11 Tricks Actors Use to Look Convincing On-Screen

There are many tricks that actors use to look more convincing on-screen. For example, actors don’t get naked while filming shower scenes. And there is also a certain “kissing” etiquette that not all actors are aware of. We want to tell you about these and other secrets that are used to make movie scenes as beautiful and convincing as possible.

Actors wear special suits or apply patches to their bodies during shower scenes.

There are scenes in movies or shows where actors take showers or baths. But they don’t have to undress in front of the entire filming crew to do this. Actress Mindy Kaling, for example, revealed that she wears a strapless nude color bodysuit in these scenes.

Amy Adams has filmed these types of scenes a few times too. In one of her movies, she had to apply special patches and stickers to specific body parts. However, those tend to become loose in the water.

Actors eat a mint before a kissing scene, but this etiquette is not common in all countries.

Hollywood actors often pop in a mint before filming a kissing scene. But it’s not that common in Britain and Australia, so the actors from these countries can get confused if offered a mint. However, not all Hollywood stars approach these scenes responsibly. While filming The Hunger Games, Jennifer Lawrence didn’t care much about her co-stars and would eat mustard or tuna before kissing someone. But when she starred alongside Christian Bale and Chris Pratt, she started using mints too.

They use different tricks to make actors look sweaty.

Makeup artists use different tricks to make actors look sweaty. Some of them mix water and petroleum jelly. And to make the actor who played Billy in the third season of Stranger Things look sweaty, he was covered with lip gloss from head to toe. They could have doused the actor in water, but it was freezing on set, so they went for lip gloss.

Babies cry on set with the help of baby wranglers.

Babies cry in the necessary scenes thanks to the work of so-called baby wranglers. These people spend a lot of time with the babies and develop a close bond with them. This makes it easier for baby wranglers to get responses out of babies. For example, the easiest way to get a baby to start crying is to start crying yourself.

Actresses actually run in heels.

Action movies are often criticized because their female characters often have to run in heels. But it’s not that unrealistic; many actresses run in heels on set and don’t use stunt doubles for that.

To learn how to run in heels for the movie Jurassic World, Bryce Dallas Howard did exercises for her ankles and trained as hard as she would for the Olympic Games. Lucy Liu also trained to run in heels for the movie Charlie’s Angels. The main thing that she learned was that you should run on the front of your feet, not your heels.

Some actors use earphones.

Actors wear little earphones during filming sometimes. Johnny Depp, for example, listened to a baby crying or other sounds, which helped him to express necessary emotions and deliver them only with his eyes.

And Robert Downey Jr. likes to create alternate lines for every scene. So during filming, his assistant will feed him these varying lines through an earpiece.

Background actors don’t speak — they just mouth words silently.

In various TV shows and movie scenes, you can often see people in the background having lively discussions. But it’s impossible to figure out what exactly they’re talking about. That’s simply because background actors don’t usually speak, but rather, they mouth words silently. The sound effects that mimic the murmur of a crowd are added on the post-production stage.

Actors chew food but don’t swallow it.

Actors need to eat in certain scenes, but any scene may require multiple takes. If movie stars had to eat all this food, they’d probably gain a lot of weight quickly. This is why they use a simple trick — they chew the food in the frame but spit it out into a bucket between takes.

Attentive viewers have noticed that actors rarely swallow their food, only chewing it.

Actors use special contact lenses to play a blind person.

Acting talent sometimes is not enough to play a blind person. Blake Lively, for example, had to wear special contact lenses that blocked her vision while filming All I See Is You. But her eyes would adapt to them and see a bit, so she had to get thicker and thicker lenses.

Actors use different tricks to elicit a necessary emotional reaction.

Even talented actors can’t always produce a necessary emotional reaction on command. According to an extra from the movie, Dracula, there was some difficulty getting Winona Ryder to respond appropriately to seeing Gary Oldman’s character for the first time. So Oldman grabbed a zucchini from a vegetable cart that was part of the street scene and held it behind his back. When Winona turned to look at him, Gary suddenly took it out, which elicited the reaction the film director was after.

And the film director of the movie, It, kept Bill Skarsgård, who played the creepy clown, separate from the child actors until they had to shoot scenes together. This way, when the kids saw Skarsgård wearing makeup for the first time, they were terrified.

Actors use different gestures to hide their laughter.

Some scenes are so funny they can even make the actors laugh. This is why they have to use different tricks to hide their giggles. Matt LeBlanc revealed that if Jennifer Aniston covered her face with her hands while filming Friends, she was trying to hide her laugh.

As we peel back the curtain on the world of filmmaking, these hidden secrets remind us that the magic of cinema lies not just in the story, but in the craftsmanship that breathes life into it. So, the next time you watch a movie, cherish the artistry that makes every moment on screen truly special.