Leonard Bernstein's family is "perfectly fine" with Bradley Cooper's Maestro nose
Cooper wears an enlarged prosthetic nose to play legendary Jewish composer Leonard Bernstein, which caused controversy after film's the first trailer dropped
It’s always a risky choice for an actor to alter their physical appearance in order to more closely resemble a real-life subject—especially when those alterations have the potential to feed into racially sensitive and/or offensive stereotypes. You’d think directors would have gotten the hint by now, but that clearly does not seem to be the case.
The latest internet firestorm sprang up yesterday around the first teaser for Maestro—the Bradley Cooper-directed (and written, produced, and led) biopic of legendary composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein. While the short trailer features a beautiful score, lush cinematography, and a welcome first look at Carey Mulligan’s Felicia Cohn Montealegre Bernstein, outrage about one aspect of the production immediately drowned out everything else: Bradley Cooper’s choice to wear a (very large) prosthetic nose.
People were furious. Users on X accused Cooper of perpetuating “Jewface” by wearing the prosthetic to make himself look more “like a Jewish stereotype” than Bernstein’s actual countenance. Others pointed out that the actor’s nose was already similar to, if not larger than Bernstein’s—even without the prosthetic. All of this controversy also drummed up the fact that Cooper and his team essentially swiped the exclusive rights to Bernstein’s catalogue from Jake Gyllenhaal, who is Jewish on his mom’s side and had been trying to get the film made for years. All in all, it was a terrible look for Cooper’s passion project, which one user hailed as “a sure bet to sweep the Oscars… if only he’d not worn the comically offensive fake giant Jew nose.”
Despite all of the outrage, however, the late Bernstein’s children—arguably the three most important voices in this debate—don’t see a problem with the prosthetic. “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,” wrote Jamie, Alexander, and Nina in a joint statement. “We’re also certain that our dad would have been fine with it as well.”
The full statement reads as follows:
Only time will tell if audiences will be able to put aside their ire and respect the family’s wishes, or if this controversy will become the main story of the film as its official release inches closer. Either way, we’ll know for sure when Maestro premieres in select theaters November 22, before hitting Netflix on December 20.