Acting : Crying on cue by Jason Raymaker

Jason Raymaker a challenging topic for the actor and, I would say, also for the director. And I mention the director because most of the time, it would be the director that would want the actor to cry at some point or another in the scene.

I will just share my take on it, and what I personally consider the 'ideal' situation - and for that I will quote my acting professor form way back at the Esper Studio: we do not create emotion, something creates emotion within me. Which means that, as an actor, I need to craft a meaningful point of view about specific lines/objects and/or specific moments in the scene that, when they make contact with me, will hopefully trigger some kind of emotion.

I would also say that the fact that you 'never quite got to' that point most likely means you chose to stay honest with what was happening in the moment. And, again, for me that is THE most important thing - truthful in the moment :)

I agree with Sebastian Tudores Jason Raymaker as I shared in a post, I had a scene where the director wanted me to cry but I couldn't do it rehearsal. It wasn't until the first performance that I let the tears flow. Crying on cue is misnomer when it comes to acting. There are no tricks unless makeup wants to put eyedrops or something. If a director wants me to cry on cue, then I would ask him to chop some onions.

The emotion is created within me, because I am connected to the scene and the other actors, and living truthfully in imaginary circumstances. Acting is being. If you were unable to cry it is either as Sebastian suggested, you weren't feeling that in the moment, or you were focusing on crying and not being authentic. Like Sebastian said, any emotion just like in life, is a byproduct of the truthfulness of the moment. That is the technique so to speak. "Living truthfully in imaginary circumstances."

I would say it's all about trying NOT to cry - which is what most humans try to do when they feel tears coming. Other tricks I like are thinking about it like fishing - dipping in and out of the emotion, or creating a trigger from a real life situation that can match the moment you are portraying!

There are no special tricks to crying, let alone on cue for a scene. In my experience, the most authentic moments actually come from trying to hold back the tears.

I approach the work through the physicality of the feeling. Instead of 'acting' sad, I focus on how that emotion sits in my body - the tension in the throat, the heaviness in the chest, or the shallow breath. When I commit to the physical reality of the scene, the tears usually arrive as a natural byproduct of the stakes.

Leaning into that raw, grounded honesty is really beneficial. It’s about being vulnerable enough to let the feeling through, rather than 'performing' the result.

as for me it's been a very subtle struggle to bring out tears. i tried fixing y eyes at a specific point so tears come out, but my coach told me keeping my eyes glued at a point can somehow feel unrealistic! like it doesn't send the emotion well. so currently when i am to bring out tears, first i try to live in the character itself, like trying to feel what the character feels emotionally, that brings out tear fast. if that fails i try to recall a moment where i was s broken, i tell you that is the best way to make tears flow.....

I was asked by a director once, if I can cry on que.

I answered YES.

As I have a lot in my backpack that I can use to come into that mood.

I got that opportunity in a drama film production in Berlin some years ago. Where the cameraman came over to me and said: "My God. You are crying for real, I can see it in your pupils when I film close-up."

Yeas. I am sorry to say. But yes, I'm a tough man as a former Norwegian Navy Ranger e i Navy Seal and the only one who's fulfilled both the education and service with 3rd degree frostbite in my feet ( beginning gangrene) and 2nd degree frostbite in my knees, but there has been a lot going on in my life, even attempted murder on me by the Government, and all that and more I now can use, in different characters.

When I first started out acting, I used a great deal of sense memory recall to experiences that I had had as a child and young adult to bring out my emotions. I would think of something in my own past that still had an effect on me personally. Some of them were still so vivid in my mind that it would be hard to control them once the tears started. As I grew older, I began to realize that I actually had sufficient empathy for the human condition that I could place myself in my character's shoes. When I walked around in them a bit, the tears would come naturally. I performed in a play called "The Mirror" written and directed by an incredible person, Stefan Marks. The opening of the play were the four characters Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter, each establishing their current state of mind. My character, Fall, had just experienced the loss of his spouse and was grieving her death. Somehow, every night we performed, I would just think about what this poor man was going through and voila, the tears would just gush. This was a comedy, and Fall's tears would cease abruptly as he would be distracted by a passing squirrel which would stimulate a philosophical monologue questioning what the squirrel thought of me crying and whether it knew what I had lost. Going from crying with me to laughing at my abrupt transition was really fun!

Ah, this is a difficult one -- there are so many techniques you can use. I would say to not get locked into a technique. Instead focus on the story -- why is your character crying? Put yourself in their shoes, if you can play the story as if it was real that can ground you into the correct emotional space. But to hit the tears on cue - you can't TRY to go for tears. For me, sometimes listening to sad movie scores that bring back scenes that got me emotional, or imagining the sad music is the soundtrack - I've used that technique. Emotional recall can work - but often you've gotten over the thing that used to make you cry so that fails. Sense memory is better - your body remembers better than the mind, so putting yourself into sensory recall is a good technique.

These scenes require a lot of focus for the actor and a good director understands this and will demand quiet and stop of all work on set.

Wonderful question. In my experience, crying on cue comes from intentionally focusing your mindset on moments in your life that caused deep emotional damage—moments that truly broke you.

Learning to access that place takes time and practice. You train yourself to use your own memories to bring your body to the brink of tears, and then apply that emotional state when the scene calls for it.

In acting, you’re selling truth. To give your strongest performance, you have to dig deep and pull real emotion into the moment—making it feel genuine and alive.

that's an incredible level of experience to draw from for your roles Magne Osnes Haugen - imagination can take us quite far when crafting a role. but being honest and vulnerable about our own past experiences and allowing them to serve our character work, is a totally different story.

Bruce Mathews - "I actually had sufficient empathy" ... that's the 'magic' word: empathy

I just think about someone that I know well or I love dying. Works for me.