Part of being a successful actor is learning how to access your emotions. Whether or not you really feel the moment, you may be expected to cry on demand. Often, you’ll be asked to cry on cue as part of a scene: think Viola Davis getting snotty in Fences or Emma Thompson breaking down in Love Actually. Shedding tears on the spot can be difficult, but it’s an important skill to master.
So, how do you get teary? First, it’s important to stay hydrated. Tears are mainly composed of water, so keep up your fluids to weep effectively. The Fabelmans actor Keeley Karsten said her Oscar-winning costar Michelle Williams gave her this tip.
“Michelle was like, ‘You gotta hydrate, darling. It’s really gonna help you.’ Now I drink water all the time when I have heavier things because I didn’t know that it actually does help you so much with crying.”
Emotional techniques
Crying onscreen is about tapping into the raw emotion your character is going through. So, use your imagination to empathise with your character. Think about the script and their backstory. Why are they crying in this scene? Are they happy tears or sad tears? Feel your character’s emotions and (hopefully) the tears will come.
What if your character is going through something you really can’t connect to? Many actors use experiences from their own lives to enhance their performance. They’ll think about events that have triggered tears and then use that memory to replicate the feelings onscreen.
When Timothée Chalamet had to film a two-minute, one-shot crying scene at the end of Call Me by Your Name, he tapped into his own memories to make it happen. Talking on the film’s DVD commentary, Chalamet said, "It was a bit of an acting experiment. I was grateful I had enough personal experiences to draw from. With the camera this close and the take being as long as it was, it felt like anything else would ring false.”
Channelling the emotion of a real-life breakup or a bereavement can be powerful, but it should also be treated with care. Look after your mental health first and foremost. Remember that it’s the character’s tears, not your own. Many productions now employ intimacy coordinators to look out for performers’ well-being and advise them on how to let go of their emotions when the job is done.
Intimacy coordinator Ita O’Brien told Harper's Bazaar, “At the end of the day, I invite the actor to put in place the techniques to really let go of where they’ve been to with that scene. Each actor might do something differently. I might say, ‘Use this time to consciously take your character’s costume off, and then consciously put back on your own costume so that you really reset.’ Others might prefer to use a shower, but it’s about making sure that you consciously and physically, emotionally and psychologically, do what you need to do to step out [of character] and let go.”
Physical techniques
Physical techniques can also be helpful when it comes to fake crying. For example, yawning and trying not to blink can stimulate tears. Breathing in a quick, shallow manner can trigger a similar response, but listen to your body; if the technique makes you feel light-headed, stop and try something else.
To nail his emotional scenes in Spider-Man, actor Tom Holland had a top tutor in Dr. Strange actor Benedict Cumberbatch. Holland recalled, “I went through a phase where I was really, really struggling to cry – in my personal life also. And it was really affecting me on set. … “[Cumberbatch] would do this thing where he would kind of simulate laughing and he would breathe really, really quickly and that would sort of bring the emotion to the surface, and then he could just take it and ride the wave from there,” Holland said. “I started doing that, and I love crying scenes now. I love it; I feel really confident; it's something I feel I have in my wheelhouse.”
If yawning, staring, or following the Cumberbatch advice doesn’t work, there’s always the trusty ‘tear stick’ to fall back on. Looking like lipstick but containing menthol and camphor, the tear stick can be applied under the eyes to induce tears in seconds. James Corden, Anna Faris, and Joshua Jackson famously sampled it on The Late Late Show.
Combining techniques
Barbie star Margot Robbie uses a mixture of both kinds of crying techniques. "I just think of something sad; family dying and things like that,” she said, adding that her years spent working on the soap opera Neighbours was an opportunity to practise crying. “If I have to do a lot of crying, I try not to sleep a lot in the days leading up to it because the more tired I am, the easier it is to cry.”
Remember to look after yourself
Many actors find crying on command difficult and even try to avoid it. In an Instagram post, Florence Pugh revealed, “I've never been an actor that finds it easy to cry on camera. It’s something very personal to me, and despite finding all other aspects of acting exciting and thrilling, I find crying very scary, and at some points in my career directors have had to change the scene because I couldn't do it.”
If you’re finding it hard, talk to your director about how you might do the scene and what might help with your performance. You’ll need the physical and emotional space to be vulnerable, so tell people what you need. If it’s not working, give yourself a break and take heed from Oprah Winfrey.
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter about her difficulty in crying to order in 1985’s The Color Purple, she relayed some advice she was given on set by actor Adolph Caesar. “He said: ‘You need to learn to give yourself over to the character. Let the character take control. And if she wants to cry, she’ll cry, and if she doesn’t, not even Steven Spielberg can make her’.”