According to some statistics I just made up, there are actors who cry in about 2 out of 3 movies. And I don’t know if you’ve tried, but crying on command isn’t super easy. For actors, it’s not necessarily either, even if they have years of experience behind them. Some chosen ones will be able to cry like never before in two seconds, but most will need small techniques to successfully bring out the tears. For your film culture, these are the techniques in question.
1. The menthol tube
The most effective technique for crying immediately is to use menthol tubes sold in pharmacies to unclog the nose or calm migraines. If you put it near your eyes, you automatically cry because it stings. So yes it’s a bit of cheating, but at the same time the cinema is fake, so we don’t see why they would deprive themselves of it, the actors.
2. Staring at a light without closing your eyes
Some actors use this technique, which certainly looks silly but is also very effective: they find a sufficiently strong light source and stare at it as long as possible, trying never to blink. Inevitably, after a while, the eye produces more tears to avoid being too dry, and bam, it makes pretty tears.
3. Thinking about sad memories
It’s the classic acting technique, and it’s quite logical. To cry, we can try to recall the saddest memories of our life: when the family dog died, when we didn’t get the Christmas present we wanted, or when our friend beat us. 5-0 in FIFA. If you immerse yourself in it, the tears flow very quickly.
4. Imagining the death of someone close to you
It’s very close to the previous point, except that here the actors invent a sad situation instead of going back to their memories. It’s also effective, since no one wants to imagine the death of their parents, their animals or their favorite postman (he sorts the mail really well).
5. Listen to sad music
Once again, the technique is quite understandable: sad music makes you sad, and being sad makes you cry. CQFD, as people say who like to show that they have succeeded in demonstrating something thanks to infallible arguments.
6. Use saline solution
A few drops in the eyes, and you get eyes that are moist enough to play out a whole range of sad emotions, from sadness at having failed your year of bachelor’s degree to breaking down at the loss of your keys.
7. Getting martyred by the director
There are quite a few examples of shoots during which the director pushed his actors to the limit to get real tears from them following a nervous breakdown. If you want some examples, we have a top of the directors who went too far to make their actors cry. Sensitive souls do not abstain too much either.
8. Peel an onion
As you know, cutting an onion inevitably causes a crying fit that would make the Trevi Fountain look like the Atacama Desert. Suddenly, all you need is a cutting board and a few onions on the film set to play a sad scene worthy of the best cinematographic awards, such as the Oscars, the Césars and the Gaspars of the cinema (the latter does not exist , I lied).
9. Have tear gland surgery to keep them flowing continuously
The operation is a bit expensive, but frankly in the end it’s worth it. The problem is that afterwards you can only play roles where you have to cry all the time. A bit like Winona Ryder in the first season of Stranger Things.
10. Drink 50 liters of water
After a while, you will have so much water in you that it will come out of all the orifices of your body. No go Do not do thatif you drink too much water you will die of a heart attack, and you will no longer be able to shoot in movies.
