If you’re near a fan, try to stand so that the air is blowing into your eyes, which can make them water. If you can stare at a bright light, your eyes will water even faster.
Lightly place your pointer finger up to your one of your pupils. This will cause your eye to become irritated, and it may lead to tears. Be careful not to poke yourself in the eye, though.
Try holding your breath as you bite the inside of your mouth, which could focus your senses on the pain. You can also pinch yourself hard on a sensitive part of your body, like on your thigh or in the space between your thumb and pointer finger. Don’t bite too hard. You don’t want to make your lip bleed!
You can also use eye drops to make it look like your face is tear-stained. Just place them right below the corner of your eyes so they believably run down your face.
If you can escape to another room, grab a few slices of onion, and take a whiff close to your face. When your eyes start to water, return to the conversation.
Other emotional triggers might include losing something special to you, getting in trouble with your parents, or missing out on something you worked really hard to achieve.
Once you tap into that feeling, let the helpless feeling flow out of you in the fear of tears. For example, a common exercise in acting classes is to imagine yourself as a small child whom no one cares for. [8] X Research source
For instance, you could try thinking of puppies being left on the side of the road. You want to save them all, but you can only take one. As you’re holding the one puppy you got to save, you look at all of the other puppies that aren’t being held.
As long as you’re not smiling, no one will be able to tell if you’re crying happy or sad tears.
Turn the corners of your lips down a little. Try to force the inner corners of your eyebrows upwards. Wrinkle up your chin like people do right before they start bawling. This may look fake if you overdo it, so try to be subtle.
If nobody can see you (or if everyone is blind around you), run on the spot for several minutes to cause yourself to be out of breath. This will also help to create the blotchy complexion often associated with crying.
You could also bite your lip as if you’re trying hard to stop the tears. Look away, trying to pretend you’re not crying to pull off a double bluff!
This is basically “mind over matter” and the more you act it out, the more your body will acquiesce to produce the effect you’re after.
This works best on a stage when people are not close enough to see tears or your face in close detail. Make sure you don’t make any sounds, or you could give away that you’re laughing! If you do accidentally laugh out loud, try to follow it with a crying sound like a whimper or a sob, but don’t overdo it.
