They set out to find the truth about Armie Hammer — and enraged an accuser in the process

LOS ANGELES — Weeks after sex crimes detectives at the Los Angeles Police Department began investigating Armie Hammer, a pair of filmmakers pitched a three-part documentary about the actor to a major streaming service.

Elli Hakami and Julian Hobbs told executives at Discovery+ that they wanted to move the story beyond the headlines. It was March 2021, and dozens of disturbing text message exchanges purportedly between Hammer and young women had been circulating online since the beginning of the year. In the messages, Hammer allegedly shared cannibalistic desires and his obsession with erotic BDSM practices.

Women who said they'd had romantic relationships with Hammer began speaking out publicly, claiming the actor had either coerced or forced them to engage in aggressive sexual activities. It was these women who the directors wanted to talk to, Hakami said, sharing their stories to help "break the cycles of abuse."

But as "House of Hammer" debuted last week, the woman whose claims says the project is doing more to harm Hammer's alleged victims than to help them. Effie, a 26-year-old European woman who declined to give her last name due to concerns about harassment, said in a held by her lawyer, Gloria Allred, that Hammer "violently raped" her. Hammer's attorney, Andrew Brettler, denied Effie's claims and said his client's interactions with her "and every other sexual partner of his for that matter" were "completely consensual, discussed and agreed upon in advance, and mutually participatory." (Brettler did not respond to the L.A. Times' request for comment on the