Paul Mescal has offered his thoughts after Saoirse Ronan clapped back against his comments on The Graham Norton Show, in a moment that promptly went viral last month.
For context, both Mescal and Ronan were appearing on the talk show to promote their respective films Gladiator II and Blitz. Amid a discussion amongst the guests — which also included Eddie Redmayne and Denzel Washington — about learning self defence for movie roles, Mescal made a joke about a hypothetical victim of assault using their mobile phone as a form of defence. “Who is actually going to think about that? If someone actually attacked me, I’m not going to go ‘phone,’” Mescal said, while making a gesture as though he was answering a phone call.
The joke received laughs from the audience and the guests, but the room went silent when Ronan candidly reminded everyone of the necessity for women to be constantly conscious of violence. “That’s what girls have to think about all the time,” Ronan said, causing both Redmayne and Mescal to fall silent. After a brief pause, the actress received a round of applause, and the talk show moment took on a life of its own as it rapidly spread across the internet. Now, Mescal himself has responded to both Ronan’s comment and the viral attention it received during a recent interview on The Late Late Show.
The Normal People star said he was “not surprised” that Ronan’s comment seemed to resonate so majorly, since the reminder she provided was “massively important.” Mescal went on to praise Ronan — whom he starred opposite in 2023’s Foe — saying the actress is “quite often, more often than not, the most intelligent person in the room.” Mescal said was Ronan “spot on” with her comments and that she “hit the nail on the head.”
Speaking more broadly of the implications of Ronan’s comment, Mescal said it was “good that messages like that are gaining traction, [because] that’s the sort of conversation we should be having on a daily basis.” This sentiment was echoed by fans responding to Mescal’s comments, with one X user agreeing that it is “crucial to have these conversations and raise awareness about women’s safety” and another commending Ronan for “spark[ing] important conversations.”
Ronan herself elaborated on the topic when addressing the talk show moment earlier this month. “I think there’s something really telling about the society that we’re in right now,” the actress said on The Ryan Turbidy Show, “and about how open women want to be with the men in their lives.” She said the discourse that arose after her exchange with Mescal was “not something that I had expected,” and described the viral moment as “wild.”
Thankfully, Ronan assured us that her friendship with Mescal remains intact, saying the actor “completely gets” the issue she was raising in the moment since she has discussed similar topics with him before. The same goes for Washington and Redmayne, whom Ronan said “weren’t debunking anything that I was saying.” It’s welcome news for fans who have long supported this Irish duo, and it might just be the case that the pair will be starring in another movie together, or at least Mescal hopes so.
“Any amount of films I would do with Saoirse,” Mescal told MTV earlier this week. “I’m madly in love with so many [of my co-stars].”
Published: Nov 19, 2024 05:02 am