As part of the message the movies promotes, no one is shown smoking a cigarette throughout the entire movie. In fact, except in the black and white film that Nick Naylor (Aaron Eckhart) watches, no one is seen even holding a cigarette. Naylor holds an empty packet and The Captain (Robert Duvall) holds an (unlit) cigar.

Writer and Director Jason Reitman wrote individual letters to each of the stars in the film, telling them why they would be right for the part. Every one of his first choices accepted their parts, and most thanked Reitman for his great letter.

When Nick Naylor (Aaron Eckhart) and Joey Naylor (Cameron Bright) are riding the Ferris wheel, their "ice cream" is really mashed potatoes. This is because hot movie lighting causes real ice cream to melt too quickly to ensure continuity from shot to shot. The use of mashed potatoes is an old photography trick used commonly in the advertising industry (which this movie is about), and is something infinitely more desirable than the other oft-used ice cream substitutes in film or photography: Crisco or lard.

Sam Elliott wanted his character to refuse to take the money. Jason Reitman spent three hours persuading him to do the part as scripted.

Lorne Lutch (Sam Elliott) is based on real "Marlboro Man" model Wayne McLaren, who contracted lung cancer, testified for anti-smoking legislation, and had the Phillip Morris Company try to deny he was in the ads. Two other models, David McLean and Dick Hammer, also died of lung cancer. A fourth, Eric Lawson, died of respiratory failure, due to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD, at the age of seventy-two in 2014.

One of Sam Elliott's conditions to do the part was to have him carry a rifle in a scene, instead of the scripted shotgun. Jason Reitman agreed to change the script. When they were about to do the scene, Reitman realized that he had forgotten about the rifle, and went to the prop wagon frantically, hoping to find one. There were three guns laying on the tailgate, two shotguns and a rifle. When Elliott picked up the rifle, Reitman breathed a sigh of relief. He asked Elliott if he needed instruction on how to use it. Elliott declined and said that he knew how to use it, because the rifle was his.

Seventeen minutes into the film, an ad saying "More doctors smoke Alpacas than any other cigarette" can be seen. This is a spoof on Camel cigarettes, which used that slogan on paper, and on old time radio advertisements.

William H. Macy (Senator Ortolan Finistirre) came up with the line, "The great state of Vermont will not apologize for its cheese." His original line was, "Why, you son of a..."

Christopher Buckley's father, columnist William F. Buckley, Jr., died of emphysema in 2008. One of Bill Buckley's last columns before his death was titled "My Smoking Confessional", in which he wrote he would ban smoking in the United States if he had the authority.

Christopher Nolan cast Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent in The Dark Knight (2008), after seeing Eckhart's performance in this movie.

John Wayne's estate normally refuses to license images of Wayne smoking, due to his death from gastric cancer. Jason Reitman sent a copy of the script to Wayne's son, Patrick, with a letter explaining that the film was a satire that did not glamorize smoking. Upon reading the script, Wayne agreed to allow the clip of his father to be used.

When the rights for the film were first purchased in the 1990s, Mel Gibson was going to play Nick Naylor.

Rob Lowe filmed all of his scenes in one day.

The movie's title can be seen on a placard on B.R.'s (J.K. Simmons') desk.

The rifle that Lutch aims at Nick was Sam Elliott's personal Winchester Model 1894 that Elliott had brought with him.

When Nick mentions how smoking was affected by the development of motion pictures, he briefly refers to a scene between Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. The scene is from the movie To Have and Have Not (1944).

When Nick Naylor (Aaron Eckhart) is sitting with his son, Joey Naylor (Cameron Bright), waiting to meet Jeff Megall (Rob Lowe), they are watching BBC's The Blue Planet (2001).

The Academy of Tobacco Studies building in Washington, D.C. is really the Department of Energy (the James Forrestal Building) on Independence Avenue SW. The Academy's sign is superimposed over the actual Department of Energy sign.

The black and white film that Naylor watches is the end of Sands of Iwo Jima (1949).

Leading up to its release, it was reported by numerous trade magazines that Tom Cruise had demanded a sex scene involving his wife, Katie Holmes, be cut from the movie. At the 2006 Hay-On-Wye book festival, Jason Reitman dismissed this report as complete rubbish, explaining that these reports came from the film's first festival screening, where an overzealous projectionist had accidentally cut the scene when splicing the film together (an easy mistake to make, as the scene came at the end of a reel and followed a couple of seconds of black). At a Q&A that followed said screening, Reitman mentioned to the festival audience that there was a missing sex scene in the version they just saw, which was somehow seen by (equally overzealous) reporters as being a result of Tom Cruise and/or Scientology's involvement.

Finistirre, the last name of William H. Macy's character, is a misspelling of "finisterre", the ancient Latin expression for the edge of the flat Earth. It means literally "end (finis) of the Earth (terre)," or "land's end". It is also the name of the most western point of the Spanish region of Galicia, as well as the name of a French "département" (county) of Finistère located at the most western point of the country. The character's first name is Ortolan, which is the scientific name of a tiny bird controversially force-fed, drowned, and consumed whole in French cuisine.

Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson was considered for the role of Nick Naylor.

WILHELM SCREAM: During the Kent State shootings reminiscence.

When Heather Holloway (Katie Holmes) is watching Nick's (Aaron Eckhart's) press conference on her, a co-worker's placard bears the name of Theresa Greene, the Art Department Coordinator for the movie.

Nick states that ' charles Manson kills people' . Although a convicted murder he never actually killed anyone .

It's ironic that when the anti-smoking kidnapper in the van was naming off things that every man should want he lists "Crisp bacon". Heart disease is the only cause of more deaths in the US than cancer.

Michael McKean participated in a public reading of the film's script before it was produced.

The cast includes two Oscar winners, Robert Duvall and J.K. Simmons, and two Oscar nominees, William H. Macy and Sam Elliott.

J.K. Simmons accepted the part of BR with the knowledge that Robert Duvall had been cast in the film as the Captain, wanting to work with him. However Simmons did not realize their one scene "together" actually consisted of the Captain appearing via video conferencing, and Duvall was neither on-set or broadcast live.

The name of the school where Joey goes is St. Euthanasius from the word Euthanasia meaning Mercy Killing.

This movie was selected for the Deauville American Film Festival 2006.

A few characters in this film have alliterative names: Nick Naylor, Heather Holloway, Bobby Jay Bliss, and Lorne Lutch (Marlboro Man). This is similar to the naming customs for certain comic book heroes, particularly the Marvel gang (Peter Parker, Bruce Banner, Reed Richards, et cetera), which is a noteworthy coincidence, because many of this movie's actors and actresses have been in comic book based movies or television shows (including cartoon voices): Katie Holmes in Batman alustab (2005), Aaron Eckhart in Pimeduse rüütel (2008), J.K. Simmons in three "Spider-Man" movies, Justice League (2017), and The Batman (????), Maria Bello in Vägivaldne minevik (2005), William H. Macy in Imemehed (1999) and Superman: Where There's Smoke (1998) (which, as a further coincidence, has a title similar to this movie), Sam Elliott in Hulk (2003) and Ghost Rider - põrguline (2007), Cameron Bright in X-mehed: viimane vastuhakk (2006), Melora Hardin in The Rocketeer (1991), Todd Louiso in Iron Man: Iron Man, on the Inside (1995), Marianne Muellerleile in Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman: The People v. Lois Lane (1996), and in Kim Dickens in Fear the Walking Dead (2015). In addition, Marc Scizak (one of the ski masked men) had performed stunts in several such productions.

Christopher Buckley: The author can be seen at the metro station reading Heather's article about Nick.

Elon Musk: man who closes the car door as Aaron Eckhart's Nick Naylor gets out to board a private plane - Musk owned the plane, and was also an Executive Producer on the film.