Saoirse Ronan: how the actress went viral
The actress dropped a 'chat-icide bomb' on Graham Norton's BBC show

Celebrity chat shows are a pretty tedious spectacle these days, said Finn McRedmond in The Irish Times. But occasionally something enlivens these contrived occasions by breaking through the "forced anecdotes and PR gambits". It happened the other day on Graham Norton's BBC show.
Eddie Redmayne was on and caused much hilarity among his fellow actors on the sofa by describing how, in preparation for his latest role in a new adaptation of "The Day of the Jackal", he'd been trained in self-defence, and shown how to use a mobile phone as a weapon. "Who is actually going to think about that?" asked Paul Mescal. "If someone attacked me," he joked, I wouldn't think about reaching for my phone. But the men's laughter gave way to an awkward silence when the actress Saoirse Ronan cut in, saying: "That's what girls have to think about all the time – am I right, ladies?"
The look on the other actors' faces after Ronan detonated this "chat-icide bomb" was priceless, said Marina Hyde in The Guardian, and footage of the moment was soon all over the internet. "When clips like this go viral, it's for a reason." Most, if not all, women will have experienced some version of the laddish banter on Graham Norton's show, and many will have regretted not finding quite the right words at the right time to make Ronan's point. But she did. Ronan nailed it, agreed Caroline Davies in the same paper. Her perfectly timed interjection highlighted the fact that "men, even the good guys, seem to have a blind spot when it comes to women's lived reality".
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Granted, it was "a good(ish) telly moment", said Camilla Long in The Sunday Times, and Ronan made a valid point. I was irked, though, by the righteous tone of the ensuing social-media pile-on. To some, women are "always poor, helpless victims, while men are dangerous, thoughtless aggressors" who must be punished and shamed. It's depressing, too, that this story got so much more attention than other recent, more important stories related to women, such as the fall in the birthrate in this country or the oppression of women in Afghanistan. "If you reduce feminism to petty anger and viral media clips, it won't be there to protect you when things really matter."
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
Iran nukes program set back months, early intel suggests
Speed Read A Pentagon assessment says US bombing of Iranian nuclear sites only set the program back by months, not years. This contradicts President Donald Trump's claim.
-
June 25 editorial cartoons
Cartoons Wednesday's cartoons include war on a loop, the New York City mayoral race, and one almighty F-bomb
-
How generative AI is changing the way we write and speak
In The Spotlight ChatGPT and other large language model tools are quietly influencing which words we use
-
Anne Hillerman's 6 favorite books with Native characters
Feature The author recommends works by Ramona Emerson, Craig Johnson, and more
-
Book reviews: '1861: The Lost Peace' and 'Murderland: Crime and Bloodlust in the Time of Serial Killers'
Feature How America tried to avoid the Civil War and the link between lead pollution and serial killers
-
Brian Wilson: the troubled genius who powered the Beach Boys
Feature The musical giant passed away at 82
-
Grilled radicchio with caper and anchovy sauce recipe
The Week Recommends Smoky twist on classic Italian flavours is perfect to grill, drizzle and devour
-
Echo Valley: a 'twisty modern noir' starring Julianne Moore and Sydney Sweeney
The Week Recommends This tense thriller about a mother and daughter is 'American cinema for grown ups'
-
Larry Lamb shares his favourite books
The Week Recommends The actor picks works by Neil Sheehan, Annie Proulx and Émile Zola
-
Stereophonic: an 'extraordinary, electrifying odyssey'
The Week Recommends David Adjmi's Broadway hit about a 1970s rock band struggling to record their second album comes to the West End
-
Shifty: a 'kaleidoscopic' portrait of late 20th-century Britain
The Week Recommends Adam Curtis' 'wickedly funny' documentary charts the country's decline using archive footage