Credits: Social Media
Fake cigarettes on the big screen, and how Cillian Murphy ‘smoked’ in Oppenheimer
It can be a common sight, particularly in period movies or TV shows, to see actors puffing away on fake cigarettes and now a video has unveiled exactly what’s inside them.
Video reveals whats in herbal cigarettes
When not behind the camera, director and filmmaker David Ma shares secrets of the movie industry via his social media accounts.
A video he posted to TikTok reveals what makes up the herbal cigarettes that actors use instead of real ones.
Most of the time, when you see actors smoking on screen we use something called prop cigarettes, David explained. Theyre herbal cigarettes that are tobacco and nicotine and additive-free. They also look quite real in an actors fingers.
When you cut one open youll notice there isnt tobacco inside, it looks more like herb – not that herb, he joked. But you know, rose petal, clover and tea leaves.
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Cillian Murphy on using fake cigarettes
Irish actor Cillian Murphy, the Oscar-touted star of Oppenheimer and the TV series Peaky Blinders, is no stranger to a fake cigarette.
In 2016, The Independent reported that he had smoked over 3,000 of the herbal cigarettes while filming the acclaimed BBC crime drama.
That figure came after just two seasons of Peaky Blinders had aired, meaning that if the actor kept up the same rate of smoking prop cigarettes over the remaining four seasons, that total could well have risen to around 9,000.
Its a trend that Murphy continued with his role in the 2023 biopic Oppenheimer as his titular character, theoretical physicist J Robert Oppenheimer, was famed for being a chain-smoker, something which contributed to his death from throat cancer at the age of 62.
Cigarettes and pipes. He would alternate between the two,” Murphy said in an interview with The Guardian. “Thats what did for him in the end.
Ive smoked so many fake cigarettes for Peaky and this. My next character will not be a smoker, he continued. They cant be good for you. Even herbal cigarettes have health warnings now.
Are herbal cigarettes healthier?
While herbal cigarettes like those used by actors dont contain the addictive drug nicotine that is found in tobacco cigarettes, there are still health risks associated with them according to a medically reviewed article by Everyday Health and a study published by the National Library of Medicine.
As well as the ingredients listed by David Ma in the video above, the health site also names several other potential plants that can be found in different varieties of herbal cigarettes.
- Passion flower
- Corn silk
- Rose petals
- Lotus leaf
- Licorice root
- Jasmine
- Ginseng
- Red clover flowers
The Everyday Health article states that herbal cigarettes can be just as harmful as tobacco cigarettes because any vegetable matter that’s burned produces tar, carbon monoxide, and other toxins which are inhaled into the lungs.
As a result, herbal cigarettes carry health warning labels as required by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
