LOS ANGELES (AP) – Actor Armie Hammer is under investigation for sexual assault, Los Angeles police said on Thursday.
Hammer’s lawyer denied the charge.
Hammer is the main suspect in a sexual assault reported to the police on February 3, said LAPD spokesman Drake Madison. The police gave no further details about the incident or who made the report.
On Thursday morning, in a videoconference, a woman said that on April 24, 2017, in Los Angeles, Hammer raped her for four hours, hit her head against the wall and committed other violent acts against her.
The Associated Press generally does not identify the alleged victims of sexual assault.
The woman appeared on camera, but identified herself only by her first name, Effie.
“During those four hours, I tried to escape, but he wouldn’t let me,” she said through tears. “I thought he was going to kill me. He then left without worrying about my well-being. ”
The woman’s lawyer, Gloria Allred, said they gave statements to the Los Angeles police, including photos of Effie’s injuries. Allred declined to say when the report was made and declined to confirm whether it is the February report that the LAPD is investigating.
Effie was 20 when she and Hammer met on Facebook and started a relationship in 2016, and they had their last contact last year, Allred said.
Hammer’s lawyer said in a statement that from the outset he maintained that all of his interactions with Effie and all other sexual partners “were completely consensual, discussed and agreed in advance, and mutually participatory”.
The statement called his allegations “seeking attention and recklessness” and said that “his own correspondence with Mr. Hammer undermines and refutes his outrageous accusations.”
“With the truth on his side, Mr. Hammer welcomes the opportunity to clear things up,” said Andrew Brettler.
The statement included a screen capture that Brettler said was a text message exchange in July last year between Hammer and Effie, in which she expressed a desire for violent and violent sex with him, and he responded by saying that he no longer wanted one relationship with her.
The 34-year-old actor was then married to television personality Elizabeth Chambers. They divorced last year.
Hammer gained fame playing twins in “The Social Network” in 2010, and is best known for his lead roles in “Call Me By Your Name” in 2017 and in “The Lone Ranger” in 2013.
More recently, Hammer starred in the remake of “Rebecca” for Netflix. A sequel to “Call Me by Your Name” with Timothée Chalamet is also in development.
Allegations of sexual violence in the past few months have hampered Hammer’s career.
Earlier this year, an Instagram account started posting screenshots of supposedly Hammer text messages as early as 2016. Allred declined to comment on whether his client was behind this account, @houseofeffie. When these text messages started appearing in media reports, Hammer called them “spurious and violent online attacks against me”.
After these texts were published, Hammer left the comedy “Shotgun Wedding”, in which he would star alongside Jennifer Lopez, shortly before production began. He soon left the Paramount + series “The Offer”, about the production of “The Godfather”.
Hammer was also dropped by his agency, WME.
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AP Film screenwriter Jake Coyle contributed to this report.
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Follow AP Entertainment writer Andrew Dalton on Twitter: https://twitter.com/andyjamesdalton