Bradley Cooper defends Maestro Fake Nose as Leonard Bernstein

When the reaction ends Bradley Coopernose prosthesis in “Teacher” It first broke out in August. Before the film’s world premiere at the Venice Film Festival, Cooper himself was unable to speak out to defend his choice, as he was in the middle of a SAG-AFTRA strike. He finally got the chance to do it during an interview with “CBS Mornings,” and explained that he first tried to play famous composer Leonard Bernstein without the prosthetic, but ultimately decided “we had to do it.”

“Nothing takes me by surprise,” Cooper said when asked about the initial reaction to the fake nose. “You never know what is going to happen. I have done this entire project for love and I am very clear about where I come from. My nose is a lot like Lenny’s actually. The prosthesis is actually like a silk sheet.”

“I thought, ‘Maybe we don’t need to do it because we could take some time off from preparing,'” Cooper continued. “But it’s about balance and, you know, my lips don’t look anything like Lenny’s, nor do my chin. And then we had that, and it just didn’t look right [without the prosthetic]…we just had to do it, otherwise you wouldn’t believe you were a human being.”

Cooper earned critical acclaim for his performance in the film, which he also directed and co-wrote. As soon as the backlash began in August, Leonard Bernstein’s real children (Jamie, Alexander and Nina) issued a joint statement defending Cooper.

“Bradley Cooper included the three of us in every step of his incredible journey while making his movie about our father,” the three children said. “We were deeply moved to witness the depth of his commitment, his loving embrace of our father’s music, and the pure, open-hearted joy he brought to the exploration of it. It breaks our hearts to see any misrepresentation or misunderstanding of your efforts. It turns out that Leonard Bernstein had a nice big nose. “Bradley decided to wear makeup to amplify the likeness of him and we are perfectly fine with that.”

Later, the Anti-Defamation League also came to Cooper’s defense. “Throughout history, Jews were often portrayed in anti-Semitic films and propaganda as evil caricatures with large, hooked noses,” the ADL said. said in a statement to Variety. “This movie, which is a biopic about legendary conductor Leonard Bernstein, is not that.”

Cooper worked with Oscar-winning makeup artist Kazu Hiro (“How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” “Darkest Hour”) to create the prosthetics used in the film. Hiro first addressed the reaction himself. during the film’s press conference at the Venice Film Festival.

“I didn’t expect that to happen,” Hiro said. “I’m sorry I hurt some people’s feelings. My goal and Bradley’s goal was to portray Lenny as authentically as possible. Lenny had a really iconic look that everyone knows (there are so many pictures because he is photogenic too), a great person and he also inspired a lot of people. That’s why we wanted to respect the appearance also, inside. That’s why we did several different tests and made many decisions and that was the result of the film.”

As Cooper pointed out, it wasn’t just his nose that was modified to transform him into Leonard Bernstein. hiro created prostheses change the actor’s neck and chin depending on the age at which he played Bernstein in the film.

“Maestro” opens in select theaters on November 22 and will be available for global streaming on Netflix starting December 20.