About

Anton Castillo's "I Was Acting" refers to a series of GIF and video captions based on a clip of actor Giancarlo Esposito going from laughing to giving a death stare. The GIF captions gained popularity on iFunny and Reddit in early October 2021.

Origin

On September 20th, 2021, video game publisher Ubisoft uploaded a promotional video for its then-upcoming video game Far Cry 6 starring Giancarlo Esposito, actor who performs the role of villain Anton Castillo in the game. In one scene of the video, Esposito addresses the player, saying "Are you prepared to die for your cause?" He then immediately discharges the tension by laughing and saying "I was acting," but then re-escalates by suddenly losing the smile and saying, "Or was I?" The video received over 350,000 views on YouTube^[1] in three weeks (shown below).

I was acting. Or was I?

On the same day, Redditor Marseillest posted a video caption meme based on the clip, with the post gaining over 260 upvotes in /r/Ubisoft in three weeks (shown below). On September 21st, 2021, Marseillest^[3] posted a template for the meme. Another post made by the user on September 26th received over 970 upvotes in /r/nagatoro^[4] in two weeks.

Spread

On September 23rd, iFunny^[5] user lego_ posted a video caption meme that received over 26,200 smiles on the app in two weeks (shown below).

The post prompted active use of the clip in video captions in the following days. For example, on October 1st, iFunny^[6] user R6operatormemes posted a version that gained over 90 smiles in one week (shown below, left). On October 7th, iFunny^[7] user New_California_Republic posted a meme that received over 980 smiles in one day (shown below, right).

Parallel to iFunny the format also experienced further spread on Reddit. For example, on October 7th, Redditor^[8] TheDragonWarrior_ posted a four-panel meme based on the clip that gained over 8,200 upvotes in one day.

Various Examples

Templates

Search Interest

External References