Teach Yourself to Cry On Cue
Boy, oh boy, watching these statistics jump is fun. It turns out my most popular articles so far are those about monologues. Actors from all around the country are trying to find out How to Choose a Monologue, or what is the Secret to Monologue Performance. I hope you found what you were looking for. Today I’m going to continue answering some search engine queries that brought people to the site. It’s dorky, I know, but it’s fun. Today’s query is a good one. It came from a reader in Reston, Virginia who was trying to find out how to cry on stage. I suppose the best time to write this article would’ve been before they wanted to find this information, but oh well, I’m sure there are many other actors out there wondering the same thing. So without further ado about nothing . . .
Crying on stage a is a subject fraught with danger and I’m sure I’m going to receive some nasty emails telling me I got it wrong, but from everything I’ve ever learned there seem to be three methods, one of which is bound to work.
- Emotional Memories
- Staring for Long Periods
- Practice
These are methods I have learned from other actors who swear that at least one of them has worked for them. Only one of them has ever worked for me, but I guess that’s the nature of the beast. Acting is fickle and everyone has something that only works for them. So lets jump right in and see what works for you.
- Emotional Memories – We’ve talked about these before and this is probably the most widely used method for crying on stage. It involves thinking of some horrible memory or thought that will make you cry. I don’t like this method for a lot of reasons, the first of which is that it takes you out of the moment and into your head. It causes you to think and act at the same time and you know how I hate that. If you’re onstage, in a scene and you suddenly try to draw up a memory of the puppy you had when you were four to make you cry, you’re no longer reacting onstage, you’re off in wonderland, leaving your partner alone. Not to mention that many people either don’t have memories that bad, or don’t cry that easily. I’m one of those people. It didn’t matter how many times I imagined a helpless puppy, no tears came.Sanford Meisner, who coined the phrase “in your head”, didn’t like Emotional Memories, and even Constantine Stanislavski, who created the method, grew to dislike them in his later years. They are inconstant and changeable, not mention that memories fade in emotional resonance as years go on. So what makes you cry now probably won’t make you cry twenty years from now. Emotional Memories are meant to propel you into a scene. They are a method for getting you into a correct state of mind just before you come onstage, then the scene itself will take control. Don’t use them onstage, in the moment; they will only serve as a distraction. But then again, like everything in acting, if works for you, do it.
- Staring for Long Periods – No, I’m not making this up. This method has been touted by actors and teachers alike for years. Their method is to simply not blink for a long period just before they have to cry. This, like Emotional Memories reportedly works for some people. If you don’t believe it, just watch Tom Cruise who can use this method to perfection. Watch him cry in any of his movies and the man never blinks. It’s actually pretty funny after you figure it out. But anyway, it has apparently worked for many actors. Again, it doesn’t work for me; I always end up with watery eyes, but no real tears. Not mention it will put you into your head again because you’re standing onstage thinking, Don’t blink, don’t blink, don’t blink, rather than reacting to the scene you’re in.Some actors however, have created some other physical tricks that work for them. Some have found that just screwing up their faces as if their going to cry helps them produce tears. Others discovered that making their lower lips quiver or making their breaths very shallow and shaky helps. Once again, none of these worked for me, but try them yourself and see if they work for you.
- Practice – This is my method and it works for me. The key to this method is that you must first learn to cry in real life before you can cry on stage. I love this method because it causes you to search within yourself for a desire to cry, but doesn’t require you to be in your head to do so. Crying is quite like any other skill that you could learn to do: while difficult at first, it gets easier the more you do it. It’s something like a flood gate, you make yourself cry once and after that it’s hard not to cry when it comes.This method is hardest to understand, but the best way to learn it is to practice. When you’re alone, in the privacy of your house or your room, practice making yourself cry. Imagine a scene where you feel you should cry and play that scene out by yourself and try to bring on the tears. Once you learn to do it in real life, you’ll be able to do it on stage. Or, if that doesn’t work try this: while watching a movie in which an actor is crying, try to imagine that you are playing that role. You’ll probably want to do this alone so people don’t think you’re weird. But as the actor on screen says their lines, imagine that you are playing that role and that you are saying those lines. In your own quite moment, play that part for yourself, put yourself in that situation and feed off of their emotion. It probably won’t make you cry the first few times, but you’ll get close.
So there you have three methods, though I’m certain there are more just waiting to be revealed. The most important thing to remember is that crying onstage is the same as crying offstage. If you can’t cry offstage, you won’t cry onstage either. Sometimes the problem is that you’re afraid to cry. I was, it was a scary flood of emotion that I wasn’t ready to deal with but as I practiced and faced it head on, I slowly became ready for it. Don’t rush it, it runs deeper inside you than you may think. Take your time, it will come.
If you feel you simply must cry for a role and just can’t come up with the tears, I suppose you could always just fake it. Many actors do. Onstage, sob convincingly and no one will be able to see the tears anyway. I don’t buy into that school of thought, but it’s a viable option I suppose. I believe that if the scene you are in doesn’t illicit in you the sensation of crying then you have two choices: either raise the stakes, or don’t cry. It would benefit you greatly to not cry, rather than to cry unconvincingly. Just remember to keep it natural, if you don’t feel like crying, then don’t force it, maybe it will come next time.
So there you have it, three methods for crying onstage. Try them for yourself and see what works or perhaps you have a method of your own you’d like to share. If so feel free to email me at the submission link at the top of the page. So until next, Cry Boldly!
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3 Responses to “Teach Yourself to Cry On Cue”
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Helpful much!!! Wow im doing drama GCSE and I wanted to learn to cry so I could really impress those judges. I already cry incredibly easily, but the only problem was that I could only do it if I had sad music playing and stuff. The ‘not blinking’ one was very impressive. I couldn’t cry persay, but my eyes went really red and were watery, which is close enough
I will try to acomplish it so that I can cry real tears in time for May! Thank you lots! xxxx
I certainly agree that practise is the best. I have found (in my very brief acting career) that before going on stage one should use past experiences to feel like crying, and then once you are in the scene, if you truely become the actor you are playing, you will find it natural and relatively easy to cry. Well, thats what I do. If your character would cry, and you believe you are that person, so will you. Good luck! And thanks, great site
I am very impressed! I’m actually planning to be an actress soon. First, im now taking “John Robert Powers” acting school. They are teching everything that actors should know. Most importantly, i want to be able to know how to cry emotionally on a scene. I want to be able to impress the judges. I am going to take the advice of “staring for long periods”. That sounds like good practice, and easier to learn, by the way. I just want to say thank you for giving out advices of how to cry emotionally on scenes. Especially, many actors need these advices for these type of scenes.
Good luck to all!