Why Armie Hammer is "grateful" for the cannibalism accusations that led to his "career death"

Armie Hammer has commented on the cannibalism allegations that he said led to the demise of his career.

Hammer on the June 16 episode of the "Painful Lessons" podcast spoke about the "bizarre" accusations, which were formally made by his ex-girlfriends Courtney Vucekovich and Julia Morrison in the 2022 documentary "House of Hammer." The women in the documentary revealed explicit text messages and voice notes reportedly from Hammer in which he detailed his sexual fantasies of bondage, cannibalism and rape.

“There were things that people were saying about me that just felt so outlandish . . . that I was a cannibal," the "Call Me By Your Name" actor said. "Now I'm able to sort of look at it with a sense of distance and perspective and be like, 'That's hilarious.' Like, people called me a cannibal, and everyone believed them.

“How am I going to be a cannibal? It was bizarre, right?” Hammer added.

“Even in the indiscrepancies [sic], even in the . . . whatever it was that people said . . . I'm now at a place in my life where I'm really grateful for every single bit of it," Hammer said, according to PEOPLE. "Because where I was in my life before all of that stuff happened to me I didn't feel good . . . I never was in a place where I was happy with myself, where I had self-esteem; I never knew how to give myself love."

Hammer also observed that he entered a program after his "career death" led him to "hit rock bottom."

“It killed me. It killed my ego. It killed all the people around me that I thought were my friends that weren't," Hammer said. "All of those people in a flash went away, but the buildings were still standing. I'm still here. I still have my health, and I'm really grateful for that."