'Sorry to Bother You' star Armie Hammer flips the script on telemarketers in real life
Armie Hammer plays a "megalomaniacal" CEO of a telemarketing firm in his new movie "Sorry to Bother You," but the star revealed one tactic he's used in real life to flip the script on the pesky callers.
Hammer appeared on "Good Morning America" to discuss the new film and said he used to make telemarketers hang up on him.
"When I used to get telemarketing calls I had a great plan -- you talk really slowly and you keep them on the phone as long as you can, because if you hang up on them they don't have to do anything," he said.
He continued, "I turn the tables on the torture -- I say, 'hold on, hold on, hold on, let me get a pen and paper.' Then I wait about 30 seconds and I come back and I go 'OK, where did you say you were calling from? I'm sorry, slow down, slow down. Will you spell that for me?'"
After playing crazed CEO Steve Lift in the sci-fi fantasy movie, Hammer admitted he regrets how he treated telemarketers.
"Now after doing this [movie] it kind of humanizes it. Now I feel so badly. They were just trying to eat. They're just doing their job," he said.
Hammer has also flipped the script on his own acting career, going from screen to stage. He made his Broadway debut in "Straight White Men."
"It is a totally different animal, a totally different muscle," Hammer explained of performing on stage. "The thing about when you make a film is you're on this location, you're kind of sequestered from everything and get a few tries to get it right," he said. "Whereas a play is totally different -- it only exists in that moment in time, in front of a huge audience. You have 95 minutes of dialogue that you have to have completely memorized and whatever happens, whether it's a good show or a bad show, it only exists in that moment and by the time it's over it's done."
He added, "It's really kind of like this temporary moment of magic."
