During a jocular discussion on The Graham Norton Show, actor Paul Mescal made a tone-deaf joke that elicited laughter from Denzel Washington and Eddie Redmayne and forced Saoirse Ronan to immediately silence the male actors with a reality check.
On October 25, Ronan, known for starring in the Greta Gerwig films Lady Bird and Little Women, was a guest on the BBC talk show with her male Hollywood peers.
For a time, the group appeared to be chummy with the host until they arrived on the topic of self-defense in an unprovoked attack.
Redmayne, who currently stars as an assassin in the upcoming Peacock TV series The Day of the Jackal, suggested that a smartphone could be used as a weapon during a physical assault.
Mescal shot down the notion, arguing that an electronic device would be ineffective during any physical altercation.
He quipped:
"Who is actually going to think about that?"
"If someone actually attacked me, I’m not going to go ‘phone,' " added the Gladiator II actor while mimicking the movement of whipping out a phone from his trouser pocket.
Ronan tried to interject but Mescal's comical demonstration continued eliciting laughter from Washington, Redmayne, the studio audience, and Norton, who joined in the hypothetical by pretending to search for his phone while telling the imagined attacker, "Can you hang on a second?"
Mescal extended the ruse by putting a phone to his ear and saying, “Sorry, mum, one second. Bang.”
"That's a very good point," observed Redmayne, prompting Ronan to finally apprise the men of a perspective typically lost on them.
She quickly informed the men:
“That’s what girls have to think about all the time.”
An immediate silence befell the room until Ronan asked for backup.
“Am I right, ladies?”
The audience responded by cheering for Ronan's reminder that women have to always think ahead as common victims of gender-based violence.
Social media users commended Ronan.
They also loved how she shut down the room.
Good on you, Saoirse.
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