How many cigarrettes did Meryl Streep smoke in this film

Karen Silkwood was a smoker, so that's part of the character ! It's just the way it's suppose to be, ok ? I hate when people piss about stupid things.

Look, it was the 70's EVERYBODY smoked

Nil Illegetti Desperadum

Her character was a smoker, get over it. The film took place in the 70's, long before it was PC to attack smokers and long before lung cancer became the epidemic it is today. And this coming from a non-smoker! If I see a character smoke in a movie, it doesn't make me want to run out and buy a pack of cigarettes. Calm down people.

nicerobot, Your a idiot,and a young one at that. I know the original poster did not make any comments about smoking in the 70's. Someone was explaining to him why the character smoked in the movie. In the 70's,when this movie was supposed to take place,smoking was very common everywhere. Your too young to remember that though. And for your comment that you "find it really disgusting that Karen Silkwood is so concerned about dying from Plutonium exposure when it's obvious she's probably going to get lung cancer a hell of a lot sooner!", Cig companies could advertise and market back then without repercussions. Its not the same now days. Now they have to tell you about cancer,etc. Smoking was very common back in the 70's,you could smoke on planes,trains,smoke in the mall,movies even the hospital. Times were different back then,it was socially acceptable,that is why she smoked. So SHUT-UP about things you have NO knowledge about.

To put this as simply as possible...

She only worked the plant about two years.

I'm guessing if she smoked as much as it showed her smoking, she had the addiction far over two years.

Smoking is voluntary.

Getting radioactive poison is not.

However, even with will power one cannot kick an addiction that strong easily.

BUT...one can easily with the amount of will power Karen had, try to eliminate harmful effects of working in the conditions she and her fellow employees were working in

"Furthermore I find it really disgusting that Karen Silkwood is so concerned about dying from Plutonium exposure when it's obvious she's probably going to get lung cancer a hell of a lot sooner!"

Haha! I too thought that exact same thing. I saw the title to this thread and then looked up at the movie, which is on TV now, only to find Karen puffing away on another cigarette. Very amusing.

78

Yeah, but it is funny though hehehe they were smoking cigarettes like every 5 minutes!

Drew says basically the same thing to Karen in the film. She was talking, I think, about Thelma being 'cooked' and the plutonium levels or something & he says "If you're so worried about cancer, stop smoking."
But it was set in the early 1970's. The surgeon general had issued warnings about smoking but smoking still wasn't seen as a serious threat yet. People weren't used to it yet the way they are today. So it makes sense that Karen would be worried about the nuclear issues regarding cancer & that of her co-workers, smokers & non-smokers alike mind you, than she would be about her own cigarette smoking.

Meryl chain-smokes more convincingly than any other actor I can recall in this movie.