Tears from the past

American pop star Christina Aguilera’s painful memories from her childhood days helped her to cry while shooting for her acting debut in Hollywood.

The 29-year-old singer-turned-actress, who plays a struggling dancer in the upcoming musical Burlesque, drew upon her own experiences with an abusive father to conjure up the emotions needed to portray the character, OK! magazine reported.

“The girl I play, Ali, has a rough past — her mother dies when she’s very young and she’s been in foster homes. I could relate to that pain, growing up in an abusive household,” Aguilera said. “That gave me great motivation to provoke my tears for those scenes where I had to really pour it on. I felt it deeply, to go through a lot of those things that brought up a lot of painful memories,” she added.