How to Act in the Rain on Set (Rain Towers, Cold, and Continuity)

The call sheet has one word next to your scene that changes the whole day: rain. Maybe it’s the big breakup on a dark street, maybe it’s two lines while you run for a bus. Either way, you’re going to be wet for hours, and the camera is going to look at you the whole time.

If you’ve never shot one, movie rain can come as a surprise. It’s louder, heavier, and colder than real rain, and it doesn’t stop when you’d like it to. The scene still has to be good.

The short version: movie rain comes from towers and has to be heavy to show on camera, so expect a downpour, not a drizzle. Plan to stay warm, because the water is often cold on purpose. Know your lines so well that the water can’t knock them out of you. Let the rain change your body, not your intention. And keep track of how wet you are from shot to shot, because continuity doesn’t dry off between takes.

How movie rain is made, and why it’s so heavy

On a set, the rain usually comes from a rig, not the sky. StudioBinder’s guide to shooting in the rain describes rain towers as long pipes on stands with sprinkler heads. RedShark News, in its piece on shooting with water effects, compares the professional version to a very large lawn sprinkler on a tall pole.

The part that surprises actors is the volume. As RedShark puts it, movie rain has to be torrential, or it’s invisible. Rain is often backlit so it shows on camera, so you may see lamps behind the water.

Even on a day when it’s really raining, crews often run their own rigs so the rain stays consistent from take to take, StudioBinder notes. They may also do a wet down: watering the street and sidewalks so they look like it just stopped raining. So the set will be wet before you are. Watch your footing from the moment you arrive.

The water is often cold on purpose, so plan your warmth

You might expect a production to warm the water. It often can’t. Zazie Beetz told People that the rain scenes were the most difficult part of shooting They Will Kill You, and that productions use cold water because warm water steams in the camera. Jack O’Connell said the same about a rain scene in Lady Chatterley’s Lover: They can’t warm it up, because you’d see the steam.

Theater is different. Actors’ Equity’s water-effects guidance for stage productions asks for water no colder than 99 degrees, a warm room, rehearsal with the effect, towels within easy reach, and hair dryers when needed. On a film set, warm water may not be an option, so the warmth often has to come from what happens between takes.

What to bring, and what to ask for

The Playground, a Los Angeles acting school, put together a guide to weather effects on set for young performers, and its kit list works for adults too. It says productions should provide heated tents or trailers between takes, plus dry robes, towels, and blankets, and its packing list includes dry underwear, dry socks, a heavy robe, waterproof shoes, and hand warmers. Here’s how to use that list, with a couple of our own additions:

• Dry layers for between takes. Dry socks and underwear and a heavy robe, plus (our addition) something warm for your head. You change back into the wet costume for the take, so keep the dry things dry.
• Hand warmers. Keep a few in a pocket of the robe, and hold them while the crew resets.
• Shoes you can stand in. Wear waterproof shoes until you’re called in, and tell wardrobe early if your costume shoes slip. Equity’s guidance lists slip-resistant footwear for water work, and The Playground’s line is that safety trumps costume accuracy.
• Something warm to drink. Our addition: a thermos of tea or hot water you can sip while you wait.

Know the signs that cold has gone too far. The Playground lists shivering, blue lips, slurred speech, and confusion as signs of hypothermia. If you or a scene partner show any of them, stop and tell the assistant director or the set medic right away. And you’re allowed to ask for time to warm up.

Keep acting when you’re soaked

Water changes your body whether you like it or not. You squint, your shoulders come up, your breath catches, your hand goes to your face. Some of that is useful, because it’s what a real person in a downpour does. The trap is letting the rain become the scene. Unless the script says the character is fighting the weather, the storm is the place, not the point.

So decide what the rain means to the character before the first take. Does she hate being wet, or has she stopped noticing? Is he hiding tears in it? Is the rain the reason they’re standing so close? Pick one answer, and let it shape how you hold your body. Then play the scene you’d play indoors: the same objective, the same partner, the same listening.

• Find your eyeline before the water starts. Lock in where you look during the dry rehearsal, so you can find it again through the spray without hunting.
• Choose your squint. A little narrowing of the eyes reads as weather. A full wince reads as an actor in pain. Practice the difference in a mirror with a spray bottle.
• Plan your business. Pushing wet hair off your face, pulling a collar up, wiping your eyes: pick one or two moves and put them on specific lines, so you can repeat them every take.
• Breathe low. Cold water makes you gasp and lock your chest. A slow breath into the belly before “action” keeps your voice from going thin.

Your lines have to beat the noise

Rain can make dialogue hard to record cleanly, and it can make your scene partner harder to hear. If the sound from the day isn’t usable, you may be asked to record your lines again later in a studio, which our guide on what ADR means for actors walks through. If that happens, you’ll be matching the words and rhythm you used on the day, so keep the line exact.

On set, that means watching your partner’s mouth as well as listening, and knowing the cues cold. If the text is only half learned, the cold, the noise, and the water will knock it out of you. If it’s solid, you can stop thinking about the words and spend your attention on the person in front of you.

Match your wet look from shot to shot

A rain scene is shot like any other scene: wide, then closer, then reverses, with resets in between. That means many takes, and you need to look equally wet in all of them. RedShark notes that cast get drenched fast and may need multiple costume sets. Wardrobe and hair handle most of it, but you’re the one wearing it.

Continuity in a rain scene is about more than the costume. Once a sequence starts wet, you have to stay wet. If your hair was plastered to your forehead in the wide shot, it needs to look the same in the close-up. If you pushed it back on a particular line, push it back on that line again. Our guide to hitting your mark and matching continuity covers the basic habits.

• Notice where you started. Before the first take, ask hair and makeup how wet they want you, and look in the mirror so you know what “one” looks like.
• Keep your entrance the same. If you walk into the rain, walk in on the same count and the same foot. If you’re already soaked when the scene opens, stay in the rain between takes only if the team wants you to.
• Ask before you dry off. Toweling your hair between takes can ruin the match. Check with hair or the script supervisor before you touch it.

Rehearse a storm at home

You can’t rent a rain tower for your living room, but you can practice the two hardest parts: keeping your lines with noise around you, and keeping your intention when your body wants to brace. Shakespeare gives you the perfect scene. In King Lear, Lear rages at the storm while his Fool begs him to go indoors.

KING LEAR. Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! rage! blow! You cataracts and hurricanoes, spout Till you have drench’d our steeples, drown’d the cocks! …

FOOL. O nuncle, court holy-water in a dry house is better than this rain-water out o’ door. Good nuncle, in, and ask thy daughters’ blessing: here’s a night pities neither wise man nor fool.

KING LEAR. Rumble thy bellyful! Spit, fire! spout, rain! Nor rain, wind, thunder, fire, are my daughters: I tax not you, you elements, with unkindness; …

William Shakespeare, King Lear, Act 3, Scene 2 (MIT Shakespeare)

Notice how the two characters use the same storm. Lear invites it, almost dares it. The Fool just wants to be somewhere dry. Same rain, opposite relationships to it, and each choice gives the actor a different body. That’s exactly the decision you’ll make on set.

1. Learn the lines dry. Get the exchange word-perfect at a table first, with the cues as solid as your own lines.
2. Add noise. Run a fan, a shower, or a rain sound from a speaker across the room. Say the scene over it at the volume you’d use on set. Even as Lear, find the rage without shouting.
3. Add a distraction. Hold a cold, wet cloth on the back of your neck, or mist your face with a spray bottle between lines. Keep your eyeline on a fixed spot.
4. Pick one relationship to the rain. Run it once as Lear, inviting it, and once as the Fool, hating it. Feel how your shoulders and breath change.
5. Repeat the business. Choose one move, like wiping water from your eyes, and put it on the same word every run.

A short run of this the night before a rain day is worth more than another pass of rereading the sides, because it’s practice under the kind of pressure you’ll actually face.

Get the lines solid before you get wet

Everything above depends on the text being automatic. Our guide to memorizing lines for film and TV covers learning the day’s pages, and you can turn any speech into first-letter prompts with our free line memorizer or rehearse a classic scene with our run-lines tool.

Test yourself on your actual sides in Offbook. Upload the script, pick your role, and realistic voices read every other character while Offbook listens and cues the next line when you finish yours. Hide your lines so only your partner’s cues show, or hide the whole script for a final run, and you’ll know whether the words will hold when the water starts.

In the trailer between setups, once you’ve generated the scene’s audio, Offbook’s listen mode plays the whole scene aloud on your phone, your lines included, so you can keep the rhythm in your ear while you warm up. Rehearse out loud on your laptop the night before, and listen on your phone on the day.

Questions actors ask

Is movie rain real water?

Yes. It usually comes from rain towers: long pipes on stands with sprinkler heads. If the call sheet mentions rain, ask the assistant director how much of the scene will be wet.

Why can’t they use warm water for rain scenes?

Because warm water steams, and the steam shows on camera, as both Zazie Beetz and Jack O’Connell have described. That’s why the warmth comes from heated tents, dry robes, towels, and quick changes between takes.

How do I keep my eyes open in fake rain?

Lock in your eyeline during the dry rehearsal, so you know where to look before the water starts. If water in your eyes is stopping you from working, tell the assistant director.

What if I forget a line in the rain?

Stay in character and keep going unless someone calls cut. The best fix is earlier: run the scene with noise and distraction at home until the lines come out on their own.