Armie Hammer on His Acting Return in ‘Citizen Vigilante’ and ‘Call Me by Your Name’ Memories

Following Armie Hammer‘s first feature since Frontier Crucible, the actor continues his return-to-acting streak with the upcoming vigilante thriller, Citizen Vigilante. Directed by Uwe Boll (Far Cry), the movie follows Hammer as he plays wealthy American businessman Sanders. Caught up in a whirlwind of violence in a foreign land, Sanders takes matters into his own hands and seeks justice on his own terms. However, his grassroots campaign, which gains momentum on social media, comes to the attention of local Interpol, prompting the organization to chase after Sanders.

Previously, Collider held a screening for Citizen Vigilante in collaboration with Quiver Distribution. Featuring a Q&A with Hammer, moderated by Collider’s Steve Weintraub, the actor shared what it was like to make a movie in Croatia, discussed his acting career revival, reflected on the making of Call Me by Your Name, J. Edgar and working with Clint Eastwood, desire for a sequel to Henry Cavill and Guy Ritchie‘s The Man From U.N.C.L.E, and teased another project that’s currently underway. Check out the full interview transcript below.

Armie Hammer Details the Horrific Incident That Occurred on the Set of ‘Hotel Mumbai’

“The director was clearly in shock.”

COLLIDER: I think we first met on The Social Network. When did that come out? I don’t remember.

HAMMER: It came out in 2010.

What are your feelings on [Aaron] Sorkin making this new movie that’s coming out later this year?

HAMMER: I’m excited when Aaron Sorkin makes anything. I’m very excited to see this film.

I have a ton of questions about this, but we’re going to play Get to know Armie Hammer. What emotion is surprisingly difficult for you to fake convincingly?

HAMMER: Patience. That doesn’t apply right now for the record.

What’s a talent you admire in other actors that you wish you had?

HAMMER: Patience. There are some actors who can read a script one time. I’ve worked with a few of these guys. They can literally read a script one time and be like, “Yep, got it.” And I have to really go over it and go over it. I’ve worked with actors who on set will admit that they’ve only read the script one time. They will show up to the day’s work, not having looked at the scenes that we’re shooting for that day, sit down in the makeup trailer, look at the sides — which are just like the small printed version of a script — look through it and go, “Yeah, yeah, I got it.” And then just nail it and it just looks so easy and effortless and I hate them.

That is crazy. What’s the most chaotic thing that happened on a set?

HAMMER: I was working on a movie where a director got his thumb cut off in the middle of a scene. We were shooting a movie in India. They have very different safety protocols in India. They had these giant fans, and there was nothing in front of the fan — like it was just whirling blades. And the director was talking to an actor and tried to move the fan, and it just went, “Pring ding ding ding ding ding ding ding,” and just a mist of blood just went “Pshew” all over the actress in front of the fan. And we all just kind of sat there for a second. And the director was clearly in shock because he was like, “What was that?” And then he looked down and his thumb was missing. And it was on the floor. And then Dev Patel picked up the thumb and everyone just started screaming.

Hotel Mumbai.

HAMMER: Hotel Mumbai.

That’s actually a really good movie.

HAMMER: Yeah, thank you.

If you could see any musician alive or dead in concert, who would it be and why?

HAMMER: This is my honest-to-God answer. And I would say this if someone was like, “Hey, I’ve got a time machine, do you want to travel back in time?” I would say “Absolutely. I want to go to 1999, and I want to watch a Korn concert in 1999.” I don’t know why, I just love Korn.

There’s no wrong answer here, but that is not the answer I expected.

HAMMER: By the way, there’s probably better answers, and it would be a terrific waste of time travel. But it’s also just what I want to do.

The proper answer is Queen with Freddie Mercury.

HAMMER: Ooh, that’s a good answer too. That’s a good answer.

That is what I need. I am a huge fan of Freddie Mercury. What do audiences misunderstand most about your job?

HAMMER: I think people think it’s a generally easy job, that you just get to play and have fun and this and that. There are long, grueling days, sometimes 16 hours a day on set. You go home, sleep for a couple hours, and do it all over again. But that being said, it’s also one of those things where it’s like, if you find a job that you love, you never have to work another day in your life. Sixteen-hour days on set, give them all to me.

I lied. Let’s do one more. Your answers have been good. What’s the weirdest compliment you’ve ever gotten about your acting?

HAMMER: When we made Social Network, there was someone that I had known for years. They had been to my house. I knew this person well, and the movie came out, and they said, “I had no idea you had a twin.” Yeah. I was like, “Dude, you’ve known me since I was a teenager. What are you talking about?” But yeah, I take that as a massive compliment.

“It’s a really powerful force in this world.”

Thank you for indulging my Get to Know You questions. Let’s jump into Citizen Vigilante. What was your reaction reading the script to this?

HAMMER: I got an email from Uwe, which I thought was “Ooo-we.” But I got an email from Uwe and he said, “Hey, I have this movie; I want you to do it.” And I just started crying because I was so happy that someone was giving me the chance to do the thing in my life that I’m the most passionate about outside of my kids. And I read the script. I didn’t even have to. I had already typed, “Yes, I’ll do it.” But then I read the script and I was like, “Whoa, this is intense.”

I should point out this is so unlike anything you’ve ever done.

HAMMER: Yeah, it is a very intense film. You’re about to see- I don’t want to give away too much, but I remember reading it thinking, “This guy is really passionate about this issue specifically,” and that is attractive to me. People who are passionate about things, especially a director. If you have a passionate director on a film, it just makes everything better.

Your character is someone who believes the legal system has failed and decides to take justice into his own hands.

HAMMER: I’m sure nobody here relates to that.

What did you want to understand about him before playing him?

HAMMER: Sanders. My character’s name is Sanders in the film. I wanted to understand who this guy was, what had happened to him prior to getting him to the point where he was so at the end of his rope, that he saw no other option but to take matters into his own hands. I really wanted to understand that decision. I mean, we’ve all thought that. Like a loud neighbor with dogs that eventually you want to go over there and confront whatever it is — I deal with that in my personal life. But I just wanted to understand how this guy operated. I guess it’s kind of like a blanket answer for any role that you do, but that was really it.

Social media is a factor in this, and how he basically starts being loved by people on social media and agrees with his actions. What interested you about that idea?

HAMMER: It felt like a nice change. Social media is a really powerful medium, and it’s something that is so new on this planet that we don’t really have any way to kind of regulate how it affects our lives. And a lot of people… It affects their lives negatively. A lot of people get obsessed or addicted to it. It’s a really powerful force in this world. So seeing how it plays out in this movie, it’s really interesting because it’s a guy who’s doing things that on the surface, you kind of go, “This is pretty sketchy, bro.” But then everyone on the internet is sort of like cheering him on.

Uwe does an interesting thing in this film — and I’m not going to do spoilers because you’re all about to watch it — but he flips the vigilante story a little bit on its head because, your character… He goes after people that deserve it, and he actually goes after some people who maybe don’t. Could you talk about talking with him about that motivation? Because it would be easy for him to just do the conventional vigilante story, where it’s just easy to justify, but he takes it further.

HAMMER: Yeah, in that kind of Death Wish kind of way where you’re like, “Every single person deserved what they got.” It’s really interesting Uwe’s approach to how social media plays into this film, because his take on it is that everybody feels this way — at least in the world that he’s built for this movie, is that everybody wants this justice. Whether it’s the legal system, whether it’s vigilantism to get the bad guys, sometimes the good guys get caught in the crossfire.

Where do you find the humanity in a character like this, who is clearly, I don’t want to say distressed, but is dealing with some stuff?

HAMMER: Really looking at the backstory of this guy — trying to understand his family of origin, trying to understand what may have happened to him, trying to understand how… The way I found it into this humanity of this guy is like, it’s the justice aspect. This guy believes in justice and feels like there is none available. And I think everybody can relate to that a little bit.

Armie Hammer Describes Uwe Boll’s Unique Directing Style

“It was just this really fun kind of run-and-gun approach to making this movie.”

Again, no spoilers, but there’s a scene on the bus in this movie, and I was just curious, how is he as a director? Are you just getting on the bus and filming? Are you doing permits? Because there was a weird energy to that stuff where it’s being done in the moment, right on location.

HAMMER: Permits?

Right.

HAMMER: I’ll tell a story. I got to Croatia. We shot this movie in Zagreb, Croatia, which is an amazing city. If you haven’t been, you should go check it out. I get into my hotel at night, and Uwe calls me in my hotel room, and he goes, “Okay, so we go shoot tomorrow morning,” and I go, “Okay, what are we going to shoot?” “Whatever we want!” I go, “Okay, where?” “Wherever we want!” I go, “Uwe, do you have permits for this movie?” He goes, “Just show up in the morning.” And I was like, “Okay.”

So our first day of shooting, which was technically like a pre-production day, it was me, Uwe, and a camera guy, and we just ran around Zagreb. We were going through buildings. We were into apartment buildings, parking structures in the middle of the city square, doing whatever we wanted. It was just this really fun kind of run-and-gun approach to making this movie. Turns out he did actually have permits, but I think the permits are pretty blanket, where it’s like, “Here’s your permit,” and it says, “I can shoot a movie.” And that’s basically it.

Whereas shooting in LA has become really difficult. You have a lot of people who make money off of your permits or where you can shoot or what you can do, and then you have organizations that want to control that. They’re kind of choking the life out of shooting movies in LA. Croatia was like, “You want to shoot a movie here? You guys can do whatever you want!” And so we were running around with guns in the city like that bus. It would be like, “I like that street. Turn on that street.” We could just go wherever we want and do whatever we wanted. It was a lot of fun.

I love Los Angeles, and I wish more productions would be shot in L.A.

HAMMER: Me too.

But I will say that, speaking to production coordinators and many other people, I don’t want to badmouth film LA, but I’ve heard just fucking horrible things about film LA. The difficulty of trying to film here and it’s so unfortunate because this is the place where everyone should be filming.

HAMMER: And now we can’t film here. It’s almost impossible.

I don’t want to go into a tangent. It’s just a lot of money to film here. So there are like 10 police vans that are armored. I don’t know what those are called.

HAMMER: I think like MRAPs. I don’t know what they’re called, but they’re tanks. They’re massive tanks. And we just drove them around the city.

That’s what I’m talking about. I’m watching this, and then there’s a lot of gunfighting in a building. You’re blowing shit up. What was that like for you? Because you’ve been on other sets. But what was this one?

HAMMER: It was pretty fast and loose, my man. We really just did whatever we wanted, and it was so much fun.

The movie seems to ask whether public approval can make immoral actions feel justified. Was that something you thought about while making it?

HAMMER: Yeah, it’s a really interesting thing when someone starts exhibiting behavior that normally people would check socially, like, “Hey, bro, you can’t do that.” That will quell. The opposite seems to be true — at least that’s kind of what’s presented in the movie. You do something crazy, and people go, “We love it.” Then you go, “I’m going to do it crazier next time.”

What do you think is the enduring appeal of vigilante stories in popular culture? Because this is a genre that has stood the test of time.

HAMMER: All right. I’m going to make an example out of this. If you’re in the audience and you have ever felt that you have been wronged and then didn’t get justice for it, please raise your hand. Now put your hand down if you ever — actually keep your hand up — if you have ever wanted to do something about it on your own. Yeah, that.

Hold on. I forgot to raise my hand.

HAMMER: Yeah.

What is something that Uwe does on set that actors either love or have to adjust to quickly?

HAMMER: He is extremely expedient when he shoots. It is a very fast process because he knows exactly what he wants, and he’ll shoot one or two takes of something and be like, “I got what I need, let’s go.” We move on, and you go, “Can we do one more?” He goes, “No, no, no, I got it. We’re moving on.” I’ve worked with directors who are like that. Clint Eastwood, specifically. He’ll shoot a rehearsal and be like, “Yep, good enough. Okay, let’s go.” And Uwe’s very similar.

Armie Hammer Compares Clint Eastwood’s Directing Style to Uwe Boll’s

“That was one of the first days of shooting, and I was like, ‘I better be ready on take one.'”

Not to divert into Clint Eastwood, but I’ve heard that from so many actors who have said, “You are lucky. You have to be ready for the rehearsal. And you were lucky to get one more.”

HAMMER: Yes. I did a movie with Clint Eastwood called J. Edgar. Leo DiCaprio was in it playing J. Edgar Hoover. I played Clyde Tolson, his partner. We did a scene, and I think it was the first or second take, and Clint goes, “I got it. Moving on. All right, let’s go.” And Leo says to Clint, he goes, “Hey, boss, can we do one more?” And Clint goes, “Nope, we got it.” And he goes, “Please, I would love to do one more.” And he goes, “I said, we got it.” And Leo goes, “Clint, boss, please for me, can I do one more take?” And Clint looks up and goes, “You want to do another take?” And he goes, “I would love to.” He goes, “Okay, you can do another take. Everyone else, come with me. We’re moving on.” That was one of the first days of shooting, and I was like, “I better be ready on take one.”

It’s been a little while since you have made a project like this, and I’m just curious, what was it actually like for you being back, being the lead, and making movies again?

HAMMER: I was so grateful to be able to work again. Honestly, when I got the email from Uwe, I just started crying. I was so happy. And then on the first day, as we were getting ready, setting up the camera, getting the shot, doing all that stuff, I remember thinking, “Do I remember how to still do this? It’s been a minute.” And then as soon as he said action the first time, I snapped into it. I was like, “Wait, I know how to do this. This is what I love. Okay, let’s go.” It was just like riding a bike.

What was it like in those few days leading up to that first day of filming for you? How much were you in your head? How much were you thinking about the character and like re-submerging into being an actor?

HAMMER: It was intense. It was a very emotional couple of days. A lot of anxiety, a lot of fear, a lot of like, “What am I trying to remember? What is my process? How do I…” You know? But it was the release that I felt as soon as we started filming. It was incredible.

Armie Hammer Remembers ‘Call Me By Your Name’ as “The Most Beautiful Script I’ve Ever Read”

“The process of making that movie felt almost exactly like the process of watching that movie.”

I’m going to go backwards. This was not on my list of questions, but I have to bring it up. I love Call Me By Your Name. It is an effin’ incredible movie. It was my favorite of that year. I have to talk to you about it because it means so much to so many people. When you think back on that shoot, what are some of the things that really come to mind immediately, and did you know when you were making it how special the film would be?

HAMMER: I got that script, and my agent at the time was like, “You cannot do this movie.” And I was like, “What are you talking about? This is the most beautiful script I’ve ever read.” He goes, “No, no, no, no, you can’t do this movie, dude.” And I was like, “I’m doing this movie.” He was like, “Fine. We got to get the peach scene out of there at least.” And I was like, “No, you’re not saying anything to Luca [Guadagnino]. You’re a suit, bro. You don’t get it. We’re going to do something special.”

The process of making that movie felt almost exactly like the process of watching that movie. It was that beautiful. That bike that I rode in the movie, I rode that bike to work every day on dirt roads because we were staying in Crema. We would be shooting other places, and he’d be like, “Okay, the driver is going to pick you.” I was like, “No, no, no, I’ll ride my bike.” And they were like, “What are you talking about?” I was like, “Are you kidding me? This is the best opportunity I’ve ever had.” It really felt like we had left time and we were in the story. It was one of the most — no — it was the most rewarding creative experience I’ve ever had.

The ending of that film with Timothée [Chalamet] looking at the camera and the music, it’s just this perfect ending. You obviously can read that on the page, but you don’t know what it’s going to really feel like. What was it like for you when you first saw the film, and you saw the ending and the emotions that Luca was able to capture?

HAMMER: I think the ending of the script just says, “Elio stares at a fire,” and so you don’t know what that’s going to be. But when you put that in the hands of a phenomenally talented actor, it turns into a moment that everybody remembers.

Besides that, for people who have not seen your full resume, what’s another project that you’ve done that you really wish more people had seen, or you want people to see?

HAMMER: I wish more people would have watched The Man from U.N.C.L.E. We wanted to make more of those. We really did, and it just didn’t happen.

I’ve said this before, but in another universe, a better universe, there are sequels to that. There are sequels to Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. There are so many movies that I just wish had connected. And also, The Man from U.N.C.L.E. is fucking awesome. Pardon my language. I think you made another movie called Night Driver.

HAMMER: Yeah, yeah. It hasn’t come out yet. We shot that one here in LA, where we were dealing with the bureaucratic hurdles of shooting in LA.

No comment. I’ve only talked about film LA three times.

HAMMER: Yeah, you said it, not me.

What do you want to tease people about it? Can you say anything?

HAMMER: It’s a really fun movie. It all takes place in Los Angeles over the course of one night, and I play a guy who has a weird job. He has all of these things that he has to do — I’m being really vague on purpose — and everything goes wrong, and it’s just a really fun journey.

The original title for this was, I think, The Dark Knight.

HAMMER: It was.

What was your reaction to the title change?

HAMMER: Well, it was called The Dark Knight. I got the script, I read it, I signed on, and after that I called Uwe, and I was like, “Hey buddy, can we talk about this title for a second?” And he goes, “Yeah.” And I go, “It’s called The Dark Knight.” And he goes, “Mmhmm.” And I go, “You know there’s another movie out there called The Dark Knight, and it was pretty popular, and a lot of people know about it, and it’s kind of like a hallowed title of a film.” And he goes, “Yeah, can’t copyright the title of a film.” And I was like, “Okay, turns out you cannot copyright the title of a film, but Warner Bros. can still threaten you for it.”

That is actually very true.

HAMMER: Yeah.

Before we let you go, would you like to end with another Get to Know You question?

HAMMER: Sure.

Do you collect anything currently?

HAMMER: Currently no, but I’ve had phases in my life. I used to collect vintage typewriters. That was something I loved.

How do you store vintage typewriters?

HAMMER: I had a bookshelf, and I would have my typewriters in a bookshelf.

Okay, I’m going to leave that one.

HAMMER: I lost everything, bro.

One more. What project scared you the most before saying yes?

HAMMER: It was probably J. Edgar, because at one point in the film, I’m wearing full old age prosthetics, and I had heard about how long those things take. I do not sit still well.

Can I tell a funny story about that? This is a different time in the business; I don’t think you could do this now. So it took about 8 or 9 hours to put on the old age makeup. I would get there at like 3:00 in the morning. We would start putting all this stuff on, finish around noon — maybe one, because you take breaks and then we would shoot for several hours, and then it would take four hours to take it all off, which I learned the hard way, because on maybe the second day, I felt so claustrophobic. When they said, “That’s a wrap for the day. Go to make up and get it off.”

I just started pulling everything off my face, and the makeup artist just sat there and watched me and didn’t say anything. And as soon as I finished, they said, “You feel better?” And I go, “Yeah, I do.” And they go, “Great, because you just added two hours to the makeup time.” I’m like, “What are you talking about?” They go, “There’s a really thin film on the prosthetics that, when we take it all off together, it’s easy to get off. But now you’ve ripped the outside of it off. It’s going to take much longer to get it off.” So that was an important lesson.

The first day I did the old age makeup, I’m sitting in the makeup trailer, and I’m like, “Oh, what’s that? And what do you do with that? Okay, so when you do this…” And I have a million questions, and they’re probably just like, “Shut up and let us do our job.” Second day, I was like, “Okay, is that okay? Yeah.” Third day I’m in the chair, and I’m just like “Get me out of here. How is this taking so long for this day?” Fourth day, I showed up, and there was just a little pill sitting on the tray on the table right there. I sit down in the chair, and I look, and I go, “What’s that?” And the makeup guy goes, “Just take it.” I go, “What is it?” He said, “Just take it.” Again, different time. I was like, “All right, I know. So what was it?” They’re like, “It’s a Xanax.” And I was like, “Well, what’s that for?” I pass out, I wake up seven hours later, and the makeup’s done. I was like, “That’s pretty great. I think I just time traveled.”

This is not an endorsement for Xanax.

HAMMER: It’s also not not an endorsement for Xanax.

But if you have to do prosthetics in Hollywood, think about what he said.

HAMMER: I was so well rested that day.

Citizen Vigilante is available on VOD now.