During a Thursday press conference with attorney Gloria Allred, a woman named Effie accused embattled actor Armie Hammer of rape, with the LAPD confirming to The Hollywood Reporter that Hammer is a suspect in a sexual assault case that was opened Feb 3.
“On April 24, 2017, Armie Hammer violently raped me for over four hours in Los Angeles,” said Effie, who did not offer her full name but was described by Allred as a “24-year-old woman who lives in Europe.” During the time of the alleged rape, Effie says Hammer repeatedly slammed her head against a wall resulting in bruises to her face, and “committed other acts of violence against me, to which I did not consent.” The latter included beating her feet with a riding crop, she said.
“During those four hours, I tried to get away but he wouldn’t let me. I thought he was going to kill me. Then [he] left with no concern for my well-being,” said Effie.
The woman says she first met Hammer over Facebook in 2016 when she was 20 years old and entered into an on-and-off relationship between 2016 to 2020. “He abused me mentally, emotionally and sexually,” said Effie of the relationship.
Hammer denies the claims. After the presser ended on Thursday, the actor’s lawyer, Andrew Brettler, said in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter that Effie’s “own correspondence with Mr. Hammer undermines and refutes her outrageous allegations. As recently as July 18, 2020, [Effie] sent graphic texts to Mr. Hammer telling him what she wanted him to do to her. Mr. Hammer responded making it clear that he did not want to maintain that type of relationship with her.”
Hammer’s lawyer included a text message correspondence alleged to be between Hammer and Effie, saying it is “one of hundreds” Effie has sent to Hammer. The correspondence has been viewed by THR. The statement included Effie’s last name, which THR is choosing not to publish, as Allred did not disclose Effie’s full legal name.
Effie says that after the alleged rape she had suicidal thoughts and offered: “I tried so hard to justify his actions, even to the point of responding to him in a way that did not reflect my true feelings.”
She added on Thursday, “In speaking out today, I hope to keep others from falling victim to him in the future.”
“Even if a sexual partner agrees to sexual activities, she has the right at any point to withdraw her consent,” said Allred at the top of the press conference.
Allred says that Effie has provided evidence of Hammer’s alleged sexual abuse to law enforcement, noting that photos of Effie’s “visible injuries” do exist. When asked if Effie would be filing charges against Hammer, Allred offered, “It is for law enforcement and the prosecutor to decide if there is sufficient evidence.” Allred said she had no comment about which law enforcement the evidence has been sent to, but later, when asked if law enforcement had opened an investigation, offered, “The LAPD would be the best ones to answer that question, if they choose to answer.”
“I challenge Armie Hammer to present all, not some, of his communications with Effie to the Los Angeles Police Department and answer all of their questions directly rather than through his lawyers,” said Allred in a statement in response to Brettler’s claims.
Hammer first faced backlash in early January when several disturbing, unverified comments and conversations attributed to the actor surfaced on social media that outlined emotional abuse, manipulation and coercion. One of the accounts that shared anonymous messages was @houseofeffie. During the press conference, Allred had no comment as to whether or not Effie is behind the account, but the image associated with the account looks similar to the woman who appeared at Thursday’s press conference.
Several days after screenshots of messages appeared on social media, Hammer departed the Jennifer Lopez movie Shotgun Wedding and offered in a January statement: “I’m not responding to these bullshit claims but in light of the vicious and spurious online attacks against me, I cannot in good conscience now leave my children for 4 months to shoot a film in the Dominican Republic.” Hammer would later exit the making-of The Godfather series set at Paramount Plus and, a week later, was dropped by his agency WME.
In a January interview, a former girlfriend of Hammer’s, Paige Lorenze, accused the actor of coercing her into an aggressive sexual relationship that left her with bruising and the letter “A” cut into her pelvis region, the result of Hammer using a knife to carve his initial during sex. Hammer’s attorney responded to the claims in a statement, offering, “These assertions about Mr. Hammer are patently untrue. Any interactions with this person, or any partner of his, were completely consensual in that they were fully discussed, agreed upon, and mutually participatory.”
In his statement on Thursday in response to Effie’s claims, Hammer’s attorney said: “It was never Mr. Hammer’s intention to embarrass or expose [Effie’s] fetishes or kinky sexual desires, but she has now escalated this matter to another level by hiring a civil lawyer to host a public press conference. With the truth on his side, Mr. Hammer welcomes the opportunity to set the record straight.”
He went on to describe Effie’s claims an “attention-seeking and ill-advised legal bid,” and said, “From day one, Mr. Hammer has maintained that all of his interactions with [Effie] — and every other sexual partner of his for that matter — have been completely consensual, discussed and agreed upon in advance, and mutually participatory.”
Ryan Parker contributed to this report.
March 18, 2 p.m. Updated to include confirmation that Hammer is a suspect in a open sexual assault investigation.
