Armie Hammer’s aunt,Casey Hammer, is speaking out about the abuse allegations that the actor has denied, saying they’re not surprising to her given her family’s history.
In an interview with theThe Daily Beastpublished Wednesday ahead of Friday’s premiere of theHouse of Hammerdocuseries' on discovery+, Casey said she “wasn’t shocked when the allegations came forward.”
“Based on my experiences in my family, I suffered from abuse. It was just a way of life,” she told the outlet. “You don’t wake up one day and become a monster — it’s learned behavior.”
Casey continued, “Once[the allegations] started unfolding, I was like, here we go, another Hammer man and something that’s being said about them.”
An attorney for Armie, 36, did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
Casey Hammer (L); Armie Hammer.discovery plus/YouTube, Lars Niki/Getty
Never miss a story — sign up forPEOPLE’s free daily newsletterto stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human-interest stories.
For more on this story, listen below to our daily podcast PEOPLE Every Day.
A lawyer for Hammer, Andrew Brettler, previously said ina statement toVanity Fair, “All interactions between Mr. Hammer and his former partners were consensual. They were fully discussed, agreed upon in advance with his partners and mutually participatory. The stories perpetuated on social media were designed to be salacious in an effort to harm Mr. Hammer, but that does not make them true.”
Armie Hammer.Todd Williamson/E! Entertainment/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images
Earlier this month, discovery+ debutedthe first trailerforHouse of Hammer, the upcoming doc that “chronicles the deeply troubling accusations leveled against critically acclaimed actor Armie Hammer and the dark, twisted legacy of the Hammer dynasty,” per a press release.
In the trailer, two of Hammer’s exes who have previously come forward,Courtney Vucekovichand Julia Morrison, recount their past experiences with the actor and share troubling text messages and voice notes they say they got from him, including a claim from Morrison that a cannibalism fantasy “was all he wanted to ever talk about.”
A rep for Hammer did not respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment at the time about the allegations in the trailer.
In her conversation withThe Daily Beast, Casey — who appears in the docuseries — said of media coverage, “The focus seemed to beabout Armie being ‘a cannibal’or what was going to happen to his career or ‘cancel culture,’ but it’s like, wait a minute — let’s shift the light onto the victims. … What about the people that are scarred for life because of all that happened?”
She also said ofThe Social Networkstar, “As shocking as what he’s doing right now, there’s a generational pattern that’s been in play for a very long time and that no one took notice of.”
“It just didn’t start there — it goeswayback,” Casey added.
According toDeadline, Casey is estranged from most of her family and works as a kitchen designer at a San Diego Home Depot. She claimed her father Julian sexually abused her as a child in her self-published 2015 bookSurviving My Birthright.
House of Hammeris streaming Friday on discovery+.
If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, please contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) or go torainn.org.
source: people.com
