PRESS RELEASE
Published July 27, 2023
Actress Maria Jose De La Cruz talks about the process and the implications actors go through when getting emotional for scenes.
HOW DO YOU PREPARE?
Training, I learned a lot of different techniques to get you to that place, breathing, music, physical movement. I think what I have found the most effective for me is music and breathing. I have a selection of songs that when I combine with breakwork can get me to an emotional place very easily. It also has to do, for me, what your character is going through. So the musical selection changes depending on the root of the emotional life of who I am portraying. So taking a moment before with my headphones sitting in a corner and breathing has been for me the most effective, however you aren’t always granted that luxury.
HOW DO YOU COME OUT OF IT?
What happens, we asked, when the emotion wins over you and you can’t stop. What takes you out of it? She continued “It is incredible how much we underestimate our breathing, that is the fastest way to calm myself down, knowing also that I am safe and what I am portraying is not my reality but the character’s and I am a vessel for it. Doing the marine’s technique of the box of 4s (four seconds inhaling, holding four, exhaling four, holding four) is the fastest way I have found to come out of it.”
WHAT IS THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE YOU HAVE COME ACROSS WITH?
“I have worked on amazing sets where they acknowledge the hardships of getting there over and over again and on que. So they give you that space and time to prepare for it. But there also comes a time where you aren’t given that luxury ,as I stated before, or it’s the first thing they are rolling at an 8 am call and you are just rolling out of bed. So the pressure is on, both internally and externally.” On this particular obstacle she said, “Here to me enters the physical part, no matter where you are you will have yourself and the body holds a lot. Creating a struggle helps me feel powerless which in me triggers a lot of emotion. So maybe pushing a wall or trying to move something still has helped me.”
TIPS FOR UPCOMING ACTORS
Cry!!! As much as you can, get rid of any fear or blockage you have on crying. Growing up I was lucky enough to be able to express myself emotionally in a free manner and I still had a lot of prejudice when it came to crying. Find those songs or moments that bring out emotion and learn how to use them. At the end of the day it is a muscle and training is always the best way to dominate it. So cry!!
Press Release Distributed by The Express Wire
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