MAKING YOURSELF CRY
New actors often have this thing about making themselves cry. It's like it is a litmus test for whether or not they are real actors. Real actors, so goes the logic, can make themselves cry on cue, and if you can't pull off that hat trick, you lose. In a recent acting class, I actually got into a heated debate with a very earnest student who believed that feigning crying would be the only acceptable application of indicating (showing the audience how you feel) - which is pretty universally considered an acting error.
Some actors figure they can cut onions on the movie set or put glycerin in their eyes to give the illusion of crying. Directors have been known to play cruel tricks on child actors to get them to cry, telling them their dog just died and such. Let's clear the air, and the tears, okay?
First, an ability to make yourself shed real tears is decidedly not the earmark of an excellent actor. I have seen plenty of high school actors that can do it. I have worked with professional actors that could do it, and it was not affecting. The mechanical generation of tears is just that and nothing more - a mechanical generation. Tears are an _expression of sadness and maybe frustration. (Tears of happiness, like the ones you shed at weddings, will be the subject for another newsletter. They are the result of a mixture of happiness and sadnessŠ) Tears are a uniquely human _expression of emotion. It is said that elephants cry but there has never been any actual documentation of that. As far as I know, only humans do it. The reason is that we have thinking brains and emotions are automatic value responses. Tears require abstract thought.
Emotions are contextual, and sadness does not always result in tears. Take a look at the scene in Charlie Chaplin's movie "Gold Rush" when he realizes that Georgia the Dance Hall Girl has stood him up on New Year's Eve. No tears, but the sadness is almost tangible. There are times in life when sadness goes beyond tears. I remember once having to tell a friend in New York that his father had passed away. He did not react with tears until much later, but he was obviously devastated by the news.
We humans empathize with emotion. Tears in themselves carry little empathetic currency. They are just wet things. The important part is how the character feels, tears or no tears. Sadness expresses itself in the curve of the back, by the slackness in the muscles, by an inward-looking moment. It used to be said that Geraldine Page could do more acting with her back than most actors could with their front, and this was largely a factor of the way she expressed sadness with her body. The same was true with Eleanora Duse.
If you absolutely positively must make yourself cry real tears, you can probably do it. I can do it and have done so in various film projects. The trick is to put yourself on the edge of tears before they say "Action!" and then spill over in the moment. You have to have a private place in your brain to hold context. It is a mental discipline. But, seriously, I would not make a big deal out of being able to cry. It is not a litmus test of your talent. More important is for you to have compassion and empathy for the human condition and for you to be willing to be a shaman. If tears are appropriate to the moment, then they will be there.
