Few stars shined brighter than Armie Hammer in 2017 after the discharge of Name Me By Your Title. Simply 4 years later, Hammer’s profession would come to a screeching halt after a number of ladies got here ahead with sexual assault allegations in 2021.
Social media shortly erupted shocked by the allegations which included emotional abuse, rape, bodily abuse and Hammer’s obsession with cannibalism. Everybody was stunned apart from his aunt Casey Hammer, who says that Armie’s habits is typical for the lads of their household.
“You do not simply get up one morning and develop into a monster, it’s a realized habits,” Casey says. “It is one thing that I consider, primarily based on my expertise, I noticed it from one technology to a different and it simply will get worse and worse and worse. In order that’s why I wasn’t shocked.”
The Discovery+ docuseries Home of Hammer begins with the rise and fall of Armie earlier than analyzing how the unhealthy habits of males in his household helped to form his path. The household’s patriarch and Armies’s great-grandfather, Armand Hammer, made a fortune operating the oil firm Occidental Petroleum within the ’70s and ’80s. Casey believes that the fixed struggle for energy and approval tore her household aside, and explains that the Hammer empire was 1,000,000 instances extra dysfunctional than the Roy household from the hit HBO present Succession.
“You had my grandfather, my father, my brother, all vying for management, all vying to get my grandfather’s consideration out in public. My father was out and in of psychological establishments and issues wanted to be coated up. He murdered somebody and my grandfather turned that round and made it self protection and coated it up. And again then, my grandfather had some huge cash, so he may management what was reported and what wasn’t,” Casey reveals. “In order you see from the docuseries, he hosted events, hosted royalty, heads of state, presidents, film stars and it was a who’s who in Hollywood. Each few months there was a black tie occasion, so everybody needed to be on that visitor listing, and the those that had been, did not discuss what actually occurred inside.”
Over the course of three episodes, viewers get to peek behind the veil of privilege and energy, the place every Hammer man engaged in a big selection of illicit behaviors void of penalties. There have been lies, secrets and techniques, cocaine fueled events, home abuse and a rotating solid of younger ladies who had been handled like objects.
“Ladies in my household had been disposable, we had been ornaments. I used to be informed that so long as I behaved and regarded fairly and mentioned the best issues and did not embarrass my household, that I might be taken care of for the remainder of my life. In order that’s mainly how, from my grandfather down, they seen ladies,” Casey explains.
This mistreatment of girls is what Casey believes set the tone for Armie’s alleged abuses. She’s glad that the ladies who spoke out in opposition to Armie are getting a possibility to share their tales. That features Courtney Vucekovich, Armie’s former girlfriend who performs a outstanding function within the docuseries, the place she particulars how the actor groomed her earlier than letting his darker and extra controlling facet emerge. She’s usually emotional within the collection, detailing the the best way he stalked her and manipulated her into sexual acts, like bondage, which made her really feel violated. When Vucekovich ultimately ended the connection with Armie, she reveals that she checked herself right into a remedy program for trauma and PTSD.
“How scary and unhappy for the victims that got here ahead. And the way courageous of them to talk, as a result of everyone knows social media and everyone knows the haters and the way that may acquire momentum and it is terrifying. Nobody ought to really feel remoted and alone, and I am right here to let folks know you are heard, and I consider you, and your story is impactful,” says Casey.
In an announcement to Self-importance Honest in 2021, Armie’s lawyer Andrew Brettler mentioned, “All interactions between Mr. Hammer and his former companions had been consensual. They had been totally mentioned, agreed upon prematurely along with his companions, and mutually participatory. The tales perpetuated on social media had been designed to be salacious in an effort to hurt Mr. Hammer, however that doesn’t make them true.”
“You noticed my grandfather management the narrative in all points of his life, our life, and he bought away with it. To have males which have cash and privilege and energy be capable of manipulate ladies and management them and never be held accountable? That is loopy. It is felony,” Casey says.
Casey first uncovered her household’s darkish facet in her 2015 ebook, Surviving My Birthright. Right now, she’s able to share her complete reality, which features a revelation within the docuseries that her father, Julien Hammer, sexually abused her as a toddler.
“I’ll not perceive how I bought so far, however I do know that each expertise I lived by molded me into the particular person I’m at the moment. And I actually do love who I’m at the moment,” says Casey. “I am unable to change the best way my father felt about me. I am unable to change the best way they virtually killed me 1,000,000 instances, and I am unable to change the best way that I felt about eager to not be current. And in my ebook, I do element about taking my life,” says Casey.
“Now because of the producers, Home of Hammer will remind me of every little thing I’ve endured to be sitting right here as a survivor, as an entire particular person.”
Home of Hammer is now streaming on Discovery+.
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