Warning to film audiences: watching Churchill smoking could damage your health
NO MODERN depiction of Winston Churchill is complete without his trademark smouldering cigar.
Yet the makers of a new film have been criticised by historians for giving viewers a health warning that scenes with the wartime leader smoking a cigar are “based solely on artistic consideration”. Churchill is pictured smoking throughout the film, titled Darkest Hour, which is scheduled for release in the UK next month.
The film is set in 1940 and stars Gary Oldman as Churchill – a role for which he has received his first Golden Globe nomination.
Oldman, who has starred in such films as the Harry Potter series and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, joked that the decision to cast him as Churchill was “ridiculous”. He told Kirsty Lang, the presenter of Front Row on BBC Radio 4: “[When I got the role] I thought it was a bit ridiculous. It was never on my bucket list, it would never have occurred to me.”
In the interview, which will be broadcast tomorrow, Oldman called the role “oddly liberating”. He says: “I am coming up to a milestone at nearly 60, so there was no way that I was going to gain 70lb to play him. It was the physical that was the hurdle, not necessarily whether I could psychologically play the character.”
Historians have criticised the disclaimer, which appears in the final credits and also alerts viewers to the “serious health risks” that accompany smoking. Mary Beard, professor of classics at Cambridge, told the Mail on Sunday: “It only adds to the temptation if you ask me.” Hugo Vickers, the royal biographer, suggested film-makers should have added a further line stating: “Sir Winston Churchill lived to be 90.” Universal Pictures declined to comment.