Armie Hammer Reveals Why He Did Construction Work During Quarantine

Armie Hammer in Death on the Nile

The current health crisis has disrupted a lot of industries over the last six months, including movie and TV-related endeavors. Naturally with so many productions having to be shut down earlier this year, this meant that actors had to find ways to pass the time while they were socially isolating/quarantining, like so many of us. For Armie Hammer, this was accomplished by doing construction work.

While recently promoting his new movie Death on the Nile, Armie Hammer talked about how he’s been helping a friend of his build a motel to keep occupied during these trying times. Hammer explained:

I have been productive. I've been really fortunate. I mean look, the world's falling apart, it's the apocalypse, but funny enough, my buddy Ashton [Ramsey] bought an old motel out in the desert. It was this kind of abandoned, rundown motel, and I came back from the Cayman Islands where I was during quarantine and I was like, 'Dude, I have nothing to do.' He was like, 'Do you wanna come live with me in this abandoned motel and do construction with me?'

Armie Hammer dished on his time in the world of construction while appearing on Jimmy Kimmel Live! not only socially distanced from the eponymous host, but also wearing an amusing astronaut costume as an extra layer of protection, which Kimmel said made the actor look like a baked potato. After Hammer said all of the above, Kimmel speculated that Hammer turned down that proposition because he’s a movie star, leading Hammer to respond:

I’m sorry, did you think I had anything else better going on? I was literally sitting at home picking boogers and seeing how far I could flick them. I was really out of options.

Yeah, between construction and booger flicking, I would have chosen the former option too. Yes, you’re getting dirty on a construction site, but it doesn’t feel anywhere near as gross as that other activity. Armie Hammer also clarified that he didn’t just jump into construction on a whim, as he called himself “moderately handy” and is capable with certain power tools, like an orbital floor sander.

Since Armie Hammer wasn’t doing anything particularly heavy duty for the motel, like electrical work, he felt comfortable helping his friend out while his acting like was on hiatus. You can listen to Hammer talk more about his motel exploits in the video below, including how he and Ashton Ramsey worked with an individual by the name of “Motor Mike”:

While 2020 didn’t work out for Armie Hammer acting-wise, you’ll still be able to see him in a few things soon thanks to work he completed before the pandemic. First, he stars opposite Lily James in Netflix’s Rebecca, a new adaptation of the same-named novel by Daphne du Maurier which drops on October 21. Then on December 19, Hammer can be seen as part of Death on the Nile’s ensemble cast, which includes Kenneth Branagh (who also directed), Gal Gadot, Russell Brand, Annette Bening and Letitia Wright, among others.

Keep checking back with CinemaBlend for all the biggest updates concerning Armie Hammer’s professional and personal lives, and don’t forget to scan through our 2021 release schedule to learn what movies are supposed to screen next year.

Adam Holmes
Senior Content Producer

Connoisseur of Marvel, DC, Star Wars, John Wick, MonsterVerse and Doctor Who lore, Adam is a Senior Content Producer at CinemaBlend. He started working for the site back in late 2014 writing exclusively comic book movie and TV-related articles, and along with branching out into other genres, he also made the jump to editing. Along with his writing and editing duties, as well as interviewing creative talent from time to time, he also oversees the assignment of movie-related features. He graduated from the University of Oregon with a degree in Journalism, and he’s been sourced numerous times on Wikipedia. He's aware he looks like Harry Potter and Clark Kent.