# Fake smokes in cinema **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [June 29, 2004, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fake-smokes-in-cinema/252697 "2004-06-29T13:48:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2004, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fake-smokes-in-cinema/252697/21 "2004-07-01T17:42:26Z")
Heh. Seriously: I have a vague memory confirming the Daryl Hannah potato-in-the-lobster-shell workaround. I have an even vaguer memory about the need to wash the shell really thoroughly beforehand, and she still didn’t enjoy doing it. Ah, Art. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2004, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fake-smokes-in-cinema/252697/22 "2004-07-01T20:26:30Z")
> [@Dooku](#): > > …which brings me to my story. I had very recently quit smoking the first time I saw **The Jagged Edge**. They had an interesting way of having Glenn Close smoke in that movie - every time she brought it up to her lips to light a new one or to take a drag of a lit one, they cut away. I’d never seen a more obvious non-smoking performance, probably b/c I was watching that cigarette like a hawk. She’d bring it up to her lips and start squinting immediately, obviously screaming the word “CUT!!” in her head. Very similar is _Dead Again_, in which Kenneth Branagh’s smoking habit is continually referred to but he’s never actually seen with a lit cigarette in his mouth. Later we see Andy Garcia, playing an 80 year old chain smoker, [spoiler]smoke a cigarette through his stoma\* which I took to be a “but seriously folks, smoking is bad” moment. Re: the “coughing” audience member: I was in a production of _Night of the Iguana_ once in which the same thing happened- about three audience members started coughing when the character Shannon lit up. The irony is that the actor was using the “powder smoke” cigarette. Of course I quit smoking for three years and blame smoking a cigar in a play for my return. (Cigars make you crave cigarettes like nobody’s bidness.) ---
**Author:** ![Fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bc8723/32.png) [@Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fish)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2004, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fake-smokes-in-cinema/252697/23 "2004-07-01T23:55:31Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > My daughter had a similar problem with food. She was a vegetarian at the time, and the scene required her to eat some lobster. She took a bite, they cut, and she spit it out right after. **Cervaise** will correct me if I’m wrong, but that wouldn’t _necessarily_ change even for an actor who _loves_ lobster. I understand that when an actor must be filmed to eat something, they sometimes employ a spit bag off-camera so they don’t get filled up with food on the first few takes. It would be a more common technique where a commercial of some tasty füd produkt is being filmed, for instance, or for a long dinner scene with many people at the table—what with multiple takes from different angles, an actor would have to eat _on every take_. That’s a lot of food. William Shatner talks about how difficult it is to film scenes with food on the documentary disc of “Star Trek VI.” Very often, actors in film “eat” the way non-smoking actors “smoke.” Raise fork, act as if to eat but instead say your line, cut away to other actor. Repeat as necessary. Shatner claims that the director Nicholas Meyer bribed the actors something like $25.00 per take if they ate on-camera. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2004, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fake-smokes-in-cinema/252697/24 "2004-07-02T01:22:26Z")
**Fish** is correct. When it comes to filming scenes about eating, actors much more frequently spit than swallow. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2004, 11:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fake-smokes-in-cinema/252697/25 "2004-07-03T11:18:25Z")
Cervaise, can you give us a link to your website with the movie reviews? And have you yet reviewed _Almost Famous_? ---
**Author:** ![dblack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c89c15/32.png) [@dblack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dblack)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2004, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fake-smokes-in-cinema/252697/26 "2004-07-03T23:42:38Z")
Regarding fake marijuana smoke, I must have seen your college production. While reading the article I was reminded of a play I saw when I was living in Chicago over 10 years ago: a very small production of _Marijuana_, a satire on an anti-marijuana film from the 50’s. As the stage was small, we could smell what we swore was pot from the actors. We had diner with one of the actors after and he told us they were smoking oregano! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fake-smokes-in-cinema/252697.md?page=1)