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Nida Yasir loves to see Mawra Hocane cry.

Yasir told the actor as much when she and her sister Urwa Hocane appeared on Monday’s episode of Good Morning Pakistan, where the discussion revolved largely around Mawra’s acting and how she has mastered the art of the tear.

Getting straight to the point when her segment with the Hocane sisters started, the host said, “Mawra came and made herself known for her acting skills, her beauty, her kindness and especially her crying on-screen.” When the actor chuckled a little and thanked her, Yasir posed a question, “Is it true… that nobody looks as beautiful while crying as Mawra does?”

This time, her sister took the question and said that it wasn’t just about looking pretty, she feels the emotions of the scene so deeply that she convinces the audience to empathise with her and feel them too.

Naturally, the next question for the older one of the pair — Urwa — was if Mawra had always been one to shed beautiful tears and she confirmed that her sister would get whatever she wanted as soon as she turned on the waterworks. “She was such a pretty kid and when someone that pretty cries, our mom and I, we’d just give in to whatever she was saying two sentences in… Think about it, teardrops on her cute, doll-like face.”

Urwa, however, has never been one to cry in public, her sister said. “She didn’t need to. Urwa was always such a perfect child, proper, clean, organised, I think she’s more of a secret crier. Obviously, because I am in the ambit of that secrecy, I’ve seen it, but she doesn’t cry in front of people.”

Yasir asked whether Mawra had been coached to cry so beautifully, to which her sister said she didn’t believe beauty was the goal there, “The emotions she feels are just so beautiful that it reflects and shows on screen.”

The host asked Urwa if she could cry like her sister and if she ever asked for any tips, the actor said Mawra is the first person she calls when she needs help with a scene, followed by her husband Farhan Saeed, “I feel so blessed that I can call these two. They pick up right away.”

Then, with guns aimed directly at Mawra, Yasir asked how she had come up with her technique, her “crying secret”.

The actor said she just tries to be honest on screen and portray what the director is asking her to, “I think, when you do things honestly, it’s like that verse: Dil se jo baat nikalti hai, asar rakhti hai. Par nahi, taaqat e parwaz magar rakhti hai (A cry leaving the heart has its impact. It has no wings, but it has the power to fly.)”

She also said there’s a little bit of “magic” in every performance and she prays before every scene to keep it alive.

The host drew from her own experiences as an actor and said she would often think of something unpleasant from her life to get the tears going when she needed to, she asked if Mawra did something similar.

The actor answered, “[That’s a] big question, but yeah, you either think about something unpleasant or, if you haven’t experienced something like that, you make something up in your head. That helps me a lot. I just beg my emotions to please come to me properly.”

Yasir asked the sisters if either of them had experienced a sudden fit of laughter in an otherwise serious scene or if their co-stars ever made them laugh when they weren’t supposed to. The pair answered that it never happened, with Mawra explaining, “It sounds good, to be able to switch your emotions on and off. Actors who do that stay more relaxed, but I don’t have that ability. I feel emotions very deeply, so if I do a very painful script, I feel that pain… You need to feel your scripts honestly.”

The host also appreciated Mawra’s acting when she cried, “Any actor can shed tears on camera, but that quaking in your voice, I feel it in my heart.” The actor said she doesn’t do it deliberately but prays that it keeps happening.

When asked what makes them cry in real life, the sisters said they got very emotional when they saw reels about the bond between siblings. “We don’t see each other as much as we used to and our brother is in Sydney, we hardly ever see him, so we miss one another.”

As for future projects, Mawra quipped, “I want to cry a little less on screen.” Both sisters agreed that starring in a comedy together would be fun, with Mawra suggesting, “We’ve never really done a project together. So, I think if they cast us both, we’ll just start laughing anyway.”