Saoirse Ronan speaks out on 'wild' reaction to her mic-drop moment on women's safety

Saoirse Ronan can't believe the "wild" viral reaction to her comment on women's safety during a guest appearance on The Graham Norton Show.

The Irish actor was on the programme to promote her new film The Outrun, and other guests in the line-up included fellow actors Paul Mescal, Denzel Washington and Eddie Redmayne.

At one point, the topic of conversation turned to Redmayne who shared that 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 drop a reality check.

"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.

Since then the clip has gone viral on social media with women applauding Ronan for speaking up, and claiming Mescal's and Redmayne's comments were an example of male privilege.

Now, Ronan has reacted to all the commotion from the moment in a recent interview, calling the entire thing "wild".

"The reaction has been wild. 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.

"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."

Ronan went on to urge people to watch the conversation in full and defended Mescal and Redmayne.

"Please watch the whole interview or watch at least that part of the conversation, because it really wasn't about… the boys weren't sort of like debunking anything that I was saying," she added.

"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 per cent."

She went on to call Mescal a "dear friend" as the two Irish actors previously starred together in the 2023 sci-fi thriller Foe.

"Paul being one of my very dear friends, I've had conversations like that with him before and he completely gets that and completely understands that. But I think the fact that there was a moment like that that happened on a show like Graham Norton, which is something that the entire nation channels and to watch and even overseas, it's something that people tune into," she said of The Gladiator II star.

"It seems to have had an accessibility which seems to have really gained traction, which I think is amazing."

In the end, Ronan 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."

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