The Los Angeles Police Department mentioned on Thursday that it had opened an investigation into a girl’s allegation that she had been sexually assaulted by the actor Armie Hammer, whose Hollywood profession has lately been derailed by allegations that he bodily abused ladies.

The division mentioned that it had been contacted on Feb. three by a lawyer representing “a female community member.” After talking with the lady, the division mentioned, it started an investigation into Mr. Hammer by the Special Assault Section.

“There is an open investigation in which he is a named suspect in an alleged sexual assault,” Officer Norma Eisenman, a Los Angeles police spokeswoman, mentioned. She declined to debate the case in additional element.

The division disclosed the investigation after a girl mentioned at a web-based information convention on Thursday that Mr. Hammer had raped her for greater than 4 hours in Los Angeles on April 24, 2017. She mentioned Mr. Hammer had repeatedly slammed her head towards a wall, bruising her face, and had overwhelmed her ft with a crop.

“During those four hours, I tried to get away, but he wouldn’t let me,” the lady, who’s 24 and lives in Europe, mentioned by means of tears on the information convention, which was organized by the lawyer Gloria Allred. “I thought that he was going to kill me. He then left with no concern for my well-being. I was completely in shock and I couldn’t believe that someone I loved did that to me.”

Mr. Hammer’s lawyer, Andrew B. Brettler, mentioned that the lady’s “own correspondence with Mr. Hammer undermines and refutes her outrageous allegations.”

“From Day 1, Mr. Hammer has maintained that all of his interactions” with the lady and with each different sexual companion “have been completely consensual, discussed and agreed upon in advance, and mutually participatory,” Mr. Brettler mentioned.

Mr. Hammer gained fame as an actor in movies reminiscent of “The Social Network,” in 2010, during which he performed each Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, twin brothers who accused the Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg of stealing their thought.

In 2017, Mr. Hammer starred within the dramatic movie “Call Me by Your Name,” for which he obtained a Golden Globe nomination for greatest supporting actor, and voiced a personality within the third installment of the “Cars” film franchise.

In July 2020, Mr. Hammer’s spouse of 10 years, Elizabeth Chambers, a tv character, filed for divorce, and Mr. Hammer’s profession appeared to implode amid allegations by two ladies that he had bodily abused them.

In early January, an anonymous account on Instagram printed personal messages purportedly written by Mr. Hammer, during which he mentioned, amongst different issues, “I need to drink your blood,” and “I am a 100% cannibal.” The feedback circulated broadly on social media.

Days later, Mr. Hammer dropped out of a movie he was set to star in reverse Jennifer Lopez, after which pulled out of a Paramount+ collection in regards to the making of the movie “The Godfather.”

A lawyer for Mr. Hammer on Thursday night time referred to an earlier assertion he had made denying allegations that he had bodily abused a former girlfriend.

“These assertions about Mr. Hammer are patently untrue,” the lawyer said in a press release issued in January to US journal. “Any interactions with this person, or any partner of his, were completely consensual in that they were fully discussed, agreed upon, and mutually participatory.”

At the information convention with Ms. Allred, the lady mentioned she had met Mr. Hammer on Facebook in 2016 and their relationship had “progressed rapidly and the emotions from both sides became really intense.”

“He would often test my devotion to him, slyly removing and crossing my boundaries, as he became increasingly more violent,” she mentioned. “He abused me mentally, emotionally, and sexually.”