cigaretes

[Robbie Comeau]

in mvies, whwen they smoke, is it real?or do they use fake cigs?

[Cheesesailor77]

real

a lot of actors smoke, plus it's not hard to "act" smoke, even if all you do is hold it in your mouth or hand. I've known people who ACTUALLY smoke and don't look like their smoking. :)

[Dangitskang]

I'd have to agree with Cheesesailor. Its really hard to "act" smoking. A lot of the non-smokers might not notice but the smokers could tell the difference.

Since we're on that topic, when they drink alcohol in the movies, they're drinking something else right? I heard that it was illegal to drink on screen.

[milksac]

I heard that it was illegal to drink on screen.
If you couldn't drink in the movies we wouldn't have: Barfly, Beerfest, Animal House, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. etc, etc, etc. You can't show the consumption of alcohol in a television commercial (U.S.). Lot's of people in a bar having a jolly good time but no one takes a drink. Sometimes the patrons will hoist their mugs but they cut away before they take a swig.

[rsbush]

There are ginseng cigarettes for those that don't smoke tobacco. I used them during rehearsals for a play I had to smoke in. Only used real cigarettes during the run because I couldn't find ginseng smokes in white paper, the ones I smoked were yellow.

[HorseFilms]

I heard that it was illegal to drink on screen.
If that were true, I'd be in for a long prison sentence.:beer:

[Kirk Gillock]

There are times in which they smoke but they're not real cigarettes. I read in a few interviews with actors, who had to smoke on screen, and what they did was use a tobacco-less (or nicotine-less) cigarette (like rsbush mentioned).

http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mcigsforactors.html

In TV shows they're not allowed to drink real alcohol too. The show Cheers is a good example. All the patrons at the place where everybody knows your name were just drinking non-alcoholic beer or apple juice, I think.

[Dangitskang]

Oh I see. Thanks for clearing that up guys. I don't know I heard it was prohibited to drink on screen from somebody so I thought they did shots of water instead of vodka, etc. Thanks though, that bit of information just made film making so much more fun.

[Rick Meyer]

Well, I don't know why you'd WANT your actors to drink real alcohol anyway. Try doing the same beer swigging take 27 times and see how he or she does.

ala...

http://static.filefront.com/images/personal/r/rlm7189/49213/gugqypzrtc.jpg

[Mars United]

I live in Vancouver, so maybe things are different in Canada. On a recent production one of the actors smoked some kind of herbal cigarette (smelled worse than the real thing). Someone told me that it wasn't legal, or, union-harmonious, to smoke real cigarettes on set.

Edit: the only reason I clicked on this thread is because it said "CIGARETTES". At least I think it was in all caps. I think it the letters were blinking, too. Today is my 8 month mark of being cigarette free, but I seriously don't think I'm going to make it. *sigh*

[Tom Marshall]

If I have a role where I need to smoke (being as I'm an actor), I'll use tobaccoless cigarettes. I DON'T want to get addicted to nicotine...