Bradley Cooper waited a few years before trying his hand at directing again following A Star Is Born. ASIB was a success by most metrics – Cooper was nominated for multiple Oscars, Lady Gaga won an Oscar for the song, and the film made a lot of money. Personally, I hated the movie, but whatever, it was fine. Apparently, during ASIB’s promotion, B-Coop was already setting up his next project, but it took him a while to get it going. The film? Maestro, a sort of bio-pic about the conductor Leonard Bernstein. It’s about his life and work and his marriage to Felicia Montealegre. The first trailer was released this week:
So… people are mad and I get why. My first thought was “what accents are they TRYING to do?” It sounds like they’re both trying and failing to do a Katherine Hepburn impression. Other people were more focused on Bradley’s prosthetic nose, and I see why. It’s distracting and really unnecessary. It’s not even like Leonard Bernstein was known for having a huge nose? Why did B-Coop insist on this? People have made the argument that the prosthetic nose in this case is antisemitic – Bernstein was Jewish and goy Bradley wanted to “signal” Bernstein’s Jewish ancestry visually. When you see the comparison pics between Bradley’s regular face and Bernstein’s face, it does feel extremely strange that Cooper decided to wear this ridiculous prosthesis.
PS… This argument will come up again if and when Helen Mirren promotes Golda, where she also wears a prosthetic nose to play the famed Israeli prime minister Golda Meir. The only thing I’ll say in Helen’s defense is that with her prosthetics, she actually LOOKS like Meir. Bradley’s prosthetic nose doesn’t make him look any more or less like Bernstein.
Left: Bradley Cooper with his prosthetic nose, playing Leonard Bernstein.
Right: The actual Leonard Bernstein.
This isn't about making a non-Jewish actor look more like Leonard Bernstein; it's about making a non-Jewish actor look more like a Jewish stereotype. https://t.co/WrYWuweosW pic.twitter.com/WxspPtHktj
— Joel S. (@jh_swanson) August 15, 2023
Bradley Cooper faces backlash for wearing a prosthetic nose in 'Maestro,' his upcoming biopic of Jewish conductor Leonard Bernstein.
Critics say the larger prosthetic reinforces an antisemitic stereotype about Jews. pic.twitter.com/24y6ag3iCo
— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) August 16, 2023
This feels especially sinister because Bradley Cooper’s nose is already the same shape and size, if not slightly larger, than Leonard Bernstein’s was. https://t.co/4GbCEFqvnG pic.twitter.com/bnOLLFn6JT
— Sarah McGonagall (@gothspiderbitch) August 16, 2023
Photos/screencaps courtesy of Netflix and Jason McDonald/Netflix.
Wow, this idiot REALLY wants an Oscar, doesn’t he?
Exactly. Aiming for an Oscar. Putting on a new nose worked for Nicole Kidman Oscar-wise so I guess I can’t knock it.
Is this bio pic going to portray Bernstein as heterosexual and his wife was the only love of his life? That would be weird.
He’s literally making out with a man in the trailer.
Well you can if you actually think about it. Kidman wore the prosthetic to make herself look like Virginia Woolf. Cooper chose to wear the prosthetic even though it doesn’t make him look like anything like Bernstein.
Prosthetics seem to have overtaken gaining/losing a lot of weight as the ‘give me my oscar now please’ approach of choice.
This looks ridiculous and seeing the side by side pictures COMPLETELY unnecessary.
You can make a case that Bradley isn’t playing Bernstein at all. He looks and sounds like a bunch of composers rolled into one. I think this is pure Oscar bait. Trying to hit on different notes. Hoping that something sticks.
The prosthetic nose is so unnecessary. And yes, it does perpetuate an antisemitic stereotype. Ugh, B Coop…
Yep. Totally unnecessary and seems purely stereotype driven. Someone needed to let Cooper know this was unacceptable during production, but instead everyone pretended that it was acceptable. SMDH.
This is why we need diversity in the workplace. Hollywood never learns.
For heaven’s sake, it’s a costume. It’s a copycat nose. There is nothing anti-Semitic about trying to resemble the character you are playing, even moreso than you already might. And by the way, spoiler alert: Many Jews have big noses. Bernstein was one, so was my dad, mine is no ski jump. May reason prevail in the war on prejudice, please. No shame in a schnoz.
Did you look at the pictures of Leonard Bernstein because he did not have a big nose, it was average in size and closer in size to Bradley real nose. The prosthetic was unnecessary and was going off of a stereotype of what Jewish people look like.
According to LB’s three children, who I would think should know: “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 Bernsteins write. (Hollywood Reporter, August 16, 2023)
@TeamMeg: As @BeeseJoe says on Twitter: “The Bernstein estate – which I assume is profiting from the music rights – doesn’t get to dictate my feelings about a non-Jewish actor donning a large nose prosthetic to play a Jew.”
Agree and he’s not mocking him. He’s portraying him in a long film. He’s not clowning. Context matters.. yes a large nose is often used in horrible media and materials and is a notable feature in antisemitism. But this film is not that. Dolly Parton impersonators put on big tits, it’s not an insult to anyone she represents. Odd choice from Cooper or film folks but I guess they’ve got everyone looking up photos of LB online like never before.
People who dress like Dolly Parton put on fake boobs to look more like her. Cooper’s prosthetics don’t make him more like Bernstein, just more Jewish. I agree there’s no intent to mock but if that’s the best the makeup department could do, they should’ve abandoned the idea altogether. They’d have gotten much closer if they dyed his eyebrows darker and left the nose alone.
he is so thirsty for that oscar. It’s a case of secondhand embarassment all over again, same as it was when Leo ate raw bison liver for the revenant
Yeah… considering BCoop actually looks more Bernstein without the prosthetic, this was a horrible idea
Right? That’s what’s so insane! He looks MORE like him without the prosthetic! What on earth was he (and everyone involved with this) thinking?!
The prosthetic is bigger than Leonard’s actual nose so why then??? To make sure we visually know he’s Jewish? What the? So unnecessary.
The prosthetic reminds me of Pinocchio, not Bernstein. Really a bad choice.
I really don’t get the accent. He was from Massachusetts…
Is Bradley Cooper, who I used to like, trying to alienate me? Because it’s working. Leonard Bernstein did not look like a Jewish stereotype who just stepped out of a Nazi propaganda film. Gross.
And the trailer is terrible too. I’ll never watch this.
The trailer feels like a joke? I’m in shock at how terrible it all looks. Ouffff…. Bradley did the Smartless podcast and raved about this project, and Will Arnett who will kiss any a** did too. So I was half-expecting something midly good, because of the way Bradley talked about how the orchestra scene’s were shot, but holy…… that’s not going to save this disaster.
The dialogue (at least in this trailer), the accents, the voices, the looks. I’ve never wanted to see a movie less!
I actually LOVE Leonard Bernstein and was so infatuated with the idea of making a movie like this, but wow… Beyond disappointed.
I’ve always found Bradley Cooper to be a mediocre actor with very limited acting skills and invisible charisma on screen.
The man was given a pass because he has blue eyes and a charm slightly above average. However, based on merit -compared to actors like Nicholson or de Niro – Bradley Cooper should be advertizing for deodorants and thank God Hugo Boss wanta to hire his nonentity.
Overrated. The trailer is soppy snd laughably grotesque.
Thank you @Sugarhere. I found Bradley Cooper lacking on Alias (whose other actors were so wonderful!) and haven’t watched him since.
I had a visceral reaction to Cooper’s prosthesis. Felt genuinely sick at the anti-semitism of it. Made even worse by memories of what a giant Bernstein was in the 60’s and 70’s.
I think there has generally been antisemitism arguments brewing in films with Oppenheimer characters being played by non-Jews other casting announements of films. Also i wonder if Carey Mulligan will face a backlash for playing a Latina particualrly after campaigning for her role in Drive which was written for a Latina
I hope she does face backlash because it’s ridiculous.
She has been horribly miscast in soooo many projects. She must have a great agent. And yes she is already getting backlash for yet again taking the role that was written for a Latina.
Bernstein’s wife’s accent was not South American though she as a person was. She may have changed her accent to fit in.
Sorry to double post but you can see/hear Felicia in this Edward R Murrow interview, she’s 2 minutes in. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKnU37HaBJY&t=232s
Was Felicia raised in British schools? It’s so la-di-da
Came here to say this!! Carey Mulligan playing a half Costa Rican person, my lord!! Hopefully more outlets pick up on this!!
Agree about Oppenheimer.
Actors don’t need prosthetics to play roles. That his actual nose not only looks closer to Bernstein’s but is bigger than Bernstein’s was, shows this was a Choice to say “Look. Jew.” It’s antisemitism right out of the early days of Vaudeville. And I’m so pissed about Mirren as Golda, too. It’s so unnecessary to prosthetic the hell out of your body and face.
There has been a clear move toward trying to get an actor to look like the person they are portraying over choosing someone who superficially resembles them and gets the manner, voice, etc. right. Or just choosing an actor who wants the role and making them unrecognisable. Between that and CGI everywhere you look Hollywood has give up on imagination.
@MrsBanjo, too true.
To hijack Olivier’s comment to Hoffman, “Why don’t you try acting, dear boy?”
He would have looked more like Bernstein without the fake nose.
Agree. But couldn’t makeup have tried harder to capture Bernstein’s characteristic eyebrows? Even when he was young, they were unruly maestro brows.
There goes his Oscar. WTF were they thinking? It isn’t just unncessary, given that BCoop’s original nose is already close enough to Bernstein’s, it also looks cheap and badly done.
Oof this is so, so bad. Like they literally didn’t even look at his nose. And as the very proud possessor of a more pronounced version of the same kind of Ashkenazi Jewish nose that Bernstein had, it’s much more about the little bump in the bridge than whatever this triangle they put on his face is. Also like, there are so few movies about Jews that aren’t about the Holocaust, and that portray us as fully fledged individuals and characters beyond the worst things that have happened to our people. Given that and the rise in overt anti-Semitism in the US – direct it if you must, but at least give the role to an actual Jew.
Also though, @Kaiser, “goyim” is actually the collective noun/plural of goy. A goy is a single non-Jewish person, or you might more commonly see “goyishe” or “goyish” as the Yinglish adjective form, so I’d probably say goyishe Bradley Cooper. Ie, when my father refers to skiing or any outdoor winter sport as “goyishe nonsense.” It’s mildly but lovingly pejorative in that context. It can also be used more neutrally, ie, a “Shabbos goy” is a non-Jew who performs tasks forbidden to Jews on Shabbat (ie, turning on the stove, pushing an elevator button etc.)
“Triangle on his face” is so accurate and made me laugh. It’s like one isosceles triangle glued on sideways.
That prosthetic was so unnecessary. It looks like Pinocchio as he gets caught in a lie and his nose gets longer.
This. Just saw it, after I posted my comment.
As many people have pointed out, the irony is that he didn’t need to wear the nose to play Bernstein. And he looks more like Tony Bennett than he does Bernstein with it.
I guess he had to cast himself because there are just no Jews or gays working in theatre.
On a less sarcastic and self-centred note, I wish he’d cast other actors because the cinematography and sound are just so pretty. I would have enjoyed this as old-school escapism.
It is a matter of channeling the characters. Cate blanchett did not put on makeup to look like Hepburn but she captured and channeled Hepburn and her personality in the film the aviator.
Cooper could have done what blanchett did and captured the energy and brilliance of Bernstein without the heavy handed makeup.
Bernstein was really good looking. This is Bradley Cooper trying to pull a Nicole Kidman as Virginia Wolfe to pick up an Oscar. This should have went to Jake G. He’s a better actor and better looking, more suited to play Bernstein imo.
He was i saw a documentary about him and an exhibit at Lincoln center about his life.
It would be one thing if this was from a makeup test, but they put that nose on him, everyone involved said “yep it’s great!” and shot and edited a whole ass movie with it. This is shameful for everyone involved.
Right? It’s basically a muppet nose and not a single person realized that this was ridiculous, unnecessary and antisemitic? What a room full of clowns worked on this movie?
Yeah, it boggles the mind. I do not understand why they paid so much attention to the nose when Bradley’s eyebrows are sparse compared to Bernstein’s.
Also why is Carey Mulligan there? Oscar bait movies really are just recycling the same 5 actresses over and over.
Yes, eyebrows are wrong
“Oscar bait movies really are just recycling the same 5 actresses over and over “
1000x this !
Is it me or did they add a weird pointy chin prosthetic too?
Yes Bradley chin looks looks off too .
I’m assuming a fair amount of commenters here (especially other Jews) are aware of the Nazi propaganda used in the 30’s in Germany to *identify* Jews. The caricatures of us — with big hooked noses. This is making me feel like this. This reminds me of my mother being so proud that she could afford to give me a nose job for my 16th birthday (HMU if anyone else had that gift) I feel sick. I’m so cross. This is so fkn tone-deaf. I can’t believe we’re still being this typecast. Our fkn noses 💔
Did they look at pictures of Bernstein? If they did, did Cooper decide Bernstein didn’t look “Jewish” enough for them, so they decided to go the stereotype route because this is some BS.
Bradley probably thought he was too handsome to play the part, or win an Oscar, so……….. here we are. I agree, this is bs. And the dialogue in the trailer drives me crazy. It feels like a caricature or like an SNL sketch
After having seen pictures of Bernstein as a young man, I can say that Bradley Cooper is NOT handsome enough to play Bernstein if we go by physical parameters. And that prosthetic nose looks ridiculous and fake, doesn’t make him resemble Bernstein AND is an anti-Semitic stereotype. So many fails.
Yes, Bernstein was way better looking than Bradley. It seems like Bradley wanted a big nose not just for a stereotype, but to “ugly” himself up so he can get some point for a “big” transformation that the Oscar voters love.
On top of all of this, Felicia Montealegre was Latina: she was born in Costa Rica, where her mother was from, and raised in Chile; her father was American. I love Carey Mulligan to bits, but jfc.
YES. The nose is horrific, Carey Mulligan playing a woman whose family is from the Caribbean is also horrific.
Carey Mulligan was in Gatsby and there was nothing about her that screamed “Daisy’. Why does she get these roles?
He should’ve focused on the jaw and the eyebrows if the goal was to look more like him.
He made Leonard Bernstein look incredibly ugly. The guy was hot, so this seems like a total miss!
Did Bradley think his “smoldering looks” would get in the way of his “academy award-winning acting” if he didn’t do something to his face? (we all know he’s striving for those awards).
And, boy this movie looks like a caricature or a satire, not like the serious and “amazing” thing Bradley, Will Arnett, Jason Bateman and Sean Hayes tried to make it sound like in an interview of Bradley on their podcast. Yikes!
If this movie gets any good reviews or nominations that goes to show how corrupt the movie industry is, and how Bradley has his hands in the right people’s pockets.
I hope SNL does a sketch on this dumb trailer, because this is the worst thing I’ve seen in a long while.
Yes!
@Lione, I’m laughing so hard at your second paragraph!!
WOWWWWWWWW.
This is BAD.
Went for an Oscar got Cancelled (by me) instead what a pig. His nose is bigger than betnstarins this was to make him stereotypical Jew. When people show you who they are believe t them the fist time. He hid it well for a long time 💔
I’m sitting here in shock that no one…NO ONE…working on this movie saw the makeup test for this and thought…OMG, this is wrong on so many levels.
I read Jake Gyllenhaal’s response from years ago to BCoop buying the rights out from under him. He sounded sad. I know he would have done a wonderful job not only because he’s Jewish, but because he would have done it right, not as Oscar bait. I blame Spielberg for allowing Bradley to direct and star in this as well.
I’m one of the few Bradley Cooper fans who posts on CB and even I think this looks super ridiculous. Cooper looked a lot like Bernstein (at that age) without the idiotic prosthetic. Now he and the movie look like an anti-semitic joke. Ugh.
Same. I’m not a superfan or anything, but I’ve never actively disliked him. This stunt, however, is so offensive, JFC.
Same. I kinda like bcoop, probably since I was a big Alias fan and even though his character was not well written he did the best he could with it. It was nice to see him make the transition to film and he’s done some good work (heavy handed pr and all). But yep, this doesn’t look encouraging. And CM? WTH? I like her as an actress but shoehorning her into roles just because… Oh well.
I hate this.
So you have a white dude wearing a prosthetic nose to look “more Jewish”- despite the person he is portraying not having a significantly large nose. And a white British actress playing a Latina. Yeah… I hope Bradley and this film get dragged for FILTH. Cooper has always annoyed me with his over-inflated sense of importance but this is just gross. It reminds me a LOT of what Zoe Saldana did for that Nina Simone monstrosity of a film.
Montalegre was a white Latina of entirely European descent. The issue isn’t race here, as its a white actress playing a white character, but it is a blow for representation. Disappointing.
Cooper does seem exceptionally self-important. Remember all the buildup to “A Star is Born”? The way he talked about his vision and his process, you’d have thought he was making “Citizen Kane.” I mean, it was fine, it wasn’t bad, but it was just a regular old movie.
Also I read an interview where Lady Gaga talked about how when they met for her to audition, he insisted she go get a damp washcloth (I think they were at her house?) and then, without asking her or explaining, he just took her face in his hands and wiped her heavy makeup off. Trying to expose the real her, I guess? But I thought that was incredibly creepy. Dude. Don’t put your hands on your female colleague, especially when she’s auditioning for a role and might feel uncomfortable saying no to you. He could just have said, “I’d like to see you in a more natural look, would you be willing to take your makeup off?” Instead it was some weird Svengali BS.
I remember that interview. It was so bizarre that he did that! That, combined with how he was in all the press of that really put me off him. And what she said in that interview soured me on the film as a whole because I thought of it every time I saw them together in a clip or an ad or an interview. I can’t even listen to that song when it comes on the radio.
And this film? He performance and make up? Eew in so many ways.
The nose itself looks bad from a prosthetic perspective… you can completely see the line, that it’s fake. And worse, it is not like LB’s nose at all and evokes awful bigotry. Oh, BC, you’re showing your a**. Again.
WTF?! Cooper’s real nose looks more like Bernstein’s than this one does!
My husband is Jewish. My kids were raised Jewish and both look like a mix of me and their father. This is so offensive and just plain stupid and wrong. Some Jewish people have big noses. Some have medium ones and some have SMALL ones. My daughter has such a little button nose that people ask her to share the name of her plastic surgeon, LOL.
The only excuse for wearing a prosthetic nose is if you’re playing Cyrano. Or Pinocchio.
I thought Helen Mirren was of Jewish descent, though? I don’t know on which side, but she’s not totally Gentile.
I thought Mirren was part Jewish as well on her father’s (Russian) side. I’m not 💯 but it came up when she talked about Golda. She seemed sensitive to the issue.
The nose looks laughably fake and the trailer is incredibly boring.
That prosthetic was so unnecessary. Someone on Twitter shared a clip from the movie Exodus, starring Paul Newman, where he portrays Ari Ben Canaan, a Jew. No prosthetic nose. One character was talking about how he could spot a Jew anywhere, not knowing he was speaking to one (Ari).
Newman was half Jewish but no, he didn’t have a big nose. Plenty of of people who are 100% Jewish don’t have big noses.
You can totally see the line from the glued on nose. Much like Khate’s wiglets.
There is already a movie called Maestro, and it is about actual MAESTRO Larry Levan. Look it up. It’s sad at the end but a lot of movies about that time period are. It was a sad time. But do yourself a favor and check it out!
Bradley regular nose looks like it’s been altered. The prosthetics department maybe went bigger since they couldn’t make it soft looking like Bernstein’s. Either way this movie looks exhausting. This is why only theatre films should be Oscar contenders.
Hollywood is over!
It’s kind of funny NO ONE in his life cared enough about him to tell him this was ridiculous. They just let him shoot an ENTIRE FILM looking like this.
I suppose that’s the risk of surrounding yourself with yes men and letting the power you think you have go to your head.
Also, did he just piss off the entirety of the Jewish and performing arts communities? Because those are not small demographics in Hollywood…
Just prefacing with the fact that I love so-called“ethnic” noses of all backgrounds and I am always sad when I see stars get nose jobs that remove something so interesting for the sake of conformity.
But yeah, this is a profoundly weird costume choice considering Bernstein’s actual nose. It’s really, really weird.
The issue with the nose isn’t just that it’s possibly an antisemitic red flag (I’ve seen divided opinions on this, from Jewish people, so it’s not a discussion I’ll wade into).
The issue with the prosthetic nose is that it’s perhaps the most blatant example yet of an actor trying to campaign for an Oscar by showing how “””dedicated””” they are to the role by donning an appearance altering prosthetic, rather than by, y’know, actually acting decently in a manner that’s worthy and deserving of an Oscar.
And tbf, there is nothing bad about being thirsty. And Bradley Cooper is desperately thirsty. But that is entirely what this is about. It’s about demonstrating his supposed commitment to portraying Bernstein on film. The conversation about how drastically different he looks was supposed to be about how he went all in and was willing to alter his face for this role. Not only did he overshoot that target by a country mile, he’s also failed to realize that the culture at large has moved on from being awestruck by actors demonstrating a willingness to alter their appearance on film. People tend to view actors waxing poetic about how dedicated they are to their roles with a huge side eye these days. It’s seen as fake, pretentious, and try-hard. Which is incidentally exactly how a lot of people, including myself, are viewing Bradley Cooper right now.
Probably has been already said here, but I’m looking forward to Jennifer Aniston’s thoughts on antisemitism.
…promoting an antisemitic caricature is not acting. This never should have made it to screen. What should have been a great film will cause harm.
Also, there was great material here and this film looks like a clown show.