Armie Hammer Quit Twitter In Response To A Brutal BuzzFeed Profile
"Your perspective is bitter AF" he answered.
Armie Hammer has quit Twitter. In case that name doesn’t mean much to you: Armie Hammer is a Hollywood actor from the film Call Me By Your Name. If you don’t know who he is… that’s ok. In fact, it’s kind of the point. His rage-quit from social media is in response to a recent BuzzFeed profile brutally titled ‘Ten Long Years of Trying To Make Armie Hammer Happen’.
The piece by BuzzFeed writer Anne Helen Petersen dissects the career of Hammer, pointing out his many opportunities to succeed in the industry, and all his subsequent flops (the ill-fated attempt to reboot The Man From U.N.C.L.E, the Disney summer flop The Lone Ranger etc). But the essay isn’t just a mean-spirited This Is Your Life, but rather an examination of whether it’s Hammer’s wealthy white male privilege that keeps affording him the chances to continually fail.
okay, like, I don't really give a shit about this but: I think it's important to talk about white male privilege but I don't understand why Armie Hammer was chosen as the face of it
— priscilla page (@BBW_BFF) November 28, 2017
Petersen writes: “Is Hammer truly a unique star who’s finally finding his niche — or simply a beautiful, pedigreed white man who’s been allowed, in a way that few others in Hollywood have, endless attempts to discover it?”
Failing to make a fantastic career as an actor is hardly a unique thing, and some have questioned the link between Hammer’s privilege and a string of filmic flops. Hollywood is full of comeback and renaissance stories, where actors have suddenly blossomed into the career they’ve always wanted. Hammer’s success with the acclaimed Call Me By Your Name, which came out earlier this year, could be a sign that he’s on that same path.
WTF is that hatchet job on Armie Hammer all about? Utterly confused why a publication would publish what is a effectively an uncalled for attack on someone. There's just no good justification for it.
— Colin P (@ColinTDF) November 28, 2017
The Armie Hammer sentiments could be said about Chris Pine too and his slew of flop movies but y'all like Wonder Woman so I guess not lmao
— Ira Madison III (@ira) November 28, 2017
However, Petersen also notes that Hammer comes from an incredibly wealthy upbringing, being the grandson of an actual oil tycoon, and that he has appeared in Vanity Fair pieces alongside Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner about the “the next generation of the world’s greatest fortunes”. Clearly his wealth and entitlement has afforded him the opportunity to keep failing in ways that could prohibit less privileged (and perhaps equally talented?) actors.
me showing up at buzzfeed hq because they made Armie Hammer delete his twitter pic.twitter.com/upsykqKVld
— anna swanson (@annaswnsn) November 28, 2017
– I'm going to say this on this Armie Hammer Buzzfeed article – for the folks going hard in the paint defending him, ask yourself if you champion PoC actors/actresses as much. If you don't, then kindly STFU. Debate your mama.
— ReBecca Theodore (@FilmFatale_NYC) November 28, 2017
Hammer responded to the story by tweeting, “Your chronology is spot on, but your perspective is bitter AF. Maybe I’m just a guy who loves his job and refuses to do anything but what he loves to do”, and then deleting his entire account. This is not the first time he’s flirted with social media exile, mentioning that he wanted to quit it after a clip of him dancing in Call Me By Your Name was made into a meme and went viral.
Twitter itself has seemed remarkably divided on the issue, with some of his fans seeing the article as an unfair attack, and others as a useful criticism of privilege in Hollywood. Many see his decision to leave Twitter as being “thin-skinned”.
Regardless of whether the BuzzFeed piece was justified or not, I guess both we and Armie Hammer can take comfort in his piles of money and fame.