Back when Peaky Blinders star Cillian Murphy was stunned at how many cigarettes he had smoked during shooting

Cillian Murphy, the intense and enigmatic face of Peaky Blinders, once revealed just how much his iconic role as Tommy Shelby took out of him—physically, mentally, and yes, healthwise. While the series gained worldwide acclaim for its stylish noir aesthetic, complex characters, and razor-sharp writing, few fans realize just how demanding the role of Tommy was behind the scenes.

At the heart of that brutal transformation? Cigarettes. Thousands of them.

“I asked the prop guys to count how many we use during a series and it’s 3,000,” Murphy revealed back in 2019, stunned himself at the number.

Though Murphy doesn’t smoke in real life, he chain-smoked herbal substitutes throughout filming. Still, the toll was very real. And as the Peaky Blinders star admitted, the experience of inhabiting Tommy Shelby left him not just tired, but “destroyed.”

---

“I always come out of it destroyed”: Playing Tommy Shelby wasn’t easy

In an interview during the earlier seasons of Peaky Blinders, Murphy opened up about the deeply consuming nature of playing Tommy, saying:

“The nature of the character is immersive. It’s an incredibly exhausting character to play.”

It’s not hard to see why. Tommy Shelby is always calculating, always plotting—rarely at rest. Murphy noted the constant mental state he had to maintain to stay in character.

“Tommy is always on, he never seems to sleep or eat. He’s so resourceful and clever and dynamic—all the things I wish I could be.”

The emotional intensity didn’t just come from the script. It was baked into every moment on set, including how scenes were filmed.

“We could be doing episode four in the morning and the finale in the afternoon. It was an incredibly mindf***ing shoot.”

To keep track of Tommy’s complicated arc, especially while filming out of sequence, Murphy even had to create visual aids.

“I got our director Tim Mielants to draw up four A4 sheets which I put up in my trailer about where Tommy was going, where he was at with the Russians at any point. I needed it to figure out what the hell was going on.”

---

The herbal cigarettes were “Like my five a day”

While Peaky Blinders is known for its stylized visuals—cigarette smoke curling in moody lighting being a constant—Murphy had to find a way to make that image real without harming his health.

“I don’t smoke but people did smoke all day and night then. I use herbal rose things, they’re like my five a day!”

Yet even fake cigarettes, when consumed in the thousands, left their mark. It became part of the physical toll the role demanded.

---

Behind the cool: Murphy’s other challenge as Peaky Blinders' executive producer

By the time later seasons rolled around, Murphy had taken on a second major role: as executive producer. While already exhausted by the intensity of playing Tommy Shelby, he was now also overseeing the bigger creative picture.

“It’s my first barbecue as executive producer, trying to look at something objectively and dispassionately. I’m learning to watch myself not through my fingers.”

It was a shift in perspective, one that required Murphy to step outside of Tommy’s psyche just enough to make decisions about tone, story, and cohesion.

“It’s a very collaborative environment.”

---

A role that lingers

Few characters in modern TV are as instantly iconic as Tommy Shelby—and few actors have inhabited a role as fully as Cillian Murphy did in Peaky Blinders. From mind-bending timelines to herbal cigarettes and emotional breakdowns, Murphy didn’t just act the part. He lived it.

And when asked to sum up the experience?

“You have to leave reality behind for four months. I always come out it destroyed but having felt like we have made something.”

---

Read more about Peaky Blinders on Soap Central.