My Favorite Cigar
Aleks Paunovic • Actor • Arturo Fuente Double Chateau Fuente
One would think that someone who lives in a Cuban-heavy cigar market naturally prefers Havanas, but that isn’t the case for Aleks Paunovic, the Canadian character actor best known for his menacing onscreen personas. At six-foot-five, the muscular 56-year-old is as imposing as he is talented. Paunovic has played the vampire Julius Romanski in the SyFy show “Van Helsing,” Mob enforcer Ivan Banionis in “Hawkeye” and Polyphemus, the mythological cyclops in “Percy Jackson and the Olympians.”
He calls Vancouver home and while Cubans are plentiful there, Paunovic favors the Dominican Arturo Fuente Double Chateau Fuente as his go-to smoke—a large cigar for a large man, although on special occasions, he’ll reach for the Nicaraguan Rocky Patel Conviction. Paunovic lights up with groups of friends and appreciates the relaxed social aspect of the shared smoking experience. After someone bought him the Fuente, he found a new favorite. “I love the consistency,” he says of the cigar. “It’s got an almond kind of vibe and finishes with like a coffee smoothness. The burn rate is really great, so you can really enjoy it.”
