Video Interview: ‘Citizen Vigilante' Star Armie Hammer

Once upon a time, Armie Hammer was a rising A-list star. After breaking out in a challenging dual roll as the Winklevoss twins in “The Social Network,” he balanced would-be blockbusters like “The Lone Ranger” and “The Man From UNCLE” with performances performances in critical darlings like “Call Me By Your Name” and “Sorry to Bother You.”

Unfortunately for him, his career hit something of a snag, to say the least, following a messy divorce and well-publicized abuse allegations that landed him in all sorts of hot water with the types of headlines that got him all but blacklisted from Hollywood, at least for a while.

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But an actor’s gotta act, and since no formal charges were ever filed against him, Hammer is now free to attempt to rebuild his career. Following an appearance in 2025’s “Frontier Crucible,” Hammer booked his first leading role in this new phase of his career, in the controversy-stoking action film, “Citizen Vigilante.”

Written and directed by Uwe Boll, the film stars Hammer as Sanders, a stoic mass murderer with a single-minded pursuit of fairness. Whether it’s punk kids who don’t want to pay bus fare or killers who prey on the innocent, Sanders will kill anyone he feels violates his strict code of conduct. He considers vigilantism his ‘job,’ and if cops get in the way of his work, he’ll kill them, too. It’s a tricky role, and the viewer isn’t necessarily supposed to root for Sanders, even if the film presents its view of a strawman world where all immigrants (except for Sanders himself, an American in Croatia) are murderous savages and all Muslims are criminal animals, enabled by “the Woke Left.” If nothing else, Boll is certainly a provocateur.

The film’s heavy-handed themes led to trouble for “Citizen Vigilante” in Germany, Uwe Boll’s home country. It was refused classification by the local ratings board, which effectively banned the film from any sort of German release, which can be seen as both a setback and free publicity for the controversial film.

I had the opportunity to have an extensive chat with Armie Hammer about the film and his wider career. In addition to weighing in on “Citizen Vigilante” and his working relationship with Boll, he shares stories from his time on “The Lone Ranger” and the ill-fated “Justice League: Mortal,” which would have seen him take on the role of Batman in an epic story to be directed by George Miller. Alas, despite being fitted for the costume, the film never entered production and was ultimately cancelled… And no, he doesn’t have any photos of himself in the costume, unfortunately.

Hammer speaks frankly about the recent years where proper work has been much harder to come by, and how his short-lived podcast, “Armie HammerTime,” failed to scratch his creative itch. He also talks about “Citizen Vigilante’s” extended sex scene and how, after watching the movie with his mother in the audience, she was kind enough to not bring it up afterwards.

Check out our complete conversation below. “Citizen Vigilante” releases in select theaters and on digital platforms on June 19.

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This story was originally published June 18, 2026 at 12:11 PM.