How To Cry On Cue

[@TheActorsAcademy]

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[@ozpowell2592]

Technique 4 is called Alba Emoting! It's a breathing technique that can be applied to simulate any emotional state, really, anger, crying, fear, etc. Your physical state can have a huge impact on your emotions, so replicating a certain pace of breathing actually tricks your brain into summoning whatever emotion you're trying to inhabit. Super cool stuff :)

[@GalaroidProductions]

That reminds me of how simply smiling is able to increase your mood! Pretty cool!

[@AdamTelly]

I bought that book! Didn't get much from it but it did layer in the breathing technique.

[@Ducu_D]

I started theater 7 years ago when I was 8 years old and in the 4th grade I learned to cry alone. Since then, my biggest dream has been to become an actor and now I'm going for it.

[@hergestridge4056]

Noone cares sorry

[@TheActorsAcademy]

I wish you all the best! Set your goals and create your plans. Learn everything you can and get completely informed about the in and outs of this business. Check out some of our vids addressing the realities of this business :)

[@NijhannieM]

I think about a friend who moved away or a lost of a family member 😢 to help me cry on cue!

[@TheIrish978]

Good luck

[@AdamTelly]

Go for it! It's the best fun you can have with your pants on. Seriously though, I wish I'd found it earlier. I only started in my forties.

[@Nomoredrama2000]

Benedict Cumberbatch actually had a breakdown on the set of The Imitation Game because he felt so strongly for his character's turmoil, and it turned him into a blubbering mess. He called it "not good acting" but I think the best way is that the actor emotionally connects to the character's inner life and feelings in the moment.

[@KnuckleDusterBuster]

Love your work brother! This topic never gets old. Some people think acting is crying or rage yelling. And while acting is more than that, for many casting directors and directors, the ability to cry or yell believably while acting is HUGE and will do great favors for your career.

[@TheActorsAcademy]

EXACTLY! You understand it completely. Having these skills at your disposal and being able to cry and cue when you want and/or when specifically asked of you, is an extremely beneficial “skill” to be able to access 👍🏼

[@Minyassa]

I was taught the soft palate trick by a classmate when I was in middle school. She said she used that trick to turn on the waterworks to get her own way with her parents and teachers, and she was so proud of it. I wonder if she became an actor. xD

[@TheActorsAcademy]

lol it’s a very effective tricks and works wonders. The great thing is that it is a skill that anybody can learn :) hopefully just to manipulate an audience member sitting in the theater, not the people in your real life haha

[@Minyassa]

@@TheActorsAcademy Right?! I can't believe it worked for her, my parents didn't go for that even if I was genuinely upset enough to cry over not getting my own way! 🤣

[@Kingdom_Of_Dreams]

I remember Amy Adams crying on cue (well, not all the way, but she was choked up and could have pushed herself further if she wanted to) while on an episode of the Graham Norton Show (I remember Chris O'Dowd was on the celebrity couch with her), and she used a fictional story with an emotional drive to help spur her feelings. She was somehow able to connect herself to those emotions instantly, which was impressive.

[@LydiaWassenberg]

Thank you for making these videos. Acting is my passion and your videos help a lot. Keep doing what you’re doing, sir!

[@TheActorsAcademy]

Thanks Lydia, I appreciate your kind words! I created this channel to help actors in every way possible, so it brings me joy to hear your kind words. Wishing you the very best and can’t wait for you to see what the rest of 2025 brings us here!

[@amycollins4170]

I saw a clip with Zac Efron saying he manipulates his facial expressions and that’s enough for him to start crying on camera. Impressive!

[@AdamTelly]

Great vid. Thank you for putting it together. The destructive mental prep your'e talking about sounds like Stanislavski, which agreed can be quite bad if you do indeed have very bad places to go mentally. Personally I use combination of things starting with imagining sad events, sometimes remembering them if I have to, shallow breathing, relaxing the palate, open mouth, not blinking. Then it all comes together. The stinging feeling of tears makes me remember times when I have cried and brings back the emotion which then propagates the feeling and then of course more tears. Hydration is vital, and, I found out when I dried up last week, biscuits! I like the yawning tip. I'll try that next time. Thanks again.

[@alinak9412]

damn the way i was an aspiring actress once and learned all this on my own with combining 3 & 4. i figured that out myself cus i was trying to figure out what works since i myself dont even know how to cry or didnt know at the time of numb depression lmao so i really wanted to learn to cry on cue since i also loved acting so i did it using those two techniques combined + trying not to blink much and i find all this very fascinating 😗

[@katalincsiszar5770]

I didn't work a lot as an actress after school, didn't even have practice in drama then I got a role in a documentary and in the scene my young son's funeral took place. In spare time the camera man was taking random shots and when he came to me with the camera in my face my tears just started to flood and I just cried for a strait minute or two. I surprised him, he congratulated me on it but I think I was just as surprised since that was my first ever crying on que😂 when the camera came it just felt right to cry, happened automaticly and it didn't take sad thoughts at all just rolled with my dody's feeling and bathing in it I guess😊

[@lucyb1496]

I cried so much during this video. I have always kind of yawed when i was trying to cry, but i never knew there was actually a reason.

[@JacobHill-b2d]

I've learned that writing sentimental letters can make crying easier for any actors looking for tricks

[@CrimsonNebulaz]

I cried on cue finally! Don’t know how I did it. I just concentrated really hard on making my eyes water and it worked

[@dagmarheinrich269]

One tear, left Eye 😂

[@TheActorsAcademy]

😂

[@santiagorojaspiaggio]

4:26 She was SO good in the Black Mirror chapter, called "Nosedive".

[@TheActorsAcademy]

Very cool!

[@alicerichmond8708]

Fun fact: the way I make myself cry is by remembering Bryce’s father, Ron, from The Andy Griffith show when he killed the mother bird with bis slingshot and then realizes what “dead” is. He begs her to fly. Picturing that scene works like a charm.

[@KOD21246]

I’m Eric Walsh and I’ve got my own technique when i’m acting i just force my eyes blur the view in front of me and i would just think about not that emotional moment and the tears just come and i can also think about something funny afterwards and keep the act😂

[@victorym744]

Bryce's and Benedict's tips worked. I cried on queue twice while the video was playing ehehe

[@HaleyMary]

Such a great video! I definitely find that if I think of something that makes me sad, whether that event is from a few days ago or a year ago or many years ago, I can get myself to cry. I also have eyedrops for an eye disease I have. It's jut a sodium chloride solution, but it makes me cry every time I put them in during the evenings, which kind of sucks when it's half an hour before I get up on stage to do a stand-up comedy routine at open mic night. I look at the photos of my open mic nights afterwards and it looks like I'm really sad when it's just the eyedrops.

[@AstridPerellon]

This is amazing😊

[@TheActorsAcademy]

Glad I could shed some light on the topic! Crying on cue has always been a scary thing for actors, so being able to demystify it in this video, helps the actors struggling to find an effective process for creating tears

[@catimena8132]

What an interesting video bro, thank you so much!

[@veronicacpage922]

But what if you are doing a stage play and have to cry in a certain scene and then stop? How do you get rid of the crap on the stick?

[@anthonypc-248]

Very responsible points. Even impressive acting teachers may not understand or prioritize your real mental health. I trained in a prestigious studio where the consensus between teachers was to teach us, as incoming teenaged students, that we must never compartmentalize any emotions in our lives off stage, because a true authentic actor must always be feeling every painful emotion to its fullest. They said we couldn't expect to just turn on that level of openness to extreme feelings if we compartmentalized them in our daily life. I found that purist mindset could become toxic in various ways. Of course that meant most of the young students were utterly distraught half the time, and wouldn't even try to let go of emotional residue from distressing scenes after class. Like my first semester scene partner couldn't get over the imagined violation she'd chosen to traumatize herself with for a Meisner improv, and could no longer sit near me at lunch without crying... which really sucked. But from the drama teachers' perspectives it was most commendable commitment.

[@anthonypc-248]

I was judged for not producing tears enough when they thought I should, even though I'd already figured out for myself that yawning technique, since I had auditioned for the school with a more artificial approach, but was trying to commit to the studio's method of behaving truthfully under imaginary circumstances, as they'd instructed. The truth was that I don't normally react to with crying when I'm the one who's hurt. (rare trigger that does it naturally is the relief of unexpected understanding from someone. Or after my cat died.) Being scolded for being to masculine with repressed tears probably wasn't going to be what got it out of me. Fortunately as an adult I've found more reasonable coaches who don't fetishize suffering for a career.

[@icebergjay8981]

Good info

[@TheActorsAcademy]

Glad it was helpful! Has always been a tricky skill for many actors, but at the end of the day, it’s a skill that can be learned 👍🏼👍🏼

[@teresamoscatelli239]

Good video!

[@swordsword5593]

you just have to keep oyourself from winking and sooner than later, tears will come out....OPEN EYES WITHOUT WINKING even just for 20sec!!!!

[@TheActorsAcademy]

Haha yes, even keeping your eyes open without blinking can be an effective trick that actors use. The next time you watch a crying scene take a look at how long the actors keep their eyes open before they blink and the tears fall. It’s a great tool used in combination with the rest of these lessons from the video :)

[@HereIsANewGuest]

If you are into the character, can’t you cry because of the character situation ? (Mentally hard, but less worse than your own trauma... and more real for the scene.)

[@michellejollie1933]

OR.......you can do what they did in the 1930's/1940's.....take a small piece of onion and place it under your sleeve (or where you can smell it). It's far better than spraying something in your eye, ouch! I also agree in regards to digging up past experiences. Like your channel, well done. I sing...well, not so much now as i'm 65, but the music moved me enough to make me tear up.

[@Mrdot-nx8xe]

But Bryce Dallas howard didn't yawned in the first clip how she did that so

[@Minyassa]

Get yourself started yawning and then try your best to hide it and only yawn on the inside of your mouth without showing it on your face. If you rewatch that first clip of her, you will see a few points where her cheek twitches a tiny bit. She covers it by quivering her lips right then, so it looks like it's part of that, but that's the only external sign of the internal "yawn". People who have spent years in their parents' church trying not to fall asleep from boredom will have an advantage with this technique. 😆

[@TheActorsAcademy]

Exactly 👆🏼 you saw it and got it right away. It’s an internal yawn, but the same mechanism are active from a real yawn. It’s a very effective method that has worked with a lot of actors. First try practicing it with an open yawn, then gradually build to achieve it without having to open your mouth wide 👍🏼

[@Minyassa]

@@TheActorsAcademy Just be careful about practicing it TOO much, lol! It is embarrassing to suddenly have tears running down your face during a boring meeting at work because you are hiding yawns. I speak from experience. xD

[@Yours_sincerely_thedreamer]

The thing is I can`t even cry in real life like I dont know how to. I feel overwhelmed by sadness but no tears, nothing…

[@moniquevamado22]

Also, if you're connected to the material and inhabiting the story, it comes much easier because you're not thinking about you, you're present in the scene. Thinking about your own stuff takes you out of the scene and out of empathy with the character you're portraying. That preparation should be done before you're on set or stage.

[@ReviewBoard-uy5nv]

Such a great video! Thank you for this

[@TheActorsAcademy]

Of course! We’re here to help you all succeed :) tears/crying is always something that scares actors, so being able to demystify the process and allow it to become more achievable is the goal 👍🏼

[@paniagua._d]

bro really bleeped out tom holland saying “this kind of thing” in the intro like if it was some sort of world changing advice

[@Jen18lol]

Me(sensitive empath): what lie it’s hard?

[@GamerGirlKat94]

whoops i can just remember the scene where dobby died and i'm out. I'm ok after so the anguish doesn't last and its not super draining but it works

[@PoltergeistTears]

Oddly enough due to a genetic mutation in my condition it takes me 3mins to cry on cue , Bryce Dallas Howard’s technique is highly effective that I can say I’ve tried it even though I can automatically do it 🥴

[@azaldie]

I think I'm probably doing the yawn method but I'm not entirely sure... What I do know is that when i try, I can bring myself to tears pretty quickly without really thinking about anything.. I'm guessing it's that method since I figured out how to yawn with a closed mouth in school because I didn't want the teachers or other people see how tired I was god dang always 😂

[@ChanchalBagh-t6q]

I have excessive blinking problem how I will solve it because it really gave bad impact on my acting

[@mlemay2486]

I work in visual rehabilitation (just watching this for fun, would be the worst actor on the planet!) and you possibly have dry eyes. Your eyes always have a tear film over their surface to stay hydrated. But if, for a reason or another, that tear film is insufficient, it can cause excessive blinking in order to try to spread the film on the surface of your eyes. Even tearing up excessively can be a sign of dryness, even though it’s counterintuitive. The reason is that if your eyes are dry, the glands that produce the tear film try to overcompensate. Considering how it affects your career, i wouldn’t suggest that you improvise by just getting any artificial tears at the pharmacy (some can help on the moment but aren’t helpful over time). Consult with an optometrist that can assess if you have dryness and tell you the exact wipes / artificial tears you should use. If you ruled out dryness with an optometrist (or it keeps happening despite the treatments), it could also be your nervous system that is out of phase and causes excessive blinking. You can read about the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems. If your body and mind are in fight or flight mode too often, it comes with plenty of physical reactions because it triggers all sorts of responses in your body (muscular, hormonal, heartbeat, etc). The movements of the eyes, the dilation of the pupil of the eyes, etc., are intertwined with the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems. There could be other medical reasons for excessive blinking that i don’t know about, but these are 2 really common ones!

[@dcdferrarius]

The problem is that it is impossible fake the facial muscles involved in sadness. So you better hide fake technical cries inside a blindingly good movie. But the more people learn about the work of Eckman recognise what true sadness muscle groups are, the less convincing they'll find it. Especially if they watch it more than once. The alternative is to change the way a movie is made so that read emotions are presented. If somebody is paid the bucks to act, we expect their acting to show real emotions. (There are 25 facial muscle group movements.)

[@ginaswellnessdiaries7491]

Except real crying makes your face and nose slightly puffy, also your nose turns redish and sometimes liguid snot can flow, so dont think you can get all that with the eyeball rub stick technique.

[@herschelschueler]

I used to be able to do this... no teaching nothing. And then I forgot how to do it.

[@ellieneufer6817]

I don’t know how I do it but I just make a certain face and start crying lol

[@TheActorsAcademy]

It’s a very good skill when it comes to acting. If you have your own approach that works for you, don’t think about it too much and just know you have that skill set at your disposal 👍🏼👍🏼

[@celestinoc90]

👍🏻

[@akarakirimayowagabriel7848]

Pfft, just don't blink and you'll cry a lot.

[@bleachedout805]

I cry just realizing we pay these social parasite millions to pray pretend all day. They offer nothing of value to society.