Professional franchise stars Chris Evans and Jeremy Renner are two grown men who really should know better.

The actors were apparently doing a televised interview to promote Avengers: Age of Ultron when they decided that was a good time to make a slut joke about the fictional Black Widow character.

“She’s a slut,” Renner responded when asked about the superhero’s rumored romance with the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) over Captain America and Hawkeye. Evans laughed before agreeing, “I was going to say something along that line... a complete whore.”

It’s a rude joke, but ultimately it doesn’t really matter what Chris Evans or Jeremy Renner think. If you were planning on seeing Avengers before they eagerly revealed they’re idiot frat boys at heart, why let that stop you from watching them pretend to be someone else? There’s really only one question that needs to be asked at these idiot junkets, and that question is, Hey, can you act? The jury, of course, is still out on both of them, but I think the answer is yes, they can. OK question time is over.

Here is some press junket advice for franchise stars, free of charge. Don’t make slut jokes. That’s pretty much all you have to do.

Update 4/23/15 8:10 p.m.:

Their weak apologies.

[image via AP]

Contact the author at gabrielle@gawker.com.