After announcing that he was stepping away from an upcoming movie project after being accused of writing sexually graphic DMs on social media, Armie Hammer‘s name is once again in the headlines, but this time over something he said back in 2017.
During an appearance on the Watch What Happens Live After Show that year alongside Chelsea Handler, the actor was asked by an audience member to name “the biggest diva” on the set of Gossip Girl. Hammer had a 4-episode guest arc on the hugely-popular show in 2012 in which he played con-man Gabriel Edwards, who briefly dates Serena van der Woodsen played by Blake Lively. Hammer hesitated and sharply exhaled before Handler assured him he could “say it because it’s so far away from where you are now, that show’s over. I suggest that you do not pass on another question.” Finally, he replied, “Let me just say that was a tough show to film and I didn’t end up actually filming all of the episodes I was supposed to because it was such a tough filming.”
The show’s host Andy Cohen interrupted, asking, “Oh really? Literally, you said, ‘Get me out of this?’” To which the actor replied, “It was also like, ‘Get him out of here.’” Cohen followed that up by asking whose love interest Hammer played on the series, and when Hammer replied that it was Lively, Handler joked, “Sounds like she was the problem.” Cohen added, “It sure does, Chelsea. That’s exactly what I was thinking.” But while Hammer smiled and laughed at the pair’s guess, he also shook his head, insisting, “No, no, that’s not what I’m saying,” before raising his eyebrows conspiratorially and pointedly making eye contact with them both.
Hammer maybe-maybe-not calling Lively a diva almost four years ago seems like an odd piece of news to suddenly resurface, but this recent revelation is all a part of the current social media deep dive into Hammer’s life and many public statements. Earlier this month, numerous messages were posted on the anonymous—and now private—social media account House of Effie purporting to be screenshots of correspondence between Hammer and various women outlining some pretty extreme BDSM fantasies. None of these messages have been verified, but that hasn’t stopped fans from pulling up old quotes out of interviews past in their ongoing search for clues it’s really the actor behind those controversial texts. A previous Playboy interview, for example, has come up—although Hammer later blamed these personal confessions on too much alcohol.
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