Cillian Murphy Explains Why Tommy Shelby Always Rolls Cigarettes on His Lips

With the release of Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man, the long‑awaited film continuation of the hit series, Cillian Murphy is finally closing the chapter on Tommy Shelby — a character he has embodied for more than a decade. After six seasons and now a feature-length finale, fans have spent nearly 40 hours watching Murphy craft one of television’s most iconic antiheroes.

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From his distinctive Birmingham accent, learned from friends of creator Steven Knight, to his clipped, deliberate speech patterns, Tommy Shelby is a character built on countless subtle details. But one of those details — one many viewers may not have consciously noticed — is the way Tommy always rolls his cigarette across his lips before lighting it.

It’s a gesture so ingrained in the character that it feels intentional, almost ritualistic. Yet the real reason behind it is surprisingly practical.

First clip from 'Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man' featuring Cillian Murphy as Tommy Shelby. pic.twitter.com/z9TeVgC6yO

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A Habit Born by Accident

Speaking to BBC Radio 6 ahead of the show’s sixth season, Murphy revealed that the lip‑rolling habit wasn’t part of the script or a deliberate acting choice.

“There was this thing where [Tommy] kind of rolls the cigarette on his lips before he lights it, and that came from the prop guys,” Murphy explained. “I’d take the cigarette and every time I’d put it in, it would stick to my lips because they’re these fake cigarettes. So in order to avoid that I rolled the cigarette on my lips — and then it became a Tommy thing.”

It’s one of those small, accidental discoveries that can only emerge when an actor inhabits a character for years. What began as a workaround became a defining trait.

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Thousands of Fake Cigarettes

Despite Tommy Shelby’s constant smoking, Murphy himself is not a smoker. On set, he used herbal substitutes — but even those added up quickly.

In an interview with Birmingham Live, he revealed:

“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. I asked the prop guys to count how many we use during a series, and it’s 3,000.”

Playing Tommy, he added, was an intense and exhausting experience:

“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 End of an Era

Murphy has previously said that he spent “a quarter of his lifetime” playing Tommy Shelby, watching the character evolve from a young, ambitious gangster into a hardened, world‑weary leader. The film marks the definitive end of that journey.

“It’s quite novelistic to have 36 hours of television and to really shine torches into the real recesses of personality,” he reflected.

With Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man now streaming on Netflix, fans can finally witness the conclusion of Tommy Shelby’s story — and perhaps notice, with new appreciation, the small gestures that helped define him.