Synopsis

After catching her boyfriend cheating, a young woman turns heartbreak into a rebellious campaign of self-reinvention. She fights back, gets a tattoo and a belly-button piercing, and stages an outrageous fake suicide attempt by bungee-jumping from an overpass. Along the way, she also confronts a would-be backpack thief. Aerosmith perform the song in a church, while the narrative follows the heroine's transformation from betrayed girlfriend into an unapologetic symbol of 1990s independence.

Factoids & Trivia

• "Cryin'" was the first of three consecutive Aerosmith videos to feature Alicia Silverstone. She returned in "Amazing" and "Crazy," all connected to the band's 1993 comeback album, *Get a Grip*.

• Silverstone's belly-button piercing was done during production. The scene helped make navel piercings a major 1990s fashion trend.

• Amy Heckerling noticed Silverstone in the video and subsequently cast her as Cher Horowitz in *Clueless* (1995).

• Stephen Dorff plays Silverstone's unfaithful boyfriend. The backpack thief is played by Josh Holloway, years before his breakthrough as Sawyer on *Lost*.

• The band's performance footage was filmed in a church in Fall River, Massachusetts, during a 24-hour shoot.

• The video became MTV's most popular video of 1993 and won three awards at the 1994 MTV Video Music Awards: Video of the Year, Best Group Video, and Viewer's Choice.

• Its female protagonist was notable for being aggressive, funny, and self-directed rather than simply serving as a visual accessory for a male rock band.