Cillian Murphy smokes these cigarettes in 'Peaky Blinders'

If you have watched the popular Netflix series Peaky Blinders, you will have noticed one thing: excessive cigarette smoking. Hardly a scene goes by in which the gang members from Birmingham don't smoke. The main character Thomas Shelby, played by Cillian Murphy, in particular always appears with a cigarette in his hand.

This is how many cigarettes the actors smoke

The actor has already revealed the enormous amount he has to smoke in the course of filming. Murphy said in a previous interview with Birmingham Live:

I asked the prop guys to count how many we use during a series and it’s 3,000.

Actress Helen McCrory, who played Aunt Polly and sadly passed away from cancer at the age of 52, explained that Murphy does not smoke real cigarettes on the show. She said to the Mirror:

They use herbal tobacco, which has no nicotine and tastes horrible. They’re the type they smoke in theatre productions.

Herbal tobacco instead of real cigarettes

For McCrory, however, the deceptively real herbal tobacco often caused confusion. She said:

I used to go to plays and wonder why they had a [cannabis joint] on the go during a play and how could they remember their lines. It smells, to a layman like me, like smoking cannabis.

Unfortunately for the actors, the fake cigarettes actually taste 'horrible.' Natasha O’Keeffe, who plays Lizzie, also said they leave black up their nostrils. What don't actors do to make the show feel as real as possible for us viewers?

This article has been translated from Gentside DE.

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