--- title: Jeremy Renner Calls Black Widow a Slut on Conan description: Why can't the Avengers' star stop calling Scarlett Johansson's character a 'slut?' canonical: https://time.com/3846960/jeremy-renner-black-widow-slut-comments-conan/ author: Esther Zuckerman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-05-05T16:50:14.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:43:33.817Z og:title: Jeremy Renner Calls Black Widow a Slut on Conan og:description: Why can't the Avengers' star stop calling Scarlett Johansson's character a 'slut?' og:url: https://time.com/3846960/jeremy-renner-black-widow-slut-comments-conan/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Jeremy Renner Calls Black Widow a Slut on Conan twitter:description: Why can't the Avengers' star stop calling Scarlett Johansson's character a 'slut?' twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Maybe Jeremy Renner Should Just Stop Talking About Black Widow > Sponsored content. 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May 5, 2015 4:50 PM UTC by [Esther Zuckerman](https://time.com/author/esther-zuckerman/) ## Esther Zuckerman Zuckerman is a contributor for TIME. May 5, 2015 4:50 PM UTC To Jeremy Renner, calling Black Widow a slut is apparently still funny enough that it can be talk show fodder. During the _Avengers: Age of Ultron_ press tour Renner and Chris Evans [drew ire](http://time.com/3832841/chris-evans-jeremy-renner-scarlett-johansson-black-widow/) for calling Scarlett Johansson’s Natasha Romanoff (a.k.a. Black Widow) a “slut” and a “complete whore” when the two were asked in an interview with _Digital Spy UK_ about fans’ hopes that the super spy could be paired with their characters Hawkeye and Captain America. A romance between Romanoff and Bruce Banner (a.k.a. the Hulk) is one of the central plots of the sequel. Though Renner quickly issued an apology, saying he was “just poking fun during an exhausting and tedious press tour,” his appearance on _Conan_ last night implied he didn’t take any of the criticism to heart. Renner told O’Brien that he got into “Internet trouble,” and then launched into some more questionable jokes. “Mind you, I was talking about fictional character and fictional behavior, but, Conan, if you slept with four of the six Avengers no matter how much fun you had, you’d be a slut, just saying,” Renner said. “I’d be a slut.” If Renner thought he was in “Internet trouble” after the first batch of comments, now he’s got a whole new round to face. > [](https://twitter.com/duke%5Fduke%5Fgoose/status/595600245121220608) > [](https://twitter.com/jowrotethis/status/595582774704148482) > [](https://twitter.com/civlwars/status/595600035016024064) Renner, of course, doesn’t speak for his whole franchise, but he certainly isn’t helping Marvel counter [recent](http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/05/05/avengers-age-of-ultron-s-black-widow-disgrace.html) [assertions](http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/04/28/the-avengers-black-widow-problem-how-marvel-slut-shamed-their-most-badass-superheroine.html) [that](http://www.ew.com/article/2015/04/29/entertainment-geekly-black-widow-conundrum) it has seriously mishandled the character, one of the few women in the testosterone-heavy franchise. In both his first apology and his _Conan_ appearance Renner insisted that he was talking about a “fictional character.” Sure, “fictional characters” may not be personally offended by Renner’s crude jokes, but Renner _should_ want people to care about how people talk about them. He is an actor, after all. ### See Avengers: Age Of Ultron Concept Art  Iron Man (Robert Downey, Jr.) Marvel  Captain America (Chris Evans) Marvel  Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) Marvel  Thor (Chris Hemsworth) Marvel  Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) Marvel  Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) Marvel  Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) Marvel  Quicksilver (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and Vision (Paul Bettany) Marvel ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3846960/jeremy-renner-black-widow-slut-comments-conan/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3846960/jeremy-renner-black-widow-slut-comments-conan/"},"headline":"Maybe Jeremy Renner Should Just Stop Talking About Black Widow","datePublished":"2015-05-05T16:50:14.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:43:33.817Z","description":"Why can't the Avengers' star stop calling Scarlett Johansson's character a 'slut?'","url":"https://time.com/3846960/jeremy-renner-black-widow-slut-comments-conan/","keywords":["Newsfeed","celebrity","avengers: age of ultron"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Esther Zuckerman","jobTitle":"Zuckerman is a contributor for TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/esther-zuckerman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3846960/jeremy-renner-black-widow-slut-comments-conan/","name":"Maybe Jeremy Renner Should Just Stop Talking About Black Widow"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"New Avengers Trailer Arrives — Marvel's Avengers Age of Ultron Trailer 2","description":"A new Avengers trailer has been released!","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/FW2bEFbl/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2015-01-13T03:52:35.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/FW2bEFbl.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3846960/jeremy-renner-black-widow-slut-comments-conan/","duration":"PT1M30S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3846960/jeremy-renner-black-widow-slut-comments-conan/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```