How did Cramer, Cramer, Meryl Streep, and Justin Henry create such a memorable performance in "Kramer, Kramer"?

The highly advanced method that gave Justin his “crying” performance

And Hoffman's acting instruction gradually became more serious. Sometimes it was because he trusted Justin as his true partner. One day, when Justin was shooting a scene where he was injured and cried a lot, Hoffman told him:

"Listen, you love the staff of this movie, right? But this friendship will only last for a short time. Once filming is over, we will all go our separate ways, and some of us will never see each other again. Do you understand?"

Justin, who is very sensitive, noticed this and his eyes filled with tears. Seeing this, Hoffman took it a step further and taught him an advanced acting method, saying, "You're feeling something inside right now, right? Use that in your acting."

“Kramer, Kramer” (c)1979 COLUMBIA PICTURES INDUSTRIES, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

This is how the scene where he falls off the jungle gym and bursts into tears was born, but even after filming was over, Justin couldn't contain his emotions and continued to cry. When Hoffman told him, "Good job!", he nodded, still crying, saying, "Yes, yes," so even though he knew it was acting, his heart couldn't keep up.

After that, Justin worked as a child actor for a while, then he focused on his studies and majored in psychology at university. Although he is no longer mainly an actor, he seems to do film and TV work at his own pace every few years.

Meryl Streep was in deep grief at the time.