It's a form of screenwriting shorthand. If you want to indicate a character is bad or shady, you give him a cigarette.

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It has nothing to do with pushing an agenda. Hollywood is going with the times. It's not cool to smoke — that's why the bad guys are smoking, the antiheroes. If smoking were cool in the real world, it would be out of control in the movies like it used to be.

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They don't like any of those people. It's all politics. No matter what happens on-set, off-set, all is forgiven when you get that Oscar.

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Movies are the most influential medium in the entire world. They shape our dreams and our hopes, they define our heroes, they often show us how to live. They can be especially influential to the young.

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