Armie Hammer speaks out on his separation from wife Elizabeth Chambers

Armie Hammer has reflected on his life-changing year in a candid new interview with GQ.

The Call Me By Your Name star features in the second annual GQ Heroes issue, which celebrates the great and the good in entertainment, politics, advocacy, sport, luxury, media, art and tech.

Alongside a smouldering cover shoot, the actor speaks out on his shock split from wife Elizabeth Chambers and the effects of quarantine.

Armie, 34, and wife Elizabeth, who share two children Harper, aged five, and Ford, aged three, announced they were separating in July, and speaking about the split, the actor confessed it has been a time of ‘great change.’

‘Look, I don’t think you’ll find anyone in the world who would ever say what I’m going through is an easy thing to go through,’ he admitted. 

‘It’s not about whether it was your idea or not, or whether you think it’s the right idea or you don’t. Either way, a separation like this is a seriously seismic event in someone’s life. And there’s a lot of shifting and a lot of growing pains and a lot of changes.’

‘Change is a universal constant,’ he continued. ‘I mean, change is not a bad thing always, but that doesn’t mean it’s painless.’

‘Elizabeth and I are two adults making this decision and the priority is how do we do it in a way that affects our children the least? Or, at least, how do we help get them through this in a way that mitigates as much consternation or fear or damage on their part, you know?’ 

Following the separation, Armie spent some of the COVID-19 quarantine on his own in the Cayman Islands after the global pandemic paused his busy filming schedule.

He admitted to GQ that he struggled and eventually reached out to a therapist. 

‘I was more or less on my own, just trying to get through it,’ Armie explained. ‘I knew I was not doing a very good job so I called my buddy in the States. I was like, ”Hey, man, I know you work in mental health. Do you have someone I can talk to?” And I just started talking to a therapist, twice a week.’

‘It just sort of regulated everything and gave me the tools for dealing with things. It gave me a fresh perspective and it was incredibly helpful.’

‘I’ve been in therapy before, but this was a dire situation. And now I just think everyone needs to be in therapy, period, across the board. Everyone needs to be talking to someone and if you’re not, you’re doing something wrong.’  

The actor has plenty of exciting projects on the horizon. His next movie is a new adaptation of Rebecca where he plays Maxim de Winter, scheduled for release on Netflix next month.

He also has Death On The Nile in post production ready for a December release, and Next Goal Wins. The busy star is  also on pre-production on his TV series Gaslit.

When asked by GQ about the possibility of a Call Me By Your Name sequel following the huge critical and commerical success of the 2017 movie, Armie was secretive, only admitting: ‘I’ve been talking to Luca [Guadagnino, the director], but we haven’t got into it.’

‘I haven’t even read the book. I know Luca hasn’t got a full script yet, although he knows what he wants to do with the story, so I don’t know how similar or dissimilar it will be to Find Me the novel. I know if we end up doing it, it’s more important for me to focus on Luca’s vision than to focus on Find Me. The book will be a supplemental thing.’ 

Read the full feature in the November issue of GQ available via digital download and on newsstands Friday 2 October