Highlights
- Armie Hammer reportedly calls “Citizen Vigilante” “hateful” and “disgusting” after seeing it.
- Director Uwe Boll pushes back, praising Hammer as “perfect for the part.”
- Film banned in Germany, boosted by Elon Musk, yet Hammer may still do a sequel.
Armie Hammer‘s Hollywood comeback just took a bizarre turn, and this time the actor is allegedly the one trashing his own movie.
According to a new report by Puck News, Hammer was so shaken by the final cut of the controversial action movie, Citizen Vigilante, that he called it “hateful” and “disgusting,” a dramatic reversal from the optimism he expressed just weeks earlier when promoting the project as his return to acting.
A source close to the actor did not hold back describing his reaction to the finished film. “The first time he saw it, he was in tears. And not tears of joy. He called me and said, ‘F***. This is hateful, disgusting,'” the insider said.
The source claimed Hammer had no idea what he was actually signing up for. His team has gone to Puck News, a publication widely read in Hollywood, in what appears to be an effort at damage control. The insider insisted Boll’s loose production style left Hammer blindsided by the final product.
Director Uwe Boll is not having it. “Armie was perfect for the part and I loved working with him,” Boll told The Wrap, defending their working relationship on set.
Citizen Vigilante casts Hammer as an American businessman living in Europe who takes justice into his own hands against violent criminals, many of them portrayed as migrants. The film was denied a rating by Germany’s film board over concerns it could incite anti-migrant violence, effectively barring it from that country’s theaters.
Despite the backlash, the movie has found an audience elsewhere. It has a 6% rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes and a 93% audience score, a split that has only fueled its notoriety online. It gained a massive boost after Elon Musk streamed it for free on X.
The controversy marks yet another chapter in Hammer’s rocky return to the industry following the misconduct allegations that derailed his career in 2021. Back in June, he was singing a very different tune about the role, even admitting he cried when the offer came through.
Money talks, apparently, even for an actor calling his own film “disgusting.” A source told Puck a sequel “would have to be life-changing money,” adding, “Everyone has a breaking point.”
