Saoirse Ronan has shared her thoughts on the intense reaction to a viral moment from her appearance on The Graham Norton Show.
On October 27, Ronan joined Graham Norton along with Paul Mescal, Denzel Washington, and Eddie Redmayne. During the show, she caught her fellow actors off guard with her reply to a joke.
Redmayne discussed his preparation for a role in The Day of the Jackal, where he learned to use his mobile phone as a weapon for self-defense, not just for calling 999, but to physically strike an assailant by hitting them with the phone.
Paul Mescal humorously questioned, “Who’s actually going to think about that though? If someone attacked me I’m not going to go, ‘Phone’.”
The laughter from the audience and Norton mirrored Redmayne’s amusement, and Mescal continued his jest: “‘Mom, one sec.’ BANG!”
Ronan, who seemed to attempt interjecting several times, eventually added: “That’s what girls have to think about all the time. Am I right ladies?”
The clip quickly gained traction online, with many supporting Ronan. Addressing the situation during an interview with Virgin Radio UK’s Ryan Tubridy on October 30, she remarked that she ‘didn’t necessarily set out to sort of make a splash.’
Ronan shared: “The reaction has been wild. It’s definitely not something that I had expected […] But I do think there’s something really telling about the society that we’re in right now and about how open women want to be with the men in their lives.”
She continued, “So many men and women that I know from all over the world have gotten in touch with me about this one comment.”
Ronan emphasized the importance of seeing the conversation in full context, stating she ‘would urge people, please, please, please to watch this in context.’
She mentioned that ‘the boys weren’t sort of like debunking anything that I was saying’ and encouraged viewers to watch ‘the whole interview or at least that part of the conversation.’
“But at the same time, it felt very similar to like when I am at dinner with a bunch of my friends and I will always make the point that, well, this is actually an experience that we go through every single day, 100 percent,” she explained.
Ronan acknowledged that Mescal is ‘one of [her] very dear friends’ and they’ve discussed similar topics before, noting that he ‘completely gets that and completely understands that.’
The Ladybird star sees the widespread attention to this ‘moment’ on a show with international reach as ‘amazing.’
She concluded, “It’s opening a conversation and again, hopefully it’s allowing more and more women to just be like, well, yeah, actually, let’s talk about our experience.”
Ronan recounted meeting a woman involved in Blitz, who shared how the interview prompted a discussion about the “fake phone call” tactic with her husband, who was unaware of such experiences. The woman explained how these tactics have become an instinctual part of life for many women.
“And we’ve all sort of like subconsciously found the same tools and use them again and again and I find that really interesting,” Ronan observed.