It’s not often a talk show goes silent. After all, it’s right there in the name — it’s a talk show.
But actor Saoirse Ronan did just that on a recent episode of The Graham Norton Show, the British talk show that typically features a roundtable discussion among famous folks. Ronan was the lone woman on the panel, which also featured actors Denzel Washington, Paul Mescal, and Eddie Redmayne and the host, Norton.
Redmayne mentioned being taught how to use a phone as a defensive tool for his role in the assassin series The Day of the Jackal. Mescal and Norton cracked a few jokes about searching for your phone in a self-defense situation.
“Who is actually going to think about that?” Mescal said while miming the act of pulling a phone out of his pocket. “If someone actually attacked me, I’m not going to go ‘phone.'”
The men laughed and Redmayne agreed, before Ronan pointed out that, actually, women need to constantly think of ways to defend themselves.
“That’s what girls have to think about all the time,” she said.
A hush immediately overtook the panel and the crowd, and the male actors made sounds of agreement while nodding.
Then Ronan broke the silence with, “Am I right, ladies?” which was met with applause and cheers.
It has become a super viral moment, with lots of people posting clips online and people loving the point Ronan made.
It was a brief moment in the show, but Ronan powerfully reminded the room how different the world can be for women and men.
