Tuesday, March 25, 2008

I Have Always Wondered #1


What if a role requires an actor to smoke and the actor is not a smoker? Can he persuade the writer and the director to do something about this? What if it is absolutely integral to the character and the story? What does an actor do? Not inhale? What if an actor develops a smoking habit because of the role and eventually dies of lung cancer? What if the actor is not just concerned about his or her health but is actually against the whole concept of smoking? What if the actor does not want other impressionable people to imitate his or her behavior?

Does an actor disregard his or her own physical well-being and its possible effects on social behavior just because a role requires it?

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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

It's illegal for companies to force employees to endanger themselves, and that goes for TV and movie companies.

In the case of the TV series Mad Men, set in the 1960's where virtually everybody's just puffing away on cigarettes all the time, they used herbal cigarettes.

It's like substituting iced tea for scotch.

Of course, when it comes to portraying pot smoking, they more often than not smoke the real thing. That big silly grin on Jack Nicholson in Easy Rider isn't an act.