Armie Hammer: actor dropped from The Billion Dollar Spy after rape allegations - what happened?

Actor Armie Hammer has been dropped from the last remaining film in his schedule in the wake of a rape allegation made earlier in March

The Social Network and Call Me By Your Name actor was set to star alongside Mads Mikkelsen in the Cold War drama The Billion Dollar Spy.

Why was the actor dropped from the Billion Dollar Spy, and why is Hammer under investigation by the LAPD?

Why was Armie Hammer dropped from The Billion Dollar spy?

According to Variety, Armie Hammer was dropped from The Billion Dollar Spy in the wake of sexual assault allegations and continuous online chatter.

The actor, who has starred in The Social Network and Call Me By Your Name, is a suspect in a sexual assault investigation by the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD). The investigation was opened in February.

Hammer’s career has been in a drastic fall ever since accusations by multiple women began to surface on social media in early 2021.

Since then, a former partner of Hammer’s has come forward with a rape allegation from 2017, which led to a probe by the LAPD. The investigation is currently active with Hammer as the lead suspect.

Allegations began to appear online in January 2021 on the anonymous Instagram account, House of Effie. The account began posting screenshots of alleged conversations between Hammer and other women. The messages included disturbing details, ranging from sexual fetishes of cannibalism to rape fantasies.

Hammer has not verified the authenticity of the messages.

In March, the woman behind the Instagram account came forward with her attorney, Gloria Allred, to publicly accuse Hammer of rape in a March press conference.

All of Hammer’s forthcoming projects had wrapped before allegations were made against him, including Death on the Nile, which has seen its release pushed back to 2022 by Disney, despite post-production completing some time ago.

The other project is Taika Waititi's Next Goal Wins, about the American Samoa football team, alongside Michael Fassbender and Elisabeth Moss

Armie Hammer was also due to appear alongside Jennifer Lopez in the movie Shotgun Wedding, but pulled out of the project in January after private messages he allegedly sent circulated online.

The actor was also scheduled to star in The Offer, a new series about the making of The Godfather film.

What has Armie Hammer said about the allegations?

Hammer’s legal team has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing. His attorney told reporters that any assertions against his client are “patently untrue,” stating that any interactions with any sexual partners of his “completely consensual in that they were fully discussed, agreed upon, and mutually participatory.”

What is Billion Dollar Spy about?

Billion Dollar Spy is a new Cold War spy thriller.

Armie Hammer was cast as Brad Reid, a fresh arrival at the Moscow station of the CIA, who is approached by Soviet engineer Adolf Tolkachev, played by Mads Mikkelsen.

After ignoring the advice from his CIA bosses that Tolkachev is an obvious KGB dangle, Brad Reid develops a bond and unique friendship with the Russian.

Reid’s faith in Tolkachev is rewarded when he hands over a treasure trove of military secrets, obtained using classic Cold War spy craft, earning Tolkachev the nickname “The Billion Dollar Spy,” and altering the balance of power between East and West.

The movie has not gone into production yet, given sweeping complications across the industry, due the Covid-19 pandemic.