Move over, Nicole Kidman, there’s a star with a stranger clap in town. Antonio Banderas caught the attention of viewers during the 70th Anual Primetime Emmy Awards — but it’s not for reasons you might think.
While the 58-year-old actor sat in the crowd of the star-studded celebration on Monday, September 17 — where he was nominated for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie award for Genius: Picasso — Banderas turned heads for his odd applause.
“Whaaat is this clap from Antonio Banderas? #Emmys,” one Twitter user wrote. Another added: “Calling it early for gif of the year. Gotta be Antonio Banderas’ weird Emmy clapping. An appropriate reply to anything.”
Other social media users chimed in, writing, “We need to talk about how Antonio Banderas was just clapping with claw fingers. Also someone make a GIF of it. Thanks. #Emmys.” Another commenter quipped: “Uh… if we meme’d Nicole Kidman clapping, we MUST meme the hell out of whatever Antonio Banderas was just doing with his hands. #Emmys”
The fixation on Banderas’ clap comes more than a year after Kidman, 51, made headlines for the way she applauded at the 2017 Oscars.
The Big Little Lies actress spoke out about the viral moment in March 2017 and explained that the bling she was wearing made it hard for her to clap.
“It was really awkward,” Kidman gushed. “I was like, ‘I wanna clap, I don’t wanna not be clapping’ — that’d be worse, right? Like, ‘Why isn’t Nicole clapping?’ So therefore I’m clapping but it was really difficult because I had a huge ring on that was not mine — but it was absolutely gorgeous — and I was terrified of damaging it.”
Banderas, for his part, didn’t appear to be wearing any sort of jewelry that would get in the way of his applause.
