Few films arrive quietly when they star Armie Hammer. Citizen Vigilante, the latest provocation from writer-director Uwe Boll, certainly hasn’t.
The controversial thriller stars Hammer as Sanders, a self-appointed vigilante who hunts violent criminals and dispenses his own uncompromising version of justice. As his actions turn him into a hero to some and a dangerous threat to others, his growing public profile sparks an international effort to bring him down.
Following its release internationally, Citizen Vigilante unexpectedly became part of a much larger cultural conversation, amplified considerably when Elon Musk promoted the film to his enormous audience on X. For Hammer, watching the reaction escalate to the point where governments and politicians were discussing the film was an experience he describes simply as “really bizarre.”
Now Australian audiences will have the opportunity to make up their own minds, with Citizen Vigilante launching free on X for 24 hours from midday Wednesday, September 2nd, ahead of its continued Australian digital release.
But for all the noise surrounding the film, our conversation with Hammer proved considerably more reflective.
Speaking with Peter Gray, the actor discussed the strange familiarity of stepping back onto a film set, and why acting remains the creative expression that makes his “soul happy.” He also reflected candidly on the years in which acting disappeared from his life, the experiences he gained during that time that he wouldn’t trade for anything, and why he has learned to separate his own sense of fulfilment from what the rest of the world thinks of him.
And, despite everything, Hammer seems to be having fun again.
“Don’t worry, I’ll become a diva or a monster again,” he jokes. “Just give me a year.”
I wanted to ask you first, because I feel like with this film there’s something fascinating about Sanders. He becomes a person that everybody has an opinion about, and I feel like people can’t decide if he’s a hero, he’s a villain, he’s dangerous, or he’s necessary. The person he believes himself to be and the person the world has decided he is can be two very different things. Did you feel a connection to that mentality?
I think that’s the case with everybody. I mean, that’s something we always struggle with; our perception of ourselves versus how the world perceives us, and rectifying the two and (saying) what other people think of me is none of my business. There’s nothing you can really do about what people think about you. Sanders specifically just doesn’t give a shit. His idea is very black and white of the world. There’s justice and there’s injustice. And injustice needs to be punished. And if no one is doing anything to punish it, then he’s going to be the one to do it. Sort of like a call to arms – literally, if you will.
When you stepped onto set that very first day, did it feel familiar? Or was there a moment of almost having to find your feet again?
You know, it’s funny, whenever you take a break from any sort of creative arts – or anything really. I mean, even skiing. I’m not a skier. I don’t ski, but I would imagine it’s the same. Where you get up at the top of the life and you say, “Do I remember how to do this?” (Laughs). There’s always a bit of that. Throughout my career, if I’d ever taken long breaks, I would be convinced that I’d completely forgot how to do what it is that I’ve dedicated my entire life to doing. I don’t know if that’s just me, but I remember right before the first day (of Citizen Vigilante) having that moment. And then as soon as Uwe (Boll, director) said “action” for the first time, I was like, “Oh, I know how to do this. This is what I love.” Then it was like riding a bike.
Was there almost something wonderfully ordinary about being back on a film set? Like standing between takes, talking to the crew, doing the work…realising that you were missing things you hadn’t expected?
(Laughs) Oh, trust me. I realised I missed it. That was not lost on me. But yes, since I was 18-years-old, my entire professional career had been on sets, and so there is a familiarity there. I know how a set works. I know what a runner does. I know what a PA does. I know what craft services does. I know what the grips do. I just know how a set works. It’s a familiar place for me. In fact, today, across the street, they were filming something, and I sat there eating, just watching. It was like an ant’s nest. Everybody’s got things they’re doing, they’re running around, and I was thinking, “Oh, that’s a grip. Okay, that’s a PA. There’s an AD.” I could kind of pick out what was going on. There’s a very comforting familiarity to it for me.
When you’ve done something for so long and then it’s absent from your life, I imagine you discover whether you loved the work or you loved everything that surrounded it. What did time away from acting teach you about why you act?
We would need a much longer interview if you wanted to hear everything that taught me. But I promise you, it was volumes. To be brief, it taught me that, as an artist and as a creative person, that creative expression is the thing that makes my soul happy. Outside of kids and interpersonal relationships, it’s the most important thing in the world to me. And to get to do that? I cannot tell you how much it means and how grateful I am.
I know that you’ve described being away from acting and everything that happened as a beautiful experience. When you’ve had that kind of distance from an industry that defined your life so much, what do you think you understand about yourself as an actor now that you didn’t understand before?
Priorities. You get a really good, clear view. A jetliner view. A 36,000 foot view of what’s really important and what’s not. What’s just noise. What’s bullshit. You really get to define or redefine the things that are important to you.
And going off that, was there something particularly meaningful about hearing “action” again?
Yeah, there really was. This is the thing that makes my soul sing. It’s all I want to do. It’s how I express myself. It’s how I find meaning again in a professional sense outside of what my own personal meaning is. To get to do that once, people are like, “Oh, man, you’re so lucky you made it.” To get to do it again? I feel really blessed.
Looking at that relationship, because you lived through a period where acting disappeared from your life. Saying yes to a role now must mean something different. Is there a question you ask yourself about a character or a filmmaker today that you wouldn’t have asked 10 years ago?
Let me think about that for one second, because I have two answers in my head, and one of them has to do with the gratitude of being asked again. The other answer has to do with recognising that I’m not really in the place yet where I get to ask too many questions. I have to be thankful for work. And I am.
I guess there’s a version of the conversation around this film that reduces it simply to “Armie Hammer’s return.” But when you strip all of that away, what did you actually want to prove, yourself, with this performance?
I didn’t approach it thinking about that, really. Obviously, I wanted to do a good job. I wanted people to be happy with the performance I turned in, and what I was really trying to do with that. But a big part of my life now, thankfully, does not involve concerning myself with the opinions of others. I don’t have to anymore, because everyone’s opinion for a while was pretty bad, so it gave me the liberty to (think) “Okay, what people think is none of my business.” Obviously, I wanted to do a good job, but a big part of me was asking how I felt about this? If I really ask myself how I feel about things – if I liked doing it, if I had a really good time, it felt rewarding – and then people say, “Well, that movie was no good,” it’s like, well, that’s not what I’m asking. I’m asking how I feel about it, and I’m happy I did it.
One of the strange things about Sanders is that the more publicly visible he becomes, the less control he seems to have over what he represents. Having experienced public scrutiny yourself, did you bring a different understanding to the loss of control than you might have earlier in your career?
You know, I was never the actor who really drew on my own personal experiences. Obviously, the personal and emotional experiences that you have as a human, as a creative type, end up influencing what you do. But I was always very careful to look at characters as being different from who I am. I think understanding your character on a psychological level is more important for me than sort of going, “Oh, well, I can just be thinking about when my dog died.” You know, that stuff is great and helpful, and some people use that, but for me, I wasn’t really drawing a lot of parallels between my life and Sanders. I mean, we’re very different.
As I was reading the script, I was like, “This guy is really giving sort of autistic vibes to me.” He lives in such a black-and-white world of right and wrong, and there is absolutely zero gray. One of the journalists I spoke to when we were doing the U.S. press called Sanders “autistic Batman,” and I was like, “That’s kind of exactly what we were going for.” He’s just a guy who sees the world a little bit differently, you know? And that’s not me. I live in a world of grays and colors, and he’s very black and white.
It’s probably a good thing to not have parallels with Sanders!
(Laughs) Yeah, that would not have gone well for me.
As you mentioned that you’re at the point where you don’t give a shit about what people say, because there’s been so much conversation around this film before audiences have even had the opportunity to experience it for themselves. People are going to arrive with opinions already formed. Is there a temptation to tune all of that out? Or have you reached a point where you’re genuinely curious about how people respond to the film?
I mean, there was really no missing how people responded to this film. It got loud, you know? As soon as Elon (Musk) tweeted it, which was shocking, the whole world had opinions on it, and then governments were weighing in. It became this really fascinating thing that took on a life of its own. I don’t even really understand everything that happened. It was really bizarre. So this was one specifically where it was fascinating to just watch. You know, the Polish Parliament is now talking about it, the German government is talking about it, and Elon tweeted it to 240 million people. It was just kind of one of those things.
I had a friend of mine who’s very savvy and involved in sort of, you know, global spaces, if you will. He called me and just goes, “Man, what the fuck is up with you?” And I was like, “What do you mean?” He goes, “Why can’t anything in your life just be normal?” And I was like, “That is an excellent question. I have no idea.”
Do you feel like you’re having fun again? That you’ve found that spark of acting joy?
Yeah, and I’ve gotten to make a bunch of movies since (Citizen Vigilante), so it feels really good. Don’t worry, I’ll become a diva or a monster again. Just give me a year.
Oh, thank god!
(Laughs) I’ll throw a bottle of water across the room and say, “I said sparkling!” We’ll see.
And there’s been so much emphasis on what you’ve lost over the last few years. What’s something you’ve gained that you wouldn’t give back?
So much, man. That’s a really tough question to answer because the loss-to-gain ratio leans so heavily toward gain for me. I mean, finding my North Star, finding myself, finding my authentic self, finding gratitude for the little things – the list just goes on and on and on. Being able to be there for the death of my father because I wasn’t working. Being able to take my kids to school every day for years. You know, all these things. When I wasn’t working, I got to do all of these things that I would have just never gotten to do because I was working so much. I wouldn’t trade one of those things, much less all of them, for anything.
And if the Armie Hammer who walked onto his first major film set could see the actor walking onto a set today, what do you think he would recognise, and what do you think would completely surprise him?
I think he’d be like, “That guy looks a lot like me.” I was a kid, man. I was a kid when I started. You know, I mean, I would say it’s the same as – I don’t know how long you’ve been in the journalism world, but if you were studying this in high school or uni or anything like that, looking at where you are now, to borrow one of your terms, it’s heaps, you know? But for mine, it’s just a very exaggerated version of that, I would say.
Citizen Vigilante will be available to watch FREE on X from 12pm AEST on Wednesday, September 2nd, 2026, for 24 hours only for Australian viewers. The film will also be available to Buy or Rent on Digital in Australia from September 2nd.
