Paul Mescal breaks silence after Saoirse Ronan called out his controversial joke on Graham Norton Show

Paul Mescal has finally responded to the viral moment Saoirse Ronan shut down a conversation about women’s safety on The Graham Norton Show.

It was when the Irish actors were joined on the red sofa by Academy Award winners Eddie Redmayne and Denzel Washington that a joke about women and using phones as a defence tactic was tactfully shut down by Ronan.

The moment arose after Redmayne talked about his role as an assassin in the Sky Atlantic series The Day Of The Jackal, and he described how he was taught to use a phone in an attack, by thrusting it at an attacker’s throat.

That’s when Mescal, 28, joked: “Who is actually going to think about that? If someone actually attacked me, I’m not going to go ‘phone.’”

“That’s a very good point,” Redmayne said as they laughed and Graham Norton joined in.

Ronan tried to interject a couple of times before she was able to chime in and say: “That’s what girls have to think about all the time. Am I right ladies?”

Now, Mescal has responded to the moment, after Ronan was praised for her remark.

The Gladiator actor was asked on Irish broadcaster RTE’s The Late Late Show if he was surprised by the response.

He said: “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.

“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.”

Thanks to that moment, Ronan was given a platform to explain why she spoke up.

Speaking to Ryan Tubridy on Virgin Radio UK, she addressed the response to the episode and said it 'wasn't something she expected'.

She said: "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.”

"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."

She then went on to defend Redmayne and Mescal, explaining: "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.

"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%."

Because she and Mescal worked together during the filming of the film, Foe last year, they’re good pals.

She shared: "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.

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

“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."