Armie Hammer is apologizing for his recent comments criticizing Casey Affleck's 2017 Best Actor Oscar win.
Armie Hammer is apologizing for his recent comments criticizing Casey Affleck's 2017 Best Actor Oscar win.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Hammer said there was a double standard at play when it comes to how Hollywood deals with its alleged abusers. The Call Me by Your Name star explained what he sees as a disparity in how the Academy treated director Nate Parker -- whose Oscar campaign for 2016's Birth of a Nation went south when a past rape case surfaced -- and Affleck, who was awarded Best Actor for Manchester by the Sea at the 2017 Academy Awards, despite allegations of sexual harassment in his past.
Hammer acknowledges the comparison was "poor" in a statement to People.
“I would like to sincerely apologize to Casey and his family for my recent comments about him in my THR interview," the statement reads. "Without knowing the facts about the civil lawsuits at issue (which I now understand were settled), I misspoke. I conflated sexual harassment cases with a criminal case involving sexual assault charges. The cases in which Casey was involved were not criminal and instead involved civil claims from his 2010 movie I’m Still Here. While intending to make a social comment about double standards in general, I mistakenly compared reports of prior, public civil allegations that never proceeded to trial with a criminal case that was fully tried.”
“I understand now that this was a poor comparison, which I deeply regret making,” Hammer continued. “I also didn’t mean to insinuate, nor do I believe, that Casey or anyone from his camp had anything to do with leaked information that took place during the press for Birth of a Nation. I respect Casey’s work, and I’ve learned a valuable lesson about the need to be more accurate with disseminating information, especially in this age of instantaneous, unchecked communication. While attempting to be part of the solution, I unintentionally made myself part of the problem, for which I am truly sorry.”
ET has reached out to Hammer's rep for comment.
The allegations against Affleck stem from 2010 lawsuits filed by two women who worked with him on his controversial film starring Joaquin Phoenix, I'm Still Here. He has denied the claims, and the suits were settled out of court.
In Parker's case, the director and his friend were arrested on allegations of raping a woman while she was intoxicated and unconscious in 1999. The alleged victim later committed suicide in 2012. Parker was acquitted of the charges in 2001 -- though his friend was convicted -- and has always maintained his innocence, telling Anderson Cooper during a 60 Minutes interview in October 2016 that the news of his accuser's suicide was "devastating," though he did not feel guilty.
In his original comments to THR, Hammer commented, "[Parker] had one incident -- which was heinous and atrocious -- but his entire life is affected in the worst possible way. And the other guy won the highest award you can get as an actor. It just doesn’t make sense, you know?”
“Look, I’m not saying Nate should not have been in trouble. I’m saying that they got in different levels of trouble," the 31-year-old actor continued. "And that’s the disparity. It’s like there are two standards for how to deal with someone who has this kind of issue in their past, you know?”
On Monday, Hammer picked up a Best Supporting Actor Golden Globe nomination for his role in the critically acclaimed Call Me by Your Name.
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