Gary Oldman Got ‘Serious Nicotine Poisoning’ By Smoking 400 Cigars To Play Winston Churchill In ‘Darkest Hour’

Sir Winston Churchill has been portrayed by numerous actors over the years, ranging from Albert Finney’s portrayal of the British Prime Minister in HBO’s “The Gathering Storm” to John Lithgow’s Emmy-winning portrayal in Netflix series “The Crown”.

The most recent actor to play Churchill is Gary Oldman in “Darkest Hour”, yet Oldman can lay claim to being the only one who risked his health in order to portray the iconic statesman.

“I got serious nicotine poisoning,” Oldman said in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, revealing he smoked 400 cigars during the film’s 48-day shoot.

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“You’d have a cigar that was three-quarters smoked and you’d light it up, and then over the course of a couple of takes, it would go down, and then the prop man would replenish me with a new cigar — we were doing that for 10 or 12 takes a scene,” Oldman added.

However, “Darkest Hour” director Joe Wright insists that smoking all those cigars was a necessary risk. “It’s Winston Churchill,” Wright tells THR. “You can’t have Winston Churchill without a cigar.”

“Darkest Hour” hits theatres on Friday, Dec. 22.

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