Paul Mescal 'wasn't surprised' Saoirse Ronan's women's safety comment on Graham Norton went viral

Paul Mescal shared his thoughts on Saoirse Ronan's viral moment on The Graham Norton Show where she schooled him and the other male guests about women's safety.

Alongside Mescal and Ronan, other guests on the episode included Denzel Washington and Eddie Redmayne.

During the show, Redmayne revealed he was taught how to use a phone as a weapon while training for his latest series The Day of the Jackal where he plays an assassin.

That's when Mescal cracked a joke about how someone in real life could possibly consider using their phone as a weapon to defend themselves if they were attacked.

Mescal said: "Who is actually going to think about that? If someone actually attacked me, I'm not going to go 'phone.'''

As the joke continued, Ronan attempted to interject twice but finally interrupted the conversation to provide the mic drop moment.

"That's what girls have to think about all the time," she said, silencing Mescal and Redmayne.

She then said, "Am I right, ladies?" which prompted loud cheers and applause from the audience and the clip quickly garnered viral attention.

In a recent appearance on Irish broadcaster RTE’s The Late Late Show, Mescal was asked if he was surprised that Ronan's comment made headlines.

"No, I don’t believe we were surprised, because you’re like, as you said, you’re on a talk show like this, and you’re kind of just talking," he said.

Mescal went on to praise Ronan as he continued: “But I’m not surprised that the message received as much attention that it got, because it’s massively important and I’m sure you’ve had Saoirse on the show, like, she’s… quite often, more often than not, the most intelligent person in the room.

“But I think she… was spot on, hit the nail on the head, and it’s also good that … messages like that are kind of gaining traction, like that’s a conversation that we should absolutely be having on a daily basis.”

Meanwhile, Ronan also couldn't quite believe the "wild" reaction her comment garnered.

"It's definitely not something that I had expected, and I didn't necessarily set out to sort of make a splash," she told Ryan Tubridy on Virgin Radio UK.

"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 added: "So many men and women that I know from all over the world have gotten in touch with me about this one comment, which is, again, I would urge people, please, please, please to watch this in context."

How to join the indy100's free WhatsApp channel

Sign up to our free indy100 weekly newsletter

Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.