THE funniest thing that happened on last week’s Graham Norton’s show was when the 'comedy' was interrupted. Norton always gets stellar guests on his show and last week was particularly sparkling. New York’s Denzel Washington and Maynooth’s Paul Mescal were on talking about the new Gladiator. Eddie Redmayne joined them and in the middle was New York-born but Dublin raised Saoirse Ronan. A sofa filled with next year’s Academy Award nominees.
Eddie and Paul began a weird story about how you might stop yourself being attacked if you stab someone in the throat with your mobile phone. They acted out the potential scene to Graham Norton’s wild laughter. There is apparently nothing funnier than glittering stars being madcap on the sofa.
However, like the infamous scene from the original Gladiator, Saoirse Ronan’s stony face was telling its own story. She was not entertained, and she had something to say about it.
She tried to interrupt a couple of times as the lads got ever more excited; indeed Paul was ratcheting things up. “Who is actually going to think about that? If someone actually attacked me, I’m not going to go, phone!”, as he rose from his seat and raised his leg as if in the situation. Those of us who know what that is like could see what was coming. Saoirse chose her physical space, sat back and raised her voice: “That’s what girls have to think about all the time”.
Silence
Eddie and Paul had been slapped in the face by the cold, wet fish of truth. Graham was stunned as his jocular masculinity funfair was shut down. Saoirse, fully reposed, then smiled and addressed the audience: “Isn’t that right, ladies?" Cue a very unmasculine response, borne of lifetimes of recognition of the truths that dare not speak their name.
And Denzel Washington smiled the biggest smile as he had just witnessed a new Maximumus Decimus shout out a new version of “Are you not entertained?” and recognised the power of that moment.
All women will remember that first shout from a rooftop: "Smile!"' "Ah, cheer up!" The moment we turned from being carefree, walking our own streets, to being aware that we were being watched and commented on.
We all remember the whistles from workers in holes in the ground making some comment about our legs and backsides.
We all remember the first time when we wore light or tight tops and the underwear underneath was open to observation and analysis from total strangers.
We remember the first time we were told to walk with keys between our fingers (my mother when I was 13) and never to look up while walking quickly, or catch someone’s eye on the bus, or choose a bus stop without a light, or a lonely carpark. We remember because it becomes a part of our lives to find some tiny way to protect ourselves, because it is dangerous to be a woman walking in our own streets.
Paul Mescal and Eddie Redmayne are decent lads who often make space for women’s voices and equality. But ultimately, they have no idea what it is to live a life perpetually under threat of violence from men. Saoirse, with her most appropriate name, gave voice to that in exactly the right place.
For very often it is too dangerous to call it out.
