Saoirse Ronan Breaks Silence on Awkward Talk Show Exchange With Paul Mescal On Gender Violence As She Urges 'More Women to Speak Out'

During Friday's edition of Norton's talk show, Ronan was seated between Mescal and Raymayne.

While discussing Redmayne's training for Peacock miniseries The Day of the Jackal, he explained being given training on how to use a phone to fend off a perpetrator in the event of an attack.

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

Amid laughter from Mescal and Redmayne, Norton mimicked using a phone, saying: "Can you hold on a second?" to which the Fantastic Beasts star added: "That's a very good point."

Meanwhile, Ronan awkwardly sat in silence while the men laughed before interjecting: "That's what girls have to think about all the time."

Her sobering comment ceased laughter from the men. She told the audience: "Am I right, ladies?" to which the crowd erupted in applause.

As the clip made its rounds on social media, users chimed in with their own experiences and thanked Ronan for her quip.

The Little Women star addressed the overwhelming response to the exchange during an interview with Ryan Tubridy on Virgin Radio UK.

She said: "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."

After repeating her plea for listeners to watch the entirety of the interview, she added: "(T)he 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%"

Ronan continued: "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."

The actress went on to share a conversation she had with woman after the interview aired about "survival tactics" women use daily.

The 30-year-old said: "I met a woman last night who's working on Blitz, and she said that, you know, it's really interesting, after we watched that interview, myself and a few of my female friends were with my husband and we said, you know, this really reminds me of the fake phone call.

"And her husband went, what, fake phone call? What do you mean? And of course, you wouldn't understand if you've not had to go through anything like that.

"But she somehow, throughout her life as a female, has gained these tools without ever talking to other women about it and understanding that this is sort of a survival tactic.

"And we've all sort of like subconsciously found the same tools and use them again and again and I find that really interesting."