Armie Hammer calls out Hollywood's Double Standard Over Birth of A Nation

Bigbigguy

Bigbigguy

BP
Joined
May 16, 2012
Messages
10,910
Reputation
660
Daps
24,350
Reppin
Latveria
gettyimages-695041046-embed.jpg

Hammer thinks the movie was unfairly trashed by critics. "I felt like people jumped on a bandwagon of 'Let's destroy this movie,' " he says. "They were like, 'We know what we're being sold here, and it's new amusement park rides and new toys.' " The reception of Birth of a Nation also left a bad taste. That film — a fact-based drama about the 1831 slave rebellion led by Nat Turner — was the toast of Sundance 2016, leading Fox Searchlight to pay a record $17.5 million for distribution rights. But just as awards season kicked into gear, a 1999 rape allegation from Parker's time at Penn State resurfaced.

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."

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."

I point out the details of the Parker trial — a claim of gang rape on a heavily intoxicated woman, followed by his accuser's suicide — are much graver than what Affleck was accused of, which involved a pattern of demeaning and lewd language and, in one instance, drunkenly climbing into bed with a woman without her consent. "Look," says Hammer. "I'm not saying Nate should not have been in trouble. I'm saying that they got in different levels of trouble. 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 ended up watching the Academy Awards from his couch. Of the now-infamous comedy of errors that momentarily crowned La La Land best picture over Moonlight, he says, "I don't think I've ever laughed so hard. I literally stood up off my couch and applauded — in a schadenfreude way." Though he was invited this year to join the Motion Picture Academy, one of a record 774 new additions that sought to diversify the membership and lower its average age, he has his theories as to why. "I always open my mouth too much, but fukk it," he says. "I think I got accepted into the Academy largely because of the way the Birth of a Nation thing was handled."
Click to expand...

Armie Hammer on His Steamy New Movie, a Charmed Upbringing and Oscar's "Double Standards"
 
Dad

Dad

Veteran
Joined
Nov 25, 2015
Messages
23,991
Reputation
7,588
Daps
105,486
Reppin
DMV
I’m tired of giving cacs, pats on the back for things any sensible person SHOULD be doing in the first place.

Where was this coward when Nate was going toe to toe with the press by himself? This cac chose to be brave when it was convient for him, I can’t respect that.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top