Armie Hammer on Social Network, Obeying David Fincher and His 'Cheesy Christian Movie'

Many people tend to overlook that you earned recognition a couple years ago playing a young Billy Graham. Hollywood's often accused of marginalizing people of faith; do you think that film and your role deserved a wider audience?

No, because I don't think the movie turned out that great, to be honest. I think what [director] Robby Benson and I were trying to do... I probably shouldn't say this on the record, but every day we'd pretty much throw away the script they'd written because it was one of those blatantly obvious pictures of faith as opposed to a beautiful story about a man who came out of obscurity -- who was told his entire life he'd never amount to anything, and all he wanted to do was become a professional baseball player -- and how that man later became essentially the father of modern-day Christendom. I mean, it's really a fascinating, crazy story. And Billy Graham didn't want it. Every step of the way, he was aiming for something else, but he just kind of fell into it. The story itself, to me, was great, and it deserved to be told. It just got turned into a cheesy Christian movie, is the problem. I can't blame it for having a small audience; it had the audience the producers were aiming for, regardless of how much Robby and I wanted to widen the audience.

Do you consider yourself a person of faith? Is that distinction a legitimate problem in Hollywood?

No. I mean, I am definitely a person of faith. I am a spiritual person, for sure. I enjoy that, for me, this physical world isn't everything. I'm convinced there's more out there, and I love that idea. But you know, it doesn't conflict with me at all. At the same time, I'm just a dude. I'm not perfect. I'm not the pope. I don't feel like I have to live a perfect life; I don't feel necessarily that any religion requires you to do so, either. I think just because I'm a person of faith -- or because anybody's a person of faith -- you still have to do what you love. You still have to do what you're passionate about. That's what Winston Churchill said, right? If you find a job you love, then you never have to work another day in your life. So I don't think Hollywood and faith are mutually exclusive in any way.

That's refreshing. Most folks in the industry aren't comfortable addressing faith unless they're satirizing it.

Which I think is fine, too! Satire is a great form of communication, and if the only one you can find... I mean, movies like Religulous are fantastic. I may not agree with everything Bill Maher says, but he still took that chance and made that movie. Good for him.

Having played real-life -- and still living -- people twice now, what's your sense of responsibility to them? How much do you want to know about them? How much do you not want to know?

Obviously with Billy Graham I had more of that responsibility -- not just because I wanted to know what people knew about him, but also because I knew that by playing Billy Graham, I was playing a dude who, realistically, a billion people on this planet have heard or seen. They know how he walks, they know how he talks -- they know his cadence. So I had to be truer to that for that project, whereas for Social Network, the Winklevoss twins do have an Internet presence -- you can find pictures of them rowing boats and stuff. But it's 2010; I could probably find a picture of you rowing a boat. They don't have the digital footprint that a Billy Graham or even a Mark Zuckerberg has. No one know who these twins are. No one know how they walk, no one know how they talk. So I have a little more freedom to bring to life the characters Aaron Sorkin wrote rather than being fettered to the real guys and feeling like I need to do a bad impersonation of them.

How are you handing your own profile growing? Have you found yourself warier of press or media exposure in general since this process started?

I'd say I'm more comfortable. It's like anything else: The more time you have to practice, and the more time doing something, the easier it gets. When I first started the press tour for Social Network -- I mean, I'd done a little press before -- that was really my first dive into the world of publicity and movies. I ended up spending a month with Aaron Sorkin and Jesse Eisenberg flying around the country, speaking at screenings, doing Q&A's and stuff. At first I was a little uncomfortable. You know how it is on the press tour: You get those canned answers you can throw out, you get comfortable, it just becomes fun. You stop taking it so seriously, and it becomes an interesting aspect of our jobs. It's an unavoidable but unique part of the thing we do as actors.

What is next for you?

Matt Carnahan and I are putting together a project called Serpent Girl that he wrote and will be directing. It's this beautiful, fun, little dark crazy comedy that takes place in the world of circuses. It's just something fun that we're trying to put together now, so I'm just excited to move forward with that.

And let's not forget Oscar season. You've got your tuxedo ready, right?

I do! And I'll be riding David Fincher's coattails all the way there.

[Photos: Getty Images]

Pages: 1 2