14 DAY TRIAL // Jeremy Renner and Chris Evans got into serious trouble during the promo tour for “Avengers: Age of Ultron,” the latest Marvel comic book-based blockbuster, when they laughed off Black Widow’s importance in the Avengers team and concluded that she must be a tramp to have flirted with so many of her teammates.
As you probably know, Renner stars as Hawkeye in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), while Chris Evans is Captain America. Both these gents have had stories with potential romantic subplots that never really panned out with Black Widow, played by Scarlett Johansson.
Both actors apologized, but only Chris Evans meant it.
Black Widow likes to flirt, hence she’s a tramp
This was how Chris and Jeremy put it: asked by a reporter about the budding love story between her and The Hulk (Mark Rufallo) in “Age of Ultron,” Renner called her the S-word, saying she’s been around the block a few times. A laughing Evans agreed, saying his co-star had taken the word out of his mouth.
They continued by saying that Black Widow would always be the sidekick and not an actual member of the team, because of her flirtatious ways. The comment offended even more as it came in the context of long discussions on how Marvel needed more strong female characters - discussions backed by the studio itself.
Moreover, if flirting would be definitive in determining one’s trampiness, Tony Star / Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) would probably top that list, not Black Widow. He doesn’t because he’s a man, and men aren’t held to the same standards as women, offended commenters told the 2 actors, mostly on social media.
Renner apologized but he didn’t mean it
In his apology, Chris Evans owned to speaking out of line and making a joke that was in bad taste, out of place and offensive. Renner, on the other hand, only apologized because he’d been told to, and he made sure to make it obvious by saying the joke was about a “fictional character.”
Proof that his heart was never in the apology comes in the video below, of his recent appearance on Conan O’Brien. He’s still promoting the new “Avengers” installment, and he finds it absolutely amusing that he’d get into “Internet trouble” for equating flirting in a woman with being easy.
He uses the “she’s a fictional character” argument and then says that he too would be called the S-word if he’d sleep with 4 of the 6 Avengers. Coco too.
Do you agree with him? Check out the video.
