When The Hollywood Reporter asked Armie Hammer about the sexual-assault scandal that engulfed Nate Parker’s The Birth of Nation, which Hammer co-starred in last summer, the actor spoke openly about the double standard he saw at work. As Parker was put in director’s jail for a series of non-apologies following the reemergence of a college rape allegation and the victim’s suicide, Casey Affleck won the Oscar for Best Actor despite being sued in 2010 for sexual harassment by two female crew members from I’m Still Here. “I’m not saying Nate should not have been in trouble. I’m saying that they got in different levels of trouble,†Hammer told THR. “And that’s the disparity. It’s like there are two standards for how to deal with someone who has this kind of issue in their past, you know?†Hammer says the rollout of Parker’s college rape allegation was intentional:
The timing of the headlines “was orchestrated for sure,†says Hammer. “There was another person in the industry, who had a competing film for the Academy Awards, who decided to release all of the phone records and information. I’ve been told who did it — by several people.†(Hammer refuses to say who he believes it was.) He thinks the incident reveals a double standard. “Nate had the stuff in his past, which is heinous and tough to get beyond. I get that,†he says. “But that was when he was 18, and now he’s in directors jail. At the same time, the guy who went and won an Academy Award has three cases of sexual assault against him.â€
I ask if he is referring to Casey Affleck, who was sued in 2010 for sexual harassment by two female crewmembers on the set of I’m Still Here and who won the 2016 best actor Oscar for Manchester by the Sea. “Yeah,†he says. (Affleck, in fact, had two civil suits filed against him, both of which were settled out of court and dismissed.) “And [Parker] had one incident — which was heinous and atrocious — but his entire life is affected in the worst possible way. And the other guy won the highest award you can get as an actor. It just doesn’t make sense.â€
After Birth of a Nation fizzled, Hammer was invited to join the Academy. “I always open my mouth too much, but fuck it,†he told THR. “I think I got accepted into the Academy largely because of the way the Birth of a Nation thing was handled.â€