Can You Cry?

Are you able to cry on cue? It is very hard for me. I don't have that natural ability to turn on the water works easily. I always marvel at those who do, who can squinch up their face and have tears pour down in a veritable waterfall! So, what do you do if you have to cry?

Well, here is what I try and do when the emotional level requires tears. First off, I never try and force the emotion. I just try and stay in the scene and let it come to me. If the emotional level in a scene is that high just letting it wash over me is sometimes enough to get me to squeeze out a few tears. Never anticipate that moment. The more you can distance yourself from it, the harder it will hit you when it come.

Another tactic is to use emotional recall, or try and remember a time in your life where you were very sad and carry that emotion with you. (Or imagine a time you could be sad.)

A trick I used one time when I had the luxury of preparing offstage for an emotional scene was to bring in a CD of very sad music and listen to it before I went on. In this particular instance I listened to the soundtrack for "Schindler's List" because that haunting violin is so strongly associated with the images of that movie, it never fails to start my emotions churning.

But what if, in the end, the tears just aren't there. Well, that is when I resort to the technique of playing against the emotion. What I mean by that is sometimes trying not to give into an emotion is just a powerful as the emotion itself. So, in this case I play my character fighting off the tears, trying with all his might NOT to cry. This will either, in a round about way, get me to actual tears or still read with the audience as tears without having to actually cry.

Don't ever "act like your crying". This will just come across as contrived and fake. In the end use the emotions that are there - even if it is not enough to make you cry.

Being real to the moment is what counts and will truly sell the scene.

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