Saoirse Ronan has reflected on the ‘wild’ reaction to the viral clip of her on The Graham Norton Show.
On October 27, Saoirse Ronan appeared on Graham Norton’s couch with Paul Mescal, Denzel Washington and Eddie Redmayne and ended up leaving her fellow actors speechless with a response to a joke.
Speaking about the preparation for his latest role in the series, The Day of the Jackal, Redmayne explained to the rest of the couch he was taught how to use his mobile phone as a weapon.
Rather than being told to whip it out to dial 999, he was shown how to use the phone to physically do some damage to someone by whacking it against their throat.
Mescal then joked: “Who’s actually going to think about that though? If someone attacked me I’m not going to go, ‘Phone’.”
The Normal People actor’s comment received an outpouring of laughter from Redmayne, alongside the audience, with Norton joining Mescal in miming checking through his pockets for a phone, with Mescal continuing: “‘Mom, one sec.’ BANG!”
Appearing to having tried to interject multiple times, Ronan then commented: “That’s what girls have to think about all the time. Am I right ladies?”
It didn’t take long for the moment to go viral with an outpouring of support for Ronan and the Blitz actor has since addressed the moment, noting she ‘didn’t necessarily set out to sort of make a splash’ in an interview with Virgin Radio UK’s Ryan Rubridy this morning (October 30).
Saoirse Ronan’s response sparked a huge reaction (BBC/The Graham Norton Show)
Ronan reflected: “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.
“So many men and women that I know from all over the world have gotten in touch with me about this one comment.”
The actor added she ‘would urge people’ ‘people, please, please, please to watch this in context’.
Ronan argues ‘the boys weren’t sort of like debunking anything that I was saying’ and it’s important 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 added.
Ronan noted Mescal is ‘one of [her] very dear friends’ and she’s had ‘conversations like that with him before and he completely gets that and completely understands that’.
Overall, the Ladybird star thinks the fact such ‘a moment like that’ has happened on a show watched not only in the UK but overseas too and how much it’s ‘gained traction’ is ‘amazing’.
The actor was surprised by the response (BBC/The Graham Norton Show)
She resolved: “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.
“I met a woman last night who’s working on Blitz, and she said that, you know, it’s really interesting, after we watched that interview, myself and a few of my female friends were with my husband and we said, you know, this really reminds me of the fake phone call.
“And her husband went, what, fake phone call? What do you mean? And of course, you wouldn’t understand if you’ve not had to go through anything like that. But she somehow, throughout her life as a female, has gained these tools without ever talking to other women about it and understanding that this is sort of a survival tactic.
“And we’ve all sort of like subconsciously found the same tools and use them again and again and I find that really interesting.”
