True story: back in 2013, Oscar-winning actor and grope-happy dirty old man Jeremy Irons stepped in a major controversy. He was asked about his feelings on gay marriage, and instead of simply saying “I’m all for it, love is love,” Irons tried to play devil’s advocate (I think?) and began thinking aloud during an interview, theorizing that gay marriage would totally lead the eventual legalization of incest, and fathers marrying their sons (for tax purposes). Go here to recap. Irons was called out (justifiably) and when he tried to clarify, he totally made it worse by arguing that it’s only incest if someone gets pregnant (headdesk). He made an another attempt to roll back his comments a few weeks later, but it was still really bad.

That’s all background for this Out Magazine cover profile of Jeremy’s son, Max Irons. Max was asked specifically about this two-years-old controversy and I kind of love Max’s reaction. Poor Max:

[Irons] thinks people should be able to keep things private if they want to or “shout it from the rooftops.” He thinks it would be wonderful if everyone could be honest about themselves, yet he doesn’t think coming out is a moral imperative, and he thinks forced outings are “f–king foolish and dangerous.” He says, “You never know someone’s circumstances.”

He anticipates a question about the controversy his father stirred up in April 2013, when, while discussing gay marriage with host Josh Zepps on HuffPost Live, the Oscar winner mused that legalization of same-sex marriage might open the door for interfamilial unions, and that he could, in theory, marry his son to “pass on my estate without death duties.” Smirking, Irons says he googled this eyebrow-raising story about six months before our interview and found himself with his head in his hands.

“I remember thinking, You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Irons says. “You’re thinking through a problem out loud. I know my father, and his views are similar to mine: As long as you don’t harm anyone else, what you do and who you love are nobody’s business. He has since clarified as far as I understand, and truth be told, if you pushed him to explain what he was talking about, I don’t think he’d actually know.”

What Irons doesn’t quite remember are the precise details of his father’s statements, which put Irons himself in a rather awkward position. When given the full recap, Irons drops his head in his hands again.

“Well, my father hasn’t proposed to me recently,” he eventually quips, before letting out a big, half-amused, half-bewildered laugh.

[From Out Magazine]

Eh, that’s good enough for me. For Max, I mean. I don’t think we should “punish” Max for his father’s terrible arguments, and he seems to speak the LGBT-tolerance language well enough. And Max is probably right – his dad was thinking aloud, making a terrible argument just for the sake of it. Not that we should give Jeremy Irons a pass. But don’t take it out on Max either.

Speaking of… Max is 29 years old and he’s still doing the “up-and-coming actor” thing, trying to play it like no one in his generation has done much so far. You know, except Robert Pattinson (28), Eddie Redmayne (33), Miles Teller (28), Liam Hemsworth (25), Jonah Hill (31) and many more. I’m just saying!

Photos courtesy of Out Magazine.