What film prop cigarettes are made out of that actors smoke in Hollywood films

When making a film there's all sorts of movie magic involved in putting together the final product, and for every scene that appears on screen you know they had to run through it so many times to get all the takes and angles.

That can cause some problems, however, when there's something in the scene that is going to get used up with each and every take.

Plenty of actors hate doing some acting scenes because they can't actually eat any of the food on their plate or they've got to tuck into an increasingly cold and unappetising dish.

The audience will notice if a character's meal changes drastically between cuts and you can't expect them to gobble down a whole meal every single take either, they'd be stuffed.

It's a similar problem when it comes to people smoking cigarettes on screen for the obvious reason that they're really bad for your health.

And you certainly don't want your cast all coughing themselves to death because the director wanted another take, never mind getting them all hooked on nicotine.

Universal Pictures

While lots of more modern set shows tend to cut down on the smoking characters, there are still some who do it, and in period pieces like recent release Oppenheimer, which depict a time where nearly everybody smoked, it's not something you can really get round.

To tackle this issue, lots of movie studios give their actors herbal cigarettes which don't contain tobacco, nicotine or other additives.

They look pretty much identical to the real thing only are far less dangerous, instead containing ingredients like rose petals, clover and tea leaves to avoid killing the talent.

Honeyrose even does a 'White Line' for movie sets, which are completely white cigarettes with no logos or brands.

These still aren't without their health risks but they're nowhere near as bad for you as full blown actual cigarettes, and even then actors can get pretty sick of the things.

Honeyrose UK

In fact, Oppenheimer's leading star Cillian Murphy said he's smoked so many prop cigarettes over his career that he might want to avoid roles which require him to do it.

Murphy had plenty of experience with the prop cigarettes on the set of Peaky Blinders and he had to get through another heap of them for Oppenheimer.

He admitted in an interview with The Guardian that 'my next character won't be a smoker' and reckons they 'can't be good for you'.

As for what they're made of, Honeyrose says their white line contains marshmallow leaves, red clover flowers, rose petals, fruit juices and honey.

However, they still do contain minimal amounts of tar and carbon monoxide, according to their website, so it's also best to keep that in mind.

Topics: TV and Film, Oppenheimer, Health, Cillian Murphy

Joe Harker

Joe graduated from the University of Salford with a degree in Journalism and worked for Reach before joining the LADbible Group. When not writing he enjoys the nerdier things in life like painting wargaming miniatures and chatting with other nerds on the internet. He's also spent a few years coaching fencing. Contact him via [email protected]

@MrJoeHarker