Ana de Armas Saying "Smile"

Submission 10,820

Part of a series on Trad Girl / Tradwife. [View Related Entries]

About

Ana de Armas Saying "Smile" refers to a video of actress Ana de Armas, known for playing the role of Joi in Blade Runner: 2049, saying "Smile" to the video's viewer and then flashing a picture of them with a sparkling camera. It was originally uploaded by de Armas to Instagram in 2018. From there, it became the primary clip in many Sigma Male edits on TikTok and Twitter using Ryan Gosling, Patrick Bateman and Homelander, among other men, with de Armas representing the Tradwife.

Origin

On April 7th, 2018, Ana de Armas posted the original video to Instagram^[1] which showed herself in a turquoise dress telling the video's viewer to smile and then taking a photo of them with a glittery, flash camera. Over the course of four years, the video received roughly 447,900 views and 71,200 likes (shown below).

Spread

On April 7th, 2018, the video was reposted to YouTube ^[2] by the channel Ana de Armas Brasil, earning over 1,000 views in four years. On April 9th, 2018, the video was reposted to Facebook ^[3] by the fan page Ana de Armas Fan, earning roughly 4,400 views in four years.

On July 15th, 2018, Twitter^[4] user kalebprime created an original GIF with the video, referencing the Shrek's Cringe Compilation meme. The tweet received over 170 likes in four years (shown below). A GIF of the original video was posted to Imgur ^[5] on August 4th, 2018, earning over 227,000 views in four years.

I don't know why I made this gif but use responsibly. pic.twitter.com/W8EO3Xyi2C

— Kaleb (@KalebPrime) July 15, 2018

In 2022, the video was used en masse online, starting on January 3rd, 2022 when YouTuber ReBaZ reposted the original video to the platform, earning over 15,000 views in eight months. On August 6th, 2022, TikToker^[6] wwlofi posted a Sigma Male edit that started with the Ana de Armas "Smile" video, earning roughly 3.6 million plays and 633,800 likes in one month (shown below, left). Also on August 6th, 2022, TikToker^[7] mael.shelby used the clip, following it with a scene from Trainspotting. The video received roughly 4.2 million plays and 859,300 likes in one month (shown below, right).

https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/7128976185031167238

https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/7128838580474023173

The trend spread back to Twitter in August 2022. For instance, on August 30th, 2022, Twitter^[8] user asimbawe tweeted their own Sigma Male edit using the de Armas "Smile" video, gaining roughly 171,900 views and 13,100 likes in ten days (shown below).