To communicate the raw sensations of a breakup, loss of a loved one or similar terrible event, producers and casting directors may require performers to cry actual tears for dramatic moments. It's beneficial to your acting profession if you can manufacture tears on cue.
6 Practical Tricks to Enable You Cry on Command
You can cry on the spot by employing a variety of acting methods and physical stunts. Try these ways to more readily express intense emotions:
1. Try Yawning Before Attempting to Cry
Before being forced to cry, yawn. A series of large yawns will elevate your soft palate and cause your eyes to shine. This can be used to pique the audience's interest before moving on to a more emotional moment.
2. Drink Plenty of Water
Water is essential. Being hydrated is beneficial if you want to start crying. Drink plenty of water in the hours leading up to the big moment if you're filming a crying scene for a sad film or a dramatic play.
3. For the next thirty seconds, keep your eyes open
If you've ever participated in a standing competition, you've probably noticed that your eyes start to water approximately halfway through. Keep your eyes open for as long as you can before the cameras roll to make you cry. Your eyes may well well up if you don't blink, and no one will know.
4. Use a tear stick with menthol in it
On camera, actors cry a lot, and maintaining that emotion for several takes can be difficult. As a result, even expert actors utilize menthol tear sticks to make their eyes weep—apply lightly under the eyes, and the fumes will make your eyes water. Excessive use of menthol sticks should be avoided, as should exposure to menthol fumes.
5. Breath
Taking a series of short breaths in your upper chest will help you let off a nice cry by triggering stress hormones and causing emotional tears to flow.
6. Cut Onions Up
When cutting onions, people cry. When you cut these plants, syn-Propanethial-S-oxide is released, which is a chemical irritant. Cutting onions before a teary scenario will help you let it all out because tears can be difficult to stop for a few seconds once they begin.
How to Cry on Command Using Emotion
To develop in the entertainment industry, dramatic actors must learn to cry on cue. To activate the tear ducts and achieve the emotional state required for a moving scene, follow these acting tips:
1. Make a personal connection to the given conditions
Find parallels between the lives of the character and your own to fully immerse yourself in the role. As a technique to provoke emotions based on real-life, put yourself in your character's shoes by recalling similar situations from your own experience. You can cry genuine tears by tapping into painful memories and emotional suffering.
2. Listen to Some Sad Music First
Listening to music that you've played during a difficult time in your life or that simply makes you sad can help you cry. Make a sad music playlist and listen to it just before you need to cry.
3. View an Uplifting or Depressing video
Looking to the media for inspiration might be beneficial—perhaps there's a scene from a TV show that constantly makes you cry or an uplifting news video about someone conquering a huge challenge. It could be the saddest or happiest moment you've ever watched; in either case, it could help you start crying on command.
4. Read a passage that has a strong emotional impact
Maybe there's a poem, a remark, or a scene from a book or play that never fails to move you. Keep these passages handy so you can quickly access them whenever you need to cry.
5. Act out the scene's reality
The finest thing an actor can do is portray the truth of the situation. Drop into the reality of the moment and let the scene unfold naturally—raw emotions and all—of your character's path is clear and the screenplay is excellent.
