Why are actors smoking in movies and tv shows?

They usually smoke nicotine-free herbal cigarettes. I don't know the long term affects but definitely better than regular cigarettes.

I think it could be considered dedication to their work, especially when you consider they usually have to film a scene several times. Cillian Murphy probably went through thousands of them when filming Peaky Blinders. Lol

Good thing the labour union comes to the rescue.

SAG-AFTRA has strict guidelines about the use of cigarettes on set. Auditions must state whether smoking is required, and every employment contract includes a section that indicates whether an actor will be working in any kind of environment with smoke, including the artificial kind. Union contracts guarantee actors additional daily compensation for working with smoke. Producers must also provide every performer working around prop cigarettes with a Material Safety Data Sheet. Because of these regulations, many productions use prop cigarettes and prop smoke to create the illusion of real smoking.

https://www.backstage.com/magazine/article/do-actors-really-smoke-75370/

Here's my theory that is based on no research whatsoever:

Cigarette companies used to pay to have characters smoke in movies and TV shows. This would cultivate a social acceptance and "cool factor" around smoking. During the 80s and 90s, this practice came under fire and smoking in movies and TV dramatically dropped to the point of almost being non-existent.

Then time passed, vaping became popular, and people stopped caring about the impact of normalizing or even glorifying smoking. So the practice of paying studios to have characters smoke started to return. Nobody said anything, so it is becoming common place again.

It doesn't matter if it is unhealthy, it is profitable.

People indulge constantly in things that are unhealthy for us. It’s basically our favorite shit.

Within reason and as long as they’re not hurting anybody, try not to judge too much. Everyone has different lived experiences and find their own ways to cope.

As for movies.. if you’re shooting a historical film of any kind, it would be silly to pretend people weren’t smoking then. There are also characters in every genre that are just written as smokers. We’re human and imperfect, and stories include imperfect people.

As for the actors themselves.. they use some kind of herb cigarette that doesn’t include nicotine. Actors can usually hold the smoke in their mouths and not inhale, which makes them much less harmful.

And even if none of that were true and they’re just lighting up real cigarettes, money. Actors get paid, and unless the actor is smoking in every scene for months on end, it’s unlikely to amount to any long term damage.

There's certainly a history of big tobacco getting actors to smoke on screen, so that's certainly part of it. But another reason an actor might want to smoke is it gives them a way to utilize body language in a way that's plausible within the scene. Cigarettes, cigars, pipes, pens, eye glasses.. these sorts of props are often almost invisible (as the audience just sort of takes them for granted), but can be used by an actor with intent to convey some unsaid context.

There's no version of smoking that's totally healthy. Even just inhaling fumes from a fireplace isn't great. I imagine a lot of em will smoke for real, or use a filler like sage or hemp

I guess you could imagine stuffing a vape into a prop cig, but that sounds high effort

I'm reminded of the story of William Davis getting hooked on cigarettes because he insisted on smoking real cigarettes instead of props in the first episodes of X Files

I mean, many of them are getting paid enough not to care and some of them would be smokers. Also, for the majority that don't personally smoke I'm sure smoking infrequently for the occasional role wouldn't have anywhere as near a detrimental impact to health compared to even smoking only a few times a week.

I remember reading a long time ago that there's an herbal (no, not making a marijuana joke) alternative that can be smoked.

Especially when they need to show, e.g., underaged smoking.

But I don't have a source to link at my fingertips just now.

In any case, probably not good to be inhaling it though.

As far as why? Because it's in the script.

It's a job, specifically a job where you usually have to pretend to be someone you're not.

Also, I'm always smokin'.

Lots of actors already smoke in their personal lives off screen. Also a really good actor will do whatever they have to in order to commit to a role.

I know that on some shoots like In The Cut they sometimes ran out of herbal smokes and people had to smoke real cigs and hated it