Saoirse Ronan has addressed the surprising reaction to a viral clip of her interview on the latest edition of The Graham Norton Show.

On Friday night, the Oscar nominee was a guest on a particularly star-studded episode of the long-running BBC talk show, alongside Denzel Washington, Paul Mescal and Eddie Redmayne.

During the conversation, Eddie opened up about the physical training he underwent for his new show The Day Of The Jackal, recalling how he’d been told by his trainer that in the event of an attack, you can use “the butt of your phone” to fend off an assailant.

When Paul poked fun at this, Saoirse then silenced the rest of the sofa when she calmly pointed out: “That’s what girls have to think about all the time. Am I right, ladies?”

The moment quickly went viral, and at the time of writing has been viewed almost 60 million times on X in just a few short days.

Speaking to Virgin Radio UK on Wednesday morning, Saoirse admitted she has been a little taken aback by the public response to the clip.

“The reaction has been wild,” she shared. “It’s definitely not something that I had expected, and I didn’t necessarily set out to sort of make a splash.

“But I do 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.”

The Irish performer continued: “So many men and women that I know from all over the world have gotten in touch with me about this one comment.”

Saoirse also urged people to “please, please, please to watch this in context”, pointing out that the “boys weren’t sort of, like, debunking anything that I was saying”.

“But at the same time, it felt very similar to 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%,” she added.

“Paul being one of my very dear friends, I’ve had conversations like that with him before, and he completely gets that and completely understands that. But I think the fact that there was a moment like that, that happened on a show like Graham Norton, which is something that the entire nation [watches] – and even overseas, it’s something that people tune into – it seems to have had an accessibility which seems to have really gained traction, which I think is amazing.

“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’.”

Saoirse actually made similar points when she guest hosted Saturday Night Live as far back as 2017, around the birth of the Me Too movement, joining the female members of the cast in a skit titled Welcome To Hell.

Listen to Saoirse Ronan’s full interview on the Virgin Radio app.