Bradley Cooper finally addresses his Maestro nose
Cooper's use of a prosthetic nose to play Jewish composer Leonard Bernstein sparked controversy ahead of the film's release
Aux News Maestro
Despite widespread backlash and claims that he was perpetuating “Jewface,” the necessity of wearing an enlarged prosthetic to play legendary composer Leonard Bernstein was as plain to Bradley Cooper as the nose on his face.
Three months after the first trailer for Cooper’s upcoming biopic Maestro initially revealed the nose—and the controversy surrounding it—the multi-hyphenate is breaking his silence about the whole thing. “My nose is very similar to Lenny’s, actually, so the prosthetic is actually like a silk sheet,” Cooper said on today’s episode of CBS Mornings. “I thought, ‘Maybe we don’t need to do it because we could take down time of prep,’ but it’s all about balance, and, you know, my lips are nothing like Lenny’s, and my chin. And so we had that, and it just didn’t look right [without the prosthetic].”
“We just had to do it, otherwise I wouldn’t believe he’s a human being,” Cooper concluded.
In the wake of the backlash, multiple groups including Bernstein’s own children rushed to Cooper’s defense, an act the actor and director called “very moving.” “It happens to be true that Leonard Bernstein had a nice, big nose. Bradley chose to use makeup to amplify his resemblance, and we’re perfectly fine with that. We’re also certain that our dad would have been fine with it as well,” the family wrote. The Anti-Defamation League also weighed in, writing (via The Hollywood Reporter), “Throughout history, Jews were often portrayed in antisemitic films and propaganda as evil caricatures with large, hooked noses. This film, which is a biopic on the legendary conductor Leonard Bernstein, is not that.”
In a recent interview with Variety, the film’s makeup artist Kazu Hiro also expounded on just how intense Cooper’s prosthetic transformation really was. According to the Academy Award-winning artist, Cooper’s regimen did not just include the nose but also fake ears, temples, lips, cheeks, neck, shoulders, hands, and eventually a full body suit as the character ages throughout the film. Hiro even made Cooper custom nose plugs to change the sound of his voice to make it more closely resemble Bernstein’s—or Lenny’s, as both men call him. “We respect Lenny and his look,” Hiro said. “He’s so handsome and talented and an amazing composer and conductor. And when we listen to his music, we think of how he conducted, so it was important to make Bradley as close as possible to Lenny.”
“The truth is, I’ve done this whole project out of love,” Cooper added in the CBS Mornings interview. “It’s so clear to me where I come from.”
38 Comments
Good enough for me.
Some people say intent doesn’t matter when it comes to Jewface or blackface or similar things. To that I say: what made those things bad in the first place if not the intent?
“Intent doesn’t matter” is one of the most deranged ideas to emerge from the Twittersphere in the past few years.
It’s because the internet in general, and Twitter in particular, has given a voice to the sorts of literal-minded, left-brained fuckwits who can only can understand the most superficial aspect of anything.
Who nose!
It’s a movie. He doesn’t have to look exactly like the guy in order to play him. I’m actually more concerned about the implications this has for other performances.
This whole movie just reeks of “Bradley wants an Oscar” and this whole interview reeks of “The PR team in charge of the Oscar campaign says it’s time to get out in front of the nose thing and change the narrative.”
I still can’t believe this blew up into a whole thing. I still can’t believe the term “Jew Face” was trending and everyone had to weigh in, no matter how idiotic their hot take was.I love Bernstein’s music, so I’m looking forward to checking this out.
Or they could have not done any of that shit and he could have just acted.
1. it looks nothing like the actual Bernstein2. AND has the whole racial caricature aspect to it.There’s no rational defense of this
I just hope the movie mentions Bernstein canceling his appearance at the 1984 East German cultural festival, and how the American rock’n’roll star Nick Rivers went in his place:
“Despite widespread backlash” As in, a few people on Twitter? Even the ADL said this was a non-issue.
Online writers like to pretend that X/Twitter represents the entirety of public opinion because online writers are fundamentally lazy. To be fair, the pre-Twitter version of this phenomenon was “I can imagine overhearing people talking about this at the local diner (if I ever were to visit a diner)” so maybe it’s a step up.
right-wing news organisations preface the most inane talking points with ‘people are saying’ and it works!
a few twittles is definitely a step up….but they’re very tiny steps.
x
Twitter
Xitter
Always.
I’m not sure you want to go with the ADL as the arbiter of what is and isn’t anti-semitic these days…or really ever.
Best part is that if you go to the effort of clinking through the links to the origin of the online outrage, it is almost always literally some completely random non-journalist who has no standing to weigh in on the subject any more than an AV Club commenter. Truly manufactured.
I think we’re all forgetting that Bradley Cooper became an alcoholic country veteran with a death wish, and who discovered our favorite pop star Ally, for A Star Is Born. When he became limitless in Limitless, that was for real. He’s limitless! When he was hungover in The Hangover, who else is willing to go those lengths? If you think Bradley Cooper is too committed to his art, maybe YOU should be committed to a mental institution!
Ah, yes, Cooper “finally” addressed something that both the ADL and Bernstein’s family deemed a non-story.
Okay Jews, you still can’t have the right to defend your nation against terrorists, but we’ll allow you to be offended by Bradley Cooper’s rubber scnozz. See, we’re reasonable!
Guys, I don’t even see race!
I think with everything going on in the world, we’re probably pretty far past “Bradley Cooper’s nose is the most antisemitic thing out in the world right now.”
The utterly stupid part of this, is that there was never a reason to do it in the first place. He looks more like Bernstein without the fake nose than he does with it.
Yeah, the whole thing scream of him wanting to be perceived as more serious because he wore a lot of prosthetics to “transform”. I can see needing the aging make-up for the older Berstein, but for the young, it’s just actorly pretension.
lol… what?
Right? And then when he says “My nose is very similar to Lenny’s, actually, so the prosthetic is actually like a silk sheet” — 1. If you think it’s similar to Bernstein’s, none of this makes sense, and 2. Silk sheet? More like a giant duvet.But I guess he can’t just come out and say “I’ve been nominated for an Oscar 9 times (4 times for acting) and I’m super fucking horny to actually win one. I’m not waiting 22 years like DiCaprio. I’m going full The Hours, baby. The Academy loves a transformation.”
Most of us do not know what Leonard Bernstein looked like, or that he had a big nose. If you were a big fan who understands all of this, you’re probably in your seventies.
Yeah, because finding a picture of someone online is really, really hard.
True, but even so it’s not like this was some caricature of Bernstein. Cooper might have been a bit pretentious feeling the need for a prosthetic nose to better fall into the role or whatever, but there’s really nothing to get worked up over in terms of the execution.
As someone who is very online when it comes to classical music, I have not even read one single sneeze about this.Bernstein was famous for often addressing the press after a performance in a lazily tied bathrobe…THAT sort of stuff is what people are concerned about.
I can see why Bernstein’s family would not be upset. Cooper made the decision with good intent. But the results are sort of monstrous. That nose doesn’t look like a nose. It’s too ‘perfect’ and pointy and looks like something you’d buy from Amazon for a gag. And all of the other modifications? There was a time when acting was sufficient; it wasn’t necessary to be so literal about a subject’s every single feature. I don’t remember the conductor for his nose but for his work.
I get that they needed to age him to portray Bernstein at various points in his life, but agree that in general it was unnecessary in the early going. I guess true LB fans may have known what he looked like throughout the years but that really doesn’t represent the full movie-going public.
“My nose is very similar to Lenny’s, actually”Not making a very good point as to why you needed to use prosthetics, here…
Listen, everybody- do NOT watch “Raging Bull!!” That’s not his real nose!!