As Armie Hammer’s alleged acts of sexual violence take to the screen in House of Hammer, one of his accusers is calling out the team behind the documentary.
The woman known only as Effie, whose rape allegations against Hammer, 36, sparked an LAPD investigation into the actor last March, has spoken out against filmmakers Elli Hakami and Julian Hobbs’ “disgusting” treatment of her in a statement to the Los Angeles Times.
“It is extremely inappropriate of you to exploit such a tragic, vulnerable time in many people’s lives, with no regard whatsoever for our healing process and privacy,” she said.
“The way they’ve been exploiting my trauma is disgusting,” Effie added. “When I keep screaming ‘no’ and they keep going, saying they don’t need my permission, they remind me of Armie.”
The three-part docuseries, which premiered Friday on HBO Max and discovery+, examines the allegations against Hammer, as well as his wealthy family’s history of allegedly abusive behavior that contributed to his upbringing.
As Effie is the only one of Hammer’s accusers with an active investigation, Hobbs told the Los Angeles Times it was “an editorial decision” to “not get involved.”
Although, he argued that they didn’t “have to get permission” to include screenshots of messages Hammer allegedly sent to Effie, describing his fantasies of rape and cannibalism, as she shared them on her Instagram profile House of Effie last January.
“[Effie]’s been vocal that she thinks that making any form of media out of these events is somewhat problematic,” he explained. “As filmmakers, we don’t take that view. We feel we actually have an obligation to tell the stories.
“If you were to stop making films because someone said they didn’t want a film being made, you would never make a film. The reality is, not everyone gets onboard films. That being said, I think what you have to be is ethically on the right side of how the affairs are conducted. You have to be open and transparent about what’s going on with the film, and you have to be inclusive,” Hobbs added.
Effie’s attorney Gloria Allred is interviewed in the docuseries, but Effie told the Los Angeles Times that Allred didn’t tell her about participating in the production. To the outlet, Allred declined to comment about that because of attorney-client privilege. The lawyer did tell the outlet that “statements that I have made on behalf of clients have been made because the statements were consistent with our representation, were authorized either explicitly or implicitly, and were made because I believed that the statements were in the client’s best interests.”
House of Hammer is now streaming on HBO Max and discovery+.
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