Saoirse Ronan: That Viral Moment Is 'Really Telling'

On Friday, Saoirse Ronan made waves on The Graham Norton Show when she took issue with actor Paul Mescal's self-defense joke, saying, "That's what girls have to think about all the time. Am I right, ladies?" On Virgin Radio UK on Wednesday, Ronan addressed the moment that has since gone viral, calling it "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." Some highlights from the interview, per Yahoo News and Hello:

• Reaction: "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. ... So many men and women that I know from all over the world have gotten in touch with me about this one comment."

• Context: "I would urge people, please, please, please to watch this in context. Please watch the whole interview or watch at least that part of the conversation, because it really wasn't about ... the boys weren't sort of like debunking anything that I was saying." She calls Mescal "one of my very dear friends."
• And yet her point stands: "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%. ... 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."

(More Saoirse Ronan stories.)