the actor believes the journey he’s taken to know himself since then is somewhat worth it.

“There are aspects of my behavior that I think were coming from maybe not the healthiest place,” he acknowledged.

“There were aspects of my behavior that were just expressions of my own sexuality. I had to comb through all of that and figure out what’s coming from the right place, what’s coming from a trauma place.”

Hammer is, in fact, mostly grateful for his contentious truth coming to light.

“I think somewhere deep down, subconsciously,” he stated, “I wanted to get caught.”

In another display of the journey Hammer has traversed since the controversy, he went on record in July that he’s now fine with the rumors that led to his career pivot.

“I’m able to sort of look at it with a sense of distance and perspective and be like, ‘that’s hilarious,’” he shared on the “Painful Lessons” podcast.

“People called me a cannibal and everyone believed them. They’re like, ‘Yep, that guy ate people,’” Hammer joked.