4 weeks ago
7
Irish actress Saoirse Ronan has stunned a group of male Hollywood stars with a quip about self-defence during a UK talk show.
Appearing on The Graham Norton Show, the Little Women star sat on the couch beside superstar actors Paul Mescal, Eddie Redmayne and Denzel Washington when the topic shifted to defending oneself from an attack.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Saoirse Ronan calls out male actors joking about self-defence practices.
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When the idea arose of using the base of a phone as a form of defence, Gladiator II star Mescal was sceptical.
“Who is actually going to think about that?” he asked with a laugh.
“If someone actually attacked me, I’m not going to go ‘phone’.”
Paul Mescal imitates calling his mum in front of an attacker. Credit: BBCRedmayne and Norton laughed along, leaning into the quip as Ronan attempted to intervene.
“Can you hang on a second?” Norton said to a hypothetical attacker before searching his pockets for his phone.
Mescal continued, as Ronan sat there appearing unimpressed, holding up a mock phone and saying, “Sorry mum, one second. BANG!”
Redmayne chuckled.
“That’s a very good point,” he said.
As the men’s riff came to an end, Ronan jumped in with a sobering reminder that self-defence was an issue for half the human population.
“That’s what girls have to think about all the time,” she said, completely changing the mood.
“Am I right ladies?” she asked the audience who erupted into applause.
Denzel Washington, Paul Mescal, Saoirse Ronan and Eddie Redmayne. Credit: BBCRonan and Mescal are known to be good friends, with both hailing from Ireland and working together on the 2023 film Foe.
Fans reacted to the moment after it was posted to TikTok.
“She was so real for that,” one said.
“I love how she didn’t stay quiet, she simply said that the ones who have to keep quiet are THEM,” another said.
A third reacted: “SILENCED THEM.”
“I love Paul but there’s just something about men not understanding how difficult it is to exist safely as a woman,” another said.
English (US) ·