- Dakota Johnson referenced cannibalism allegations against Armie Hammer at Sundance Film Festival.
- She joked that she was almost cast in "Call Me By Your Name," playing the part of the peach.
Dakota Johnson shocked the audience at Sundance Film Festival Thursday night by cracking a joke about "Call Me By Your Name" star Armie Hammer while honoring the film's director.
The 33-year-old actor kicked off the opening night of the festival by presenting acclaimed Italian filmmaker Luca Guadagnino with the international icon award at the Taste of Sundance event.
Johnson, who appeared in Guadagnino's films "A Bigger Splash," (2015) and "Suspiria" (2018), began her speech by praising the acclaimed filmmaker before joking about her "The Social Network" and "Wounds" costar's alleged text messages about cannibalism.
Discussing the Oscar-winning coming-of-age story, which starred Hammer and Timothée Chalamet, she said: "Sadly, I wasn't in that one."
"It was unfortunate. Luca had asked me to play the role of the peach, but our schedules conflicted," she continued, per Variety.
"Thank God, though, because then I would have been another woman that Armie Hammer had tried to eat," she joked, as the audience reacted with gasps, laughs, and applause.
In one of the most memorable moments from "Call Me By Your Name," teenager Elio (Chalamet) masturbates with a peach while in his bedroom after experiencing sexual feelings towards his father's research assistant, Oliver (Hammer).
In the Andre Aciman novel the film is based on, Oliver later discovers the peach and eats it, but this scene does not feature in the movie.
Moments later in her speech, Johnson turned her attention to "Bones and All," Guadagnino's most recent film, which also stars Chalamet and tells the love story between two cannibals.
"It's been five years since that film premiered here and Luca hasn't stopped taking us to exciting places," she said. "Who knew cannibalism was so popular?"
Guadagnino previously shut down claims that "Bones and All" was inspired by Hammer's real-life headline-making controversies.
"David Kajganich and Theresa Park, the writer and one of our producers, have been working on 'Bones and All' since the book was released [in 2015]. Many years ago, probably around the time when we were shooting 'Call Me by Your Name,'" Guadagnino explained during a masterclass presentation at the Zurich Film Festival, per Variety.
"It was to be directed by my great colleague Antonio Campos, but he decided not to go for it. That's when they gave me the script. Any correlation with this kind of innuendo and silliness is preposterous."
A series of abuse allegations against Hammer went public in 2021. The actor was accused of abuse and sexual assault by multiple women and was also reported to have sent NSFW direct messages on Instagram.
The messages remain unverified by media outlets, including Insider, and detail fantasies, including drinking blood, sexual domination, and even acts of cannibalism.