The crying game

All of them, to a man, are paragons of Hollywood masculinity - but London artist Sam Taylor-Wood has reduced these famous actors to tears.

Tomorrow night, the 37 year-old photographer unveils her new works - entitled Crying Men - at her art-dealer husband Jay Jopling's White Cube Gallery in Hoxton. It has taken Taylor-Wood more than two years to create her portfolio of strong men showing their vulnerable side.

She first wrote to her subjects - who include Robert Downey Jr, Jude Law, Michael Madsen, Laurence Fishburne, Paul Newman, Tim Roth, Willem Dafoe, Gabriel Byrne, Benicio Del Toro, Michael Gambon, Steve Buscemi and Ben Stiller - to ask their permission to create a portrait, without revealing she wanted her subjects in tears.

The artist only broke that news once she had the men in front of her lens. She said: "It is about the idea of taking these big, iconic, masculine men and showing a different side."

Not all of the actors shed genuine tears and some were forced to cry by artificial means. However, Taylor-Wood isn't revealing who found it easy being lachrymose and who failed to show their softer side.

She said: "People can decide for themselves which they think are the authentic tears and which they think are fake. Some of the men cried before I'd even finished loading my camera while others found it extremely difficult."

Although Taylor-Wood jokily insists she has been making grown men cry "all my life", she admits taking the pictures was not easy. "I didn't feel powerful, if anything at first I felt quite uncomfortable," she said. "I wanted them to bare their souls in front of me. Whoever it is, having a grown man cry in front of you is very disarming."

Only one of Taylor-Wood's chosen subjects eluded her: Clint Eastwood. She said: "I was in a room twice with Clint Eastwood but it just didn't work out. Not because he didn't want to cry but because there were so many people around him. It was so frustrating."

Sam Taylor-Wood's new exhibition opens to the public at White Cube in Hoxton Square on Friday and runs until 4 December. For more information visit www.whitecube.com