If I can’t cry on demand does that make me a bad actor?

Although most of the acting I do online is comedic stuff, I still do want to do serious acting sometimes.  I’ve been in a number of short films that aren’t comedies and have taken a number of acting classes in which I had to do serious scenes.  But I’ve never made myself cry in any of them.

I think the main reason for that is because I very rarely cry in real life.  I seem to average one cry a year. Which I suppose is still quite a bit compared to someone like my Dad who I don’t think I’ve ever seen cry.  But that’s of course not to say that I don’t have more sad moments — I just don’t cry during them.  I’ve only ever cried at one movie in my entire life, and that was just this year (The Boy In The Striped Pajamas).  I’ve never cried at a TV show (although Oprah got me close once when a tough truck driver was on the show a few years ago crying about how how he accidentally hit a kid who died).  And I certainly haven’t cried at weddings or anything like that.

So, being someone who isn’t a crier makes it super difficult to be one when I’m acting.  The emotions of a good actor come from within and aren’t forced, so when I do a sad scene I put myself there mentally and I really do get very sad, but no more sad than I get in real life.

I’ve often wondered what I’d do if I got a role that called for some actual tears.  Maybe I’d take this guy’s advice…

What do you think? Does it matter if you can cry on command or not?  Do you cry easily/a lot?  Or are you like me and for whatever reason just not someone who sheds a lot of tears?  And do you have any suggestions/ideas on what would help bring on the waterworks?

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