Gary Cooper, one of the most natural actors on the screen, gets mighty embarrassed when called upon to cry. He used to find it al solutely impossible until he disco ered that tears come naturally by opening the eyes to their widest, at the same time concentrating on a sad incident, real or imaginary.
Merle Oberon, Gary's current leading lady in "The Lady and the Cowboy," giggles when told a sad story for crying purposes. The only way she can work her tear ducts is by pinching herselt—hard.
Carole Lombard is another who stares into the distance with wide open eyes, but the tears fall only when she indulges in self-pity.
Before going into her movie weeps, Bette Davis, who must cry in nine out of ten pictures, employs a piano, violin and cello to play classical music of the slow, sad variety. She then asks for "Quiet," and presto! Beautiful star-stung tears splash down her cheeks.
Olivia de Havilland Prolific Weeper Olivia de Havilland is the most prolific weeper in the business today and is the natural successor of "old-timer" Ruth Stonehouse, who, when told to cry, did so immediately without the aid of tricks. Olivia gets into the mood by reading sád passages in books, then opens her eyes as Wide as possible, blinks 20 or 30 times and a veritable Niagara results.
Inducing a child to cry is comparatively simple. When Shirley Temple has to weep, her mother leaves the set while the heartless director reports her illness to the child.
The method employed by Director Edward Cline to make Bobby Breen weep is to scold the boy's sister, Sally, severely and then order her off the set, "It makes me feel rather ashamed, Mr, Cline had the grace to admit.
Incidentally, Cline employed a peculiar trick to make Joan Crawford sob in some of her early pictures. "I could always get Joan to cry by tearing up a picture of George O'Brien and showing her the pieces. Sounds silly—but it's the gospel truth."
Most male actors shy away from films in which they have to weep. It's hard for a man to ery any time—let alone in public and for an artificial reason, After a long crying jag on the "Angels with Dirty Faces" set, I asked Jimmy Cagney how he did it. He was still quite upset—and no wonder. The only way Cagney can make himself cry is by thinking of a favourite brother, who died fifteen years ago.
Norma Shearer, who usu: has quite a bit of weeping to do in her films, is proud of the fact that there not one synthetic tear in all ihe numerous weepings in "Marie Antoihefte." Music—symphonie and swing—was used by this excellent tress for her paroxysms of starryed grief.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.