What Actors Get Wrong About Crying – How To Express Emotion in Performance.

I’ve been thinking a lot about emotion in performance recently.

I was watching a very dry TV show and noticed a pattern in a lot of the performances: the emotion was getting in front of the performance. And interestingly, in those cases, the emotion didn’t feel particularly truthful or believable.

I was also working with a client who was really trying to “get the emotion out” that the scene required. And that’s often where the problem starts. If you try to force emotion or overplay it, you begin judging yourself. You step out of the present moment. Instead of focusing on the other person or the objective, your attention turns inward. And once that happens, the work loses clarity.

In the present moment, you’re not thinking about how emotional you are — you’re focused on what you want.

What tends to happen when actors play the emotion is that it becomes forced. It doesn’t just lack truth, it lacks precision. The character’s want becomes blurred. Many actors dread reading stage directions like “she breaks down” or “he cries,” because it puts enormous pressure on them. Suddenly, the job feels like producing an emotional result, rather than playing an action.

Of course, there are many ways to make yourself more open and vulnerable so emotion can connect. And yes, you do want the emotion connected. But if emotion becomes the main focus, it will get in the way. You start overthinking, over-focusing, and the performance becomes less believable.

So when you’re working on a scene that requires a lot of emotion, try this instead: strengthen the objective. Be crystal clear about what you want from the other person. Strengthen your beliefs about them. Be specific. Commit fully to the relationship and the stakes.

When you do that, some kind of emotional connection usually happens anyway — and it’s far more truthful than forced emotion disconnected from the character.

It’s also worth remembering that in life, we’re usually trying not to cry, rather than trying to cry. If the text is good, if you know the character deeply, if you understand their circumstances and history, that’s often when emotion arrives — not because you chased it, but because you couldn’t avoid it.

Let me know some of your favourite performances, and we can see if it’s their commitment to and objective and presence that makes it stand out!

FAQS

 Why does forced emotion make an acting performance feel untruthful?

When an actor tries to “get the emotion out” or overplay it, they begin to judge themselves and turn their attention inward. This causes them to step out of the present moment. By focusing on the emotional result rather than the other person or the objective, the work loses its clarity and precision.

How should I handle stage directions like “she breaks down” or “he cries”?

Instead of treating these directions as a job to produce a specific result, you should strengthen the objective. Focus on being crystal clear about what you want from the other person and commit fully to the stakes of the relationship. In life, we are usually trying not to cry; if you understand the character’s history and circumstances deeply, the emotion will arrive because you couldn’t avoid it.

What is the best way to prepare for a scene that requires a lot of emotion?

Rather than chasing the emotion, you should strengthen your beliefs about the other character and be specific about your goals. When you are focused on what you want in the present moment—rather than how emotional you are—a truthful connection usually happens naturally. It is the commitment to the objective and the presence in the scene that makes a performance stand out.