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TikTok Video Reveals What Actors Smoke On Set Instead Of Cigarettes

TikTok Video Reveals What Actors Smoke On Set Instead Of Cigarettes

It isn't really tobacco and nicotine that Don Draper's huffing away on in Mad Men - which is probably just as well

Simon Catling

Simon Catling

A TikToker has revealed what actors are really 'smoking' in films and TV shows instead of cigarettes. Watch his explanation below:

The amount of cigarettes that Jon Hamm's Don Draper ploughed through over nine seasons of Mad Men, you'd think the actor would be suffering a pretty bad nicotine addiction right now.

But that's unlikely to be the case, given that he's not actually smoking cigarettes - as one film expert recently revealed in a video, explaining what actors really use.

Director David Ma (@davidwma) has become incredibly popular on TikTok, amassing over one million followers and nearly 23 millions likes across all his videos - largely because he lifts the lid on behind-the-scenes props and other tricks that appear in filming.

AMC

Recently, he's turned his attention to prop cigarettes and in a new video has explained what they are, how they're used and what's in them.

"Most of the time when you see actors smoking on screen we use something called prop cigarettes," Ma says in his video.

"They're herbal cigarettes that are tobacco and nicotine and additive free

"They also look quite real in an actor's fingers."

Watching the clip, it would of course appear he's right - the likeness is uncanny as the camera zooms in a cigarette taken from a box of Honeyrose London.

TikTok/davidwma

So if these tabs aren't filled with tobacco what do they contain?

Ma opens one up and shows us.

"When you cut one open you'll notice there isn't tobacco inside, it looks more like herb - not that 'erb - but you know rose petal, clover and tea leaves," he says.

Ma points out that the smoke that comes from the prop cigarettes isn't even necessarily real, and that sometimes it's edited in post-production using CGI - as exemplified in the clip from Fight Club that he shows us.

20th Century Fox

He has one final message, though: "Now remember, even smoking prop cigarettes isn't good for your health and even if you're Danny Zuko smoking isn't cool."

Surprisingly enough, some viewers were surprised that actors didn't, in fact, smoke on set.

"OHHH why did I think actually smoke on set," one TikTok user wrote.

TikTok/davidwma

Another wrote: "I always wondered if they used real cigarettes or not and just risked getting addicted lmao."

Others were quick to ask where they could buy them from, so that they or someone they knew could quit smoking for real.

One user wrote: "Where can you buy these. I want to buy them for my mom. They should be sold to ppl who are addicted, maybe it could help them quit."

Someone else joked: "Also Cillian Murphy smoked 3000 cigarettes in the span of 12 episodes in Peaky Blinders."

Thankfully, as we now know, they weren't real cigarettes. They were likely just a mix of rose petals and clover - which sounds pretty gross to smoke, to be honest.

Featured Image Credit: AMC

Topics: Entertainment, TV and Film, Cigarettes, TikTok