Jeremy Irons’ gay marriage remarks recently caused a stir when the veteran actor speculated that legalizing same-sex marriage would result in “fathers marrying sons.”
“Could a father not marry his son? It’s not incest between men [because] incest [law] is there to protect us from inbreeding, but men don’t breed,” Irons said in the original interview with The Huffington Post .
After that, the comments got a little strange. “I don’t have a strong feeling either way. Living with another animal, whether it be a husband or a dog, is great. It’s lovely to have someone to love.”
The actor, who stars on Showtime’s original series The Borgias , received ridicule for his remarks from celebrities like actor Alan Cumming, who called the statements “ignorant and offensive.”
Talk show host and comedian Stephen Colbert added, “So, if gay marriage is legalized in England … Irons’ son Max: Get ready to make your father the happiest man alive.”
In a Saturday interview with Esquire , Jeremy Irons returned to the gay marriage topic .
“All I was doing was, and it’s very difficult in short sound bites, was just sort of addressing marriage and what marriage sort of meant, and I’m very ill-informed on it,” Irons said. “I think everybody should have the chance to be happy, and to feel secure within relationships, and perhaps gay marriage is the way that if you’re gay that can happen.”
Irons admitted the subject “divides people,” but thinks it is “a subject we should talk about, and I’m probably too loose-mouthed for my own good.”
The actor said he tried to discuss the topic “in a sort of adult and unhysterical way, with no bigotry attached.” See here for yourself:
In the Esquire interview, Irons said he in no way tried to “denigrate any section of society at all, and perhaps gay marriage is the way it should go.”
“But it affects the status I suppose of heterosexual marriage, or does it? I don’t know. I mean I’m exploring it, and the danger is when you explore that on a public stage you can be castigated.”
Irons then used his views as a lead-in to politicians and their refusal to say what they mean.
“But I see politicians being so political when they’re talking about things, and I think, ‘Why don’t you actually say what you feel?’ They don’t, and I think that puts a muzzle on real discussion, and that’s very dangerous.”
Do you think Jeremy Irons’ gay marriage views are “evolving” as President Obama’s did , or has he jumped the shark?
[Image via cinemafestival / Shutterstock.com ]
