Bradley Cooper’s Oscar campaign for Maestro is just as over-the-top as his campaign for A Star Is Born back in 2018-19. If anything, I’m sort of more offended this time around, given Cooper’s insistence on casting and directing himself as Leonard Bernstein, complete with a comically offensive prosthetic nose. Not only that, but Bradley Cooper is bragging about his “set rules” as a director and they’re completely awful.
Bradley Cooper has a unique set of rules while he’s directing, including “no chairs” on set.
“For me, it was such a natural transition, once I had the courage to write and direct a movie. But when I direct, I don’t watch playback. There’s no chairs,” Cooper, 48, told Spike Lee about filming Maestro in an interview for Variety published on Wednesday, December 14. “I’ve always hated chairs on sets; your energy dips the minute you sit down in a chair.”
Considering filming can typically consist of 12 to 16-hour days, Cooper’s commitment to keeping his actors in the moment certainly seems intense, which he understands. He admitted he “changed” during the process of filming, and he wasn’t surprised if his film wasn’t loved by all viewers.
“I will say this about Maestro: I grew up on this movie,” he continued. “It changed me as an artist. And people may not like it. I’m sure they won’t.
In addition to no chairs, the American Hustle actor also noted that “there’s no video village” on set, which alludes to him doing away with the monitors that usually surround the director while filming.
*looks at that fake nose again* Maybe if he was watching scenes as he was filming them in a video village, he would have seen that the prosthetics weren’t working? Seriously, I’ve heard bad things about directors who don’t leave the video village and I’m sure that’s a problem too, but you’re literally directing a film and you want to see if the setup works and you want to foster collaboration with your cinematographer, director of photography, etc. “No video villages” isn’t a flex.
As for no sitting… I usually don’t go to “that’s ableism,” but it is. Not every person is physically capable of standing for hours. It’s also not a moral failing for actors or workers to want to sit down in between scenes or setups. It also seems like not allowing seats on set would be a huge legal liability. What if someone faints, etc. Bradley Cooper sounds like such a f–king douche.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, screencap from ‘Maestro’ trailer.
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- LOS ANGELES, CA -DECEMBER 12: Bradley Cooper and Steven Spielberg at the LA Special screening of Maestro at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles, California on December 12, 2023. Copyright: xJeffreyxMayerx,Image: 829081919, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: imago is entitled to issue a simple usage license at the time of provision. Personality and trademark rights as well as copyright laws regarding art-works shown must be observed. Commercial use at your own risk., Model Release: no, Credit line: IMAGO/Jeffrey Mayer / Avalon
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- LOS ANGELES, CA -DECEMBER 12: Carey Mulligan and Bradley Cooper at the LA Special screening of Maestro at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles, California on December 12, 2023. Copyright: xFayexSadoux,Image: 829082030, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: imago is entitled to issue a simple usage license at the time of provision. Personality and trademark rights as well as copyright laws regarding art-works shown must be observed. Commercial use at your own risk., Model Release: no, Credit line: IMAGO/Faye Sadou / Avalon
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- LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – DECEMBER 12: Bradley Cooper attends Netflix’s “Maestro” Los Angeles photo call at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures on December 12, 2023 in Los Angeles, California.,Image: 829234679, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Pictured: Bradley Cooper, Credit line: Jeffrey Mayer / Avalon
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- LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – DECEMBER 12: Bradley Cooper attends Netflix’s “Maestro” Los Angeles photo call at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures on December 12, 2023 in Los Angeles, California.,Image: 829327120, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Pictured: Bradley Cooper, Credit line: Jeffrey Mayer / Avalon
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- Los Angeles special screening of Netflix’s ‘Maestro’ at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures Featuring: Lea De Seine Shayk Cooper, Bradley Cooper Where: Los Angeles, California, United States When: 12 Dec 2023 Credit: Faye’s Vision/Cover Images
Um, sitting for too long is not healthy BUT so is standing for too long. The no chairs/ seats rule sounds bonkers cruel. I can’t believe he boasted about that!
It’s like saying no breaks without saying no breaks.
I think he is saying no breaks without saying no breaks. I used to like this guy, but I dont know what happened, I can’t stand him, and the same thing happened with matthew mcconnaghey. they think the world revolves around them or that they know the Truth. I just can’t.
The big nose prosthetic is probably to hide his own real nose job, so we wouldnt notice that’s how these people are into themselves.
He copied Christopher Nolan, who infamously doesn’t want chairs on sets.
I don’t believe in oxygen. It just allows easy breathing. 🙄 I heard some folks say Chris Nolan did this, no HE himself didn’t use a chair. Bradley is just being pretentious and foolish.
He truly has always struck me as super pretentious. I don’t get the feeling that he is this super nice, sweet guy that he tries to put out there. Maybe I’m wrong.
If he is willing to show this mindset and behavior in public/interviews, imagine how pretentious and insufferable he is behind the scenes and in his personal life.
Something about him has always seemed off to me. It’s like he’s trying to hard to seem nice when he’s got a lot of grim stuff bottled up in there. Suffice to say, his playing the charming-but-amoral Nightmare Alley lead felt like perfect casting. 👀
This is exactly what it is. He’s trying to align himself with the “auteur” set, by suggesting the comparison with Nolan. I wonder if he realizes how easily we see through his attempt to embiggen himself.
I think he’s just a big dork who is angry about it and overcompensating bc he has zero chill. The sex appeal of a toaster.
“…once I had the courage to write and direct a movie.” Dude. You’re not curing cancer, or becoming the first man on Mars. Dial back the hubris a bit!
No chairs? No way. If I was an actor or actress in Hollywood I’d be all “thanks for warning me off of working with you.” What a tool…
He just always comes off as a total control freak. I bet he’s like that in relationships as well. Run Gigi!
I saw some videos of his daughter though at the premiere and that kid is a natural. She definitely got “it”.
Also dude needs to lay off the plastic surgery he’s starting to look freaky.
Is that what it is?? I just thought he really wasn’t aging well. His face looks so different.
He’s not aging well, but I don’t see the signs of plastic surgery.
He’s always looked like a ferret to me.🏃🏾♀️
Emu. I get emu.
HA! It’s not just me, I always said a weasel or a ferret. I’m going to watch Maestro, I’m interested in how it plays especially since the Bernstein children signed off on this and they are NOTORIOUSLY protective of their parents.
@Kaye Yeeeessss EMU!! It makes me so happy to be validated lol Tell me this doesn’t remind y’all of him
https://flareoaksrescue.com/emu-pic-1280×1024-3d5c02a/
His whole face is different. Cheeks, chin, you name it.
This squares with my theory that some people become little tyrants when they have some success as directors. Or maybe they were tyrants to start and directing just gave them power over people. Sitting doesn’t drain energy. It restores it. Actors should start boycotting his films. Or have a “sit in”.
As someone with osteoarthritis in both knees, I find even standing for 30 minutes excruciating. I have to sit down every so often because my knees get so swollen and stiff. I guess he doesn’t care about people older, fatter or less fit than himself. It’s a great way to discriminate against people, I suppose, to create these rules designed to weed people out.
He sounds like a precocious child who’s playing with his Fisher-Price “My First Director Gig” play set.
That is ridiculous. Especially considering how physical the job is for the crew, and that actresses often wear heels as part of their costume.
So what I’m hearing is…. he doesn’t give a shit about his crew, and may be violating union rules.
Oh and the movie isn’t even good.
Cool story, Brad.
The more I learn about him (as a director, boyfriend, etc.), the less I like him.
I’ve worked on a set like that. Technically, I was the set teacher hired out for a few days and wasn’t part of the crew, so I sat down? But my friends who were a part of the crew would sit down with me but then jump up if the director or AD came by. Since I was only there for certain days of the shoot, I wasn’t aware of the rule. When I learned of it, I said that’s ridiculous and the crew just shrugged and said some directors are more old school. So I guess Bradley Cooper is trying to be old school🙄. The hours are crazy and so the no sitting rule is absurd.
I don’t think the no chairs rule is technically “old school”. Classic film sets always had chairs for the stars with their names on them. Non stars still had chairs though. The studios were oppressive in many ways but at least they let the actors (and crews) sit down. This sounds more like a “new school” thing, as in, “we’re all about the work”.
That makes sense. The crew member I was talking with was a very young PA so “old school” could have meant anything really. The director was probably late 50s and aside from that rule, he was actually not one I minded in that he was soft-spoken, worked well with the kids and didn’t seemed to have hired any power-tripping ADs.
SAG would not let him deny actors chairs. That is a big old lie. I suspect he means he didn’t have a video village set up, but actors and scripty still had their chairs. There’s no way the script supervisor is holding her huge book of shooting notes and watching the monitor while standing.
as for not watching playback, he still had it. You have to have it for a variety of departments, not just the director. God he’s ridiculous.
He is absolutely absurd and Kaiser nailed it with pretentious.
“I grew up on this movie” says the man rapidly approaching 50 years of age. Yeesh, he seems absolutely insufferable
If he doesn’t want a video village that’s one thing, but no chairs on set is ridiculous. Likely a health and safety issue as well so I really wonder if he will be allowed to do this for the next movie.
Standing all day is not good. People end up passing out more when that happens too.
I have to wonder why Spike Lee was thinking when he heard this. Especially since cooper got praised for his directing efforts almost right away and Spike only won his first Oscar decades in.
Cooper wants an Oscar sooooo sooooooo bad, he’s never been likable and has always had an ick factor about him. He is the epitome of white male privilege – he gets a standing ovation for going potty on his own.
I would like to see him stand in 3 inch heels 12 hours at a time with no sitting. Abusive.
So he’s talking about the crew who are all no doubt wearing comfortable shoes or work boots. He’s not talking about 1st team actors, plz. I’m thinking Carrie mulligan would have had a chair if she wanted to sit between takes. But it doesn’t even matter the shoes. These are looong hours on set and he’s being a try-hard. There’s other directors who are even more hard core. One not only had a rule of no chairs but no cell phones on set. Ever. At all. Which made the job harder for all the PAs. I wasn’t on that set but my friend who has worked in the business for a very long time described it as the worst experience they’ve ever had on a set. The entire crew was miserable throughout the grueling shoot in Ohio.
In some of the photos from the set I’ve seen, between takes, Mulligan is in costume but wearing crocs or Ugg boots between takes.
No chairs on set sounds like a way of making up for his lack of ability to create a set where people can stay focused and on task. Like he doesn’t know how to do that (or hire people who know how to do that) and so he overcompensates and creates this draconian rule.
Cooper really wants the Oscar so bad 😑between the fake nose, the not scabbing scabbing, and now this. He truly is going to get more insufferable as time goes on.
Joker. Ego filled, bully.
No chairs? Fine, I’ll just sit here on the floor in my expensive costume.
I have never liked BC. I still do not see how he has reached the level of success he has.
I’m distracted by how much he resembles Robin Williams in some of these pictures.
I know it sounds like ego, but this just reeks of insecurity. Guess what, Bradley? Even if you get that Oscar it won’t fix that feeling of not being good enough. Just give people chairs, let your work speak for itself & go to therapy.
The stills of him from the movie look like a SNL spoof. That nose is ridiculous. It’s like B Coop had a nose job that already made his nose look like a fake triangle, and then decided to 2x it for the film.
Leonard Bernstein’s nose looks like an actual nose and he’s actually quite handsome. More handsome than B Coop as himself or as Leonard imo.
I could not be less interested in this movie, and I like Carrie Mulligan. My husband and I truly hated A Star Is Born. We only got through it by yelling at the screen for the 2 hours. It was so poorly directed and he needed a producer and editor that weren’t afraid to tell him “no” and to reign in his worst impulses.
Speaking of bad impulses, why would you make a film about a true genius but focus on his relationship with a woman, even though he was gay, and make it seem the marriage was his greatest accomplishment? That is what the advertising is trying to sell it as, some great love story. HE WAS GAY!! That poor woman wasted her life with him, but yes, let’s make it seem like it was worth it because she allowed him to be successful and have the image of a happily married man. It’s such a watered down way to tell the story of his life and career.
I thought Bernstein’s kids said he was bisexual not gay.
The trailers show his relationships with men. But Felicia was his soulmate. He just was more attracted to men than women though he did have relationships with the latter.
My favorite part is how a 48 year old man…ADMITTED he’s FINALLY grown😡 I wouldn’t admit THAT to my OWN MAMA if it were me!😂
Quite frankly he’s looking like Barry Manilow. I guess he’s next?
God, now I can’t unsee it! Keep your mitts off of Barry Manilow, no matter how much you appear to be physically morphing into him! I loved Bradley Cooper on Alias, but he has just gotten insufferable.
All you have to do is look at his eyes, very intense with a wisp of hysteria. I have always felt he played himself in The Wedding Crashers.
I was thinking the same!!!
A lot of directors, including Christopher Nolan, don’t have chairs on set, but cast and crew are always allowed to sit on the ubiquitous “Apple boxes,” the wooden boxes of various sizes that are used to transport filming equipment.
I think Cooper is an annoying combination of pretentious and insecure, which is why he so often comes off sounding like a tool.
You nailed it
I like Bradley Cooper as an actor but this is some bulls–t right here. Employers and managers: please let your workers do their work in whatever physical position works best for them, as long as it does not disrupt the work of others. And that nose is unforgivable. Had he never heard of antisemitic stereotypes about nose sizes? And no one on his set or design team had ever heard of those either???? What a bunch of uninformed ignoramuses. I sincerely hope that every single person who writes about this movie during this awards season mentions how wrong that one decision was. It’s not blackface but it’s in the same neighborhood.
The No Chairs thing is supposedly a Christopher Nolan rule too. Maybe Bradley stole that from him. I am not sure what the point of it is though.
I work on film sets and have had the misfortune of working for directors who have tried to implement both “no chairs” and “no cellphones” on set. For “no chairs” I asked the director (who was also the producer) to his face whether he wanted me to actually do the job he was paying me for or whether he would prefer that I perform focus for his benefit all day. For “no cellphones” I went to the executive producer and told him that if the director wanted to implement this rule on set, we would all have to be given wifi-enabled digital cameras (on the production’s dime) in order to take continuity photos and update the project on the digital platform that all the heads of department insisted we use. They walked back the no cellphones rule after that.
These “rules” have nothing to do with the work; they’re about control, and you’re allowed to stand up to these people.
LeI loved Maestro.
Mr Cooper is so good and real.
His acting is notorious as well as all the entire cast. He directed perfectly his team. Yannick Nezet-Seguin is so so
good with all the musics.Thank you
for that gift Mr Cooper.