Amid accusations of sexual assault, Armie Hammer introduced Friday that he wouldn’t seem within the Broadway present The Minutes when the pandemic-postponed manufacturing finally opens in New York.
“I’ve liked each single second of engaged on The Minutes with the household I constituted of Steppenwolf,” Hammer stated in an announcement (via Variety). “However proper now I must give attention to myself and my well being for the sake of my household. Consequently, I cannot be returning to Broadway with the manufacturing.”
Tracy Letts’ The Minutes was scheduled to premiere on the Cort Theatre in March 2020 earlier than the Covid-19 pandemic shut down Broadway for the 12 months. With tentative plans to reopen Broadway later this 12 months, Hammer and The Minutes revealed that when the present does attain the stage, Hammer won’t be a part of the solid. No substitute has been introduced.
“Armie stays a valued colleague to all of us who’ve labored with him onstage and offstage on The Minutes. We want solely the very best for him and respect his choice,” The Minutes producers stated in an announcement.
In response to Selection, The Minutes was Hammer’s lone future venture after the actor dropped out of quite a few different TV reveals and films — together with a TV sequence concerning the making of The Godfather and the Jennifer Lopez-starring romcom Shotgun Wedding ceremony — following the social media allegations in opposition to him, with the actor accused of sexual misconduct by a number of girls; the Los Angeles Police Division can be investigating Hammer over an “alleged sexual assault” that occurred in April 2017.
In March, a lady — “Effie,” who additionally spurred the LAPD investigation — held a press convention and accused the actor of “violently” raping and assaulting her. Hammer, by his lawyer, denied the “vicious and spurious” allegations, in addition to the opposite accusations that appeared on social media in unverified textual content messages that detailed lurid sexual fantasies, together with acts of cannibalism.
“From day one, Mr. Hammer has maintained that every one of his interactions with [Effie] — and each different sexual accomplice of his for that matter — have been fully consensual, mentioned and agreed upon upfront, and mutually participatory,” Hammer’s lawyer Andrew Brettler stated.
“It was by no means Mr. Hammer’s intention to embarrass or expose [Effie]’s fetishes or kinky sexual needs, however she has now escalated this matter to a different degree by hiring a civil lawyer to host a public press convention. With the reality on his aspect, Mr. Hammer welcomes the chance to set the report straight… [Effie]’s consideration in search of and ill-advised authorized bid will solely make it harder for actual victims of sexual violence to get the justice they deserve.”
Selection notes that Hammer — who additionally dropped out of two extra initiatives this previous week, the movie Billion Greenback Spy and the Watergate sequence Gaslit — will nonetheless seem in Disney’s Dying on the Nile, which filmed properly earlier than the sexual abuse claims however had its deliberate 2020 theatrical launch postponed because of the pandemic; that movie is at present scheduled for launch in 2022.
