Saoirse Ronan responds to her viral 'Graham Norton Show' moment

"[It allows] more women to just be like, 'Well, yeah, actually, let's talk about our experience."
 By 
Tim Marcin
 on 
saoirse ronan onstage at a panel
Credit: John Lamparski/Getty Images

Actor Saoirse Ronan has seen the reactions to her comment on The Graham Norton Show, where she spoke openly about the unique ways women experience the world.

If you missed it, Mashable has all the details for you. In short, Ronan was seated on a panel alongside actors Paul Mescal, Eddie Redmayne, Denzel Washington, and host Graham Norton.

Mescal joked offhand about a phone being used as a defensive tool, and Ronan, after all the men laughed, pointed out that women are constantly considering how to defend themselves.


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"That's what girls have to think about all the time," she said, which hushed the actors and audience alike.

The moment quickly went viral. It was a good example of how men often don't understand how women experience the world.

"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," Ronan said on The Ryan Tubridy Show on Virgin Radio UK on Wednesday, via The Irish Examiner. "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."

Ronan noted that the popularity of the Norton Show clip opened up folks to have a conversation.

"[It allows] more women to just be like, 'Well, yeah, actually, let's talk about our experience,'" she said, per The Hollywood Reporter.

Topics Viral Videos

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Tim Marcin
Associate Editor, Culture

Tim Marcin is an Associate Editor on the culture team at Mashable, where he mostly digs into the weird parts of the internet. You'll also see some coverage of memes, tech, sports, trends, and the occasional hot take. You can find him on Bluesky (sometimes), Instagram (infrequently), or eating Buffalo wings (as often as possible).

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