Mescal hails Ronan's callout on women's safety

Paul Mescal is standing firmly in support of Saoirse Ronan after her candid comments about women's safety went viral, hailing her as "the most intelligent person in the room."

The moment unfolded during a lively episode of The Graham Norton Show, where Mescal and Ronan shared the couch with Eddie Redmayne. The Fantastic Beasts star explained a self-defence tip he picked up while training for his role in The Day of the Jackal—using a phone as a weapon. Mescal jokingly questioned the practicality, asking, "Who has time to grab their phone if they're being attacked?"

That's when Ronan cut through the banter with a sharp observation: "That's what girls have to think about all the time. Am I right, ladies?" The studio audience erupted in applause, and her comment quickly caught fire online, sparking widespread discourse on everyday challenges faced by women.

Reflecting on the exchange during an appearance on The Late Late Show with Patrick Kielty, Mescal expressed admiration for Ronan. "I'm not surprised that the message received as much attention that it got because it's massively important," the Gladiator II star said. He continued, "I think she (Ronan) was spot-on, hit the nail on the head. And it's also good that messages like that are gaining traction. That's the sort of conversation we should be having on a daily basis."

Ronan herself has been taken aback by the response. Speaking on Virgin Radio UK's The Ryan Tubridy Show, she described the reaction as "wild." "[It's] definitely not something that I had expected, and I didn't necessarily set out to sort of make a splash. … I think there's something 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."

Ronan likened the moment with Mescal to casual discussions with her friends, where the topic of safety often dominates. She said 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 per cent."

She added, "[It allows] more women to just be like, 'Well, yeah, actually, let's talk about our experience.'"