David Lynch Smoked 16 Cigars In One Day For His Fabelmans Cameo
In real life, cigarettes and cigars are a nasty vice that assail the olfactory nerve with a thick, pungent odor capable of leaving clothes, car interiors, and whole rooms smelling like ashtrays. They're also incredibly addictive and, when one's habit stretches out over decades, ruinous to an individual's health.
In movies, however, they're instant atmosphere machines that can, when wielded by an actor who knows how to smoke with style, heighten a character's sense of sophistication or sex appeal. Marlene Dietrich defined pre-code cinematic carnality with her wickedly sensuous French inhale in "Shanghai Express," while Humphrey Bogart conveyed marrow-deep weariness with every heavy exhale in "Casablanca." As for cigars, conjure up an image of Edward G. Robinson, and you'll invariably see the sawed-off star with a stogie clenched between his sausage-thick fingers.
Though the entire world has long been tragically aware of how deadly a nicotine addiction can be, films and television shows have only moderately backed off on their depiction of smoking. Over the last ten years, we've seen some of the industry's biggest stars (Leonardo DiCaprio, Emma Stone, Brad Pitt, Kristen Stewart, Cate Blanchett) puff away in front of the camera. For parents desperate to impress upon their children the dangers of smoking (and vaping), this isn't a terrific state of affairs. But even when we're not talking about an era-specific indulgence, there's often a sound dramatic reason for these actors' characters to partake. And, as ever, when the performer is an experienced smoker, they can make the deleterious pastime look so damn cool.
Just ask legendary filmmaker David Lynch, who's rarely glimpsed without a smoldering cigarette in his midst. This is a man who loves to smoke (or loved to, at least). So when he was asked to suck down an alarming number of cigars whilst portraying John Ford in Steven Spielberg's "The Fabelmans," he leapt at the opportunity.
I know how to smoke, I'll tell you that
In an interview for the February 2024 issue of Empire, Lynch recalled that he initially didn't want to portray the Hollywood icon. Fortunately, Laura Dern, one of his most frequent collaborators (and someone who's done plenty of onscreen smoking for him), persuaded him to take the part. As he told Empire:
"She's a special person in my life. She encouraged me to do it. She thought that it would be very enjoyable, and it turned out to be very enjoyable. I thought that Peter Bogdanovich would be better for it. But Steven said no. He said, 'David, you're the one to do it.' And so he talked me into it, really."
Of course, you can't play late-era Ford without donning an eyepatch and chomping on a cigar. Fortunately, Lynch, who quit smoking two years ago after being diagnosed with emphysema (a revelation that is, as far as I can Google, exclusive to Empire), was more than happy to burn down 16 stogies in one day of shooting. Per Lynch:
"Smoke, for me, is real dangerous. But I just love it so much. I love nicotine. They now have movie cigars, they're not nicotine. And when I see people smoking in films, if they're not smokers, it makes you puke. It makes you sick. Because they just don't do it right. And it's so phony. If you want you get a smoker, who knows how to smoke, in a film, that's another story. And I know how to smoke, I'll tell you that."
Don't expect David Lynch to become an anti-smoking crusader
Lynch can be quite the scold when he wants to be (as evidenced by his unforgettable tirade about people watching movies on their phones), so you might be surprised to see him forgo the chance to advise people to never pick up the habit.
I'm not. Lynch may have exacting aesthetic standards, but he's a selective moralist. And when it comes to one's health, he's always been more focused on the mental aspect (e.g. his advocacy for Transcendental Meditation). Lynch knew the risks, and, thus, seems to have little interest in serving as a cautionary tale.
Later in the interview, Lynch said, "With these kinds of addictions, they say you gotta bottom out. And one day I saw it happen, that if I kept it up I'd be dead. So it wasn't hard for me to quit once that happened."
Be it alcohol or sweets or fast food, I think we can all empathize with Lynch's predicament. It's hard to imagine living without these pleasures. I also can't imagine living in a world without David Lynch. He is a sui generis artist who's made some of the greatest films in the history of the medium. He's also a heck of a weatherman when he wants to be. Long may he delight and confound us.