In an interview for the February 2024 issue of Empire, Lynch recalled that he initially didn’t want to portray the Hollywood icon. Fortunately, Laura Dern, one of his most frequent collaborators (and someone who’s done plenty of onscreen smoking for him), persuaded him to take the part. As he told Empire:
“She’s a special person in my life. She encouraged me to do it. She thought that it would be very enjoyable, and it turned out to be very enjoyable. I thought that Peter Bogdanovich would be better for it. But Steven said no. He said, ‘David, you’re the one to do it.’ And so he talked me into it, really.”
Of course, you can’t play late-era Ford without donning an eyepatch and chomping on a cigar. Fortunately, Lynch, who quit smoking two years ago after being diagnosed with emphysema (a revelation that is, as far as I can Google, exclusive to Empire), was more than happy to burn down 16 stogies in one day of shooting. Per Lynch:
“Smoke, for me, is real dangerous. But I just love it so much. I love nicotine. They now have movie cigars, they’re not nicotine. And when I see people smoking in films, if they’re not smokers, it makes you puke. It makes you sick. Because they just don’t do it right. And it’s so phony. If you want you get a smoker, who knows how to smoke, in a film, that’s another story. And I know how to smoke, I’ll tell you that.”