Cillian Murphy Smoked An Alarming Number Of Cigarettes During Peaky Blinders

If you watched "Oppenheimer" this summer and found yourself wondering if Cillian Murphy really puffed on all those cigarettes while playing theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, I have good news and bad news. The good news is that they were probably herbal cigarettes. The bad news is this isn't the first time Murphy has played a heavy smoker, and "Peaky Blinders" crew members estimate that the show's fake cigarette tally is a five-digit number by now.

Back in 2019, Murphy spoke to Birmingham Live about his character Tommy Shelby's prolific smoking habit, revealing that he once asked the prop department how many fake cigs the cast runs through per season. "I asked the prop guys to count how many we use during a series and it's 3,000," he told the outlet. With six seasons of the show now wrapped, assuming they kept a steady pace, that brings the total cigarette tally to approximately 18,000. That's a whole lot of smoke.

As Town & Country Magazine noted, the cigarettes used in "Peaky Blinders" were herbal rather than nicotine-based, as are many prop smokes. Herbal cigarettes are often purported to be less unhealthy than regular ones, and without nicotine, they're almost certainly less addictive, but research actually shows they're not without health risks. A survey of available research published by the peer-reviewed journal ACS Omega last year claimed that herbal cigarettes that contain ingredients like mugwort, coltsfoot, and damiana increase smokers' risk of "numerous chronic metabolic diseases, including heart disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes." Basically, the study says, we should assume burning any herb and putting it into our lungs "may affect the human body in many ways and cause serious diseases."

Murphy seems to be acutely aware of the risks, as he recently swore off playing another smoker anytime soon, even when the cigarettes used on set are non-nicotine. "I've smoked so many fake cigarettes for 'Peaky' and this," he told The Guardian in an interview ahead of the release of "Oppenheimer." He continued: "My next character will not be a smoker. They can't be good for you. Even herbal cigarettes have health warnings now." He also noted that smoking is what killed Oppenheimer himself, as the scientist died from throat cancer in 1967.

In interviews, the "28 Days Later" actor is refreshingly honest about the ways in which some parts of the acting process that have been romanticized in the past aren't all they're chalked up to be. In the same sit-down with The Guardian, he also noted that he lost a bunch of weight to play the titular character in "Oppenheimer," getting into an unhealthy habit of fasting and cutting down calories. "You become competitive with yourself a little bit which is not healthy," he admitted. "I don't advise it."

It's always nice when actors get frank about these things, and Murphy isn't the only period drama actor to open up about how unpleasant playing a smoker can be. Jon Hamm, who famously played heavy smoker Don Draper in "Mad Men" across seven seasons, told The Independent that he had to smoke prop cigarettes that taste "like a mix of pot and soap," noting that actors always end up using many more than audiences see in the final product. "Every time you see me light a cigarette, I do it five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10 times," he told the outlet. "You can hear from my voice that it's a debilitating endeavor."

Murphy may be ready to toss the herbals in the trash for good, but he may not be through with them quite yet: he'll likely be reprising his role as crime boss Tommy Shelby for a "Peaky Blinders" movie, which has yet to film.