Armie Hammer dropped from ‘Billion Dollar Spy’ movie after sexual assault allegations
American actor Armie Hammer has been dropped from director Amma Asante’s Cold War thriller The Billion Dollar Spy.
The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed the news of the removal of the 34-year-old star from the star cast of the spy-thriller.
The Billion Dollar Spy, based on a real-life story, was to have Hammer star as Brad Reid, a fresh arrival at the Moscow station of the CIA, where he’s approached by Soviet engineer Adolf Tolkachev, played by Mads Mikkelsen.
This was before Hammer’s career went into freefall amid controversy over graphic messages he allegedly sent to several women over social media, per The Hollywood Reporter.
Then, on March 18, a woman called Effie accused Hammer of rape in a press conference with attorney Gloria Allred. The LAPD confirmed to the Hollywood Reporter that the Call Me By Your Name actor is a suspect in a sexual assault case that was opened on Feb. 3.
Effie said she first met Hammer on 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,” she said of the relationship. Hammer denies the 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.
The Hollywood Reporter unveiled that earlier, Hammer exited The Offer, a Paramount+ series about the making of The Godfather.
Before that, he resigned from Lionsgate action-comedy Shotgun Wedding, which would have paired him with Jennifer Lopez. Josh Duhamel replaced him in the movie.
Walden Media president and CEO Frank Smith and executive vice president development and production Naia Cucukov will executive produce Billion Dollar Spy. The film will go into production this year in Eastern Europe. (ANI)