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“I remember saying, ‘He smokes in the book. I need to smoke. He needs to have cigarettes. He’s a bad boy,” Elordi said, adding that his repeated requests to smoke in the movie were turned down by Netflix.

Senators Edward J. Markey (D-Mass), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) today sent a letter to Netflix, urging the company to take steps to decrease young people’s exposure to tobacco, nicotine, and vaping imagery in video content. 

Once the epitome of Hollywood glamour, cigarettes were all but snuffed out in films and TV shows by the turn of the millennium. Now they’re making a comeback. Plot-driven or something more sinister?

Colin Farrell unsuccessfully fought for The Penguin to smoke in "The Batman" despite Warner's ban on smoking in youth-rated movies.

Warner did not allow Colin Farrell to smoke as The Penguin in "The Batman"

This year’s Oscar nominations, including PG-13 rated West Side Story and its onscreen smoking, come at a time when tobacco in movies remains a pervasive problem. More than a third — 38% — of top newly released movies in 2020 depicted tobacco, according to an analysis by the independent research institution NORC at the University of Chicago that is included in the latest Truth Initiative report on tobacco imagery in entertainment.

A Non-Governmental organisation (NGO), Smoke-Free Nollywood, and the National Film and Video Censors Board (NFVCB), have launched a digital media campaign to discourage smoking scenes in home movies watched by children.

It’s no surprise that 2020 was a big year for streaming — in a scary, unprecedented year, entertainment provided viewers with a source of escape and comfort while staying at home. But a new report from Truth Initiative, an anti-smoking group, says that watching some of the year’s biggest TV shows, movies and music videos also exposed young people to frequent scenes of smoking and vaping imagery, which studies have proven increases the likelihood of them trying some form of tobacco. 

One aspect of Cruella’s look that didn’t make the leap to live action was her iconic cigarette holder. Was that one of those things that doesn’t quite feel family-friendly anymore?

That is not allowed in 2021. [Laughs.] We are not allowed to smoke onscreen in a Disney film. It was difficult to not have that cigarette holder.

But did you feel, spiritually, that you were still brandishing a long cigarette holder?

Yes! I was so excited to have that green plume of smoke in there, but it was not possible. I don’t want to promote smoking, but I’m also not trying to promote skinning puppies.

"I don't want to promote smoking, but I'm also not trying to promote skinning puppies," Emma Stone joked of her character

If there’s one thing Cruella de Vil likes, it’s stealing puppies. If there are two things Cruella de Vil likes, it’s stealing puppies and taking drags from her opera-length cigarette holder. Yet the infamous Disney villain is ditching her favorite accessory in the upcoming film “Cruella,” which stars Emma Stone and centers on the early life of the notorious fur-obsessed antihero.

As more youths take to smoking cigarettes, a civil society organisation (CSO) Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA), Thursday, demanded a total ban on smoking in Nollywood movies as they directly and indirectly, advertise products of Tobacco Companies.  This was stated by the Executive Director CAPPA, Akinbode Ohiwafemi, at a media briefing held in Abuja. He said tobacco companies in Nigeria have over the years exploited the entertainment industry, films and music videos to entice and force young Nigerians into smoking tobacco without telling them the health dangers that could kill them and jeopardise their future.