10 Secret Acting Methods You Never Knew

8. Anna Faris Uses A Menthol "Tear Stick" To Cry On Command

One of the most challenging and vulnerable things for any actor is to cry on camera, and there are a variety of ways that performers go about doing it.

For example, Bryce Dallas Howard has trained herself to cry on command by yawning, while Amy Adams is triggered by the mere mention of sriracha.

In the case of Shelley Duvall, however, she just had to wait for Stanley Kubrick to bully her so relentlessly she became a traumatised wreck for real while filming The Shining.

But there's a far more practical solution than any of the above, as revealed by Anna Faris during an appearance on The Late Late Show with James Corden a few years ago.

If all else fails, there's a quick sure-fire way to make yourself cry: using a menthol-filled "tear stick," which when rubbed underneath the eyes quickly causes irritation and will cause the recipient to convincingly cry.

By Faris' own admission, she's not much of a crier in everyday life, so relies on the stick to give a more emotional performance, as nobody would ever know the difference.

Considering how emotionally exhausting it must be for actors to cry for real for hours on end, it wouldn't be remotely surprising if the tear stick was used far more pervasively than actors like to let on, especially during later takes of a scene.