Leonard Bernstein’s family defend Bradley Cooper over ‘Maestro’ prosthetic nose backlash

nme.com:

Bradley Cooper for using facial prosthetics to portray the late composer in biopic Maestro.Cooper stars opposite Carey Mulligan in the upcoming film, which charts the relationship between Leonard Bernstein and his wife Felicia Montealegre Cohn Bernstein.After the trailer for Maestro was released on Tuesday (August 15), Cooper – who also co-writes and directs the project – faced some criticism for using a fake nose in his portrayal of Leonard, who was the son of Jewish-Ukraininan immigrants to the US.In a post on Instagram, actor Tracy Ann-Oberman wrote: “If [Cooper] needs to wear a prosthetic nose then that is, to me and many others, the equivalent of Black-Face or Yellow-Face.”She added: “If Bradley Cooper can’t do it through the power of acting alone then don’t cast him – get a Jewish actor.

Bradley Cooper managed to play the Elephant Man without a single prosthetic then he should be able to manage to play a Jewish man without one.”In response to the criticism on Wednesday (August 16), Bernstein’s children Jamie, Alexander and Nina released a statement to defend Cooper.(1/6) From Jamie, Alexander, and Nina Bernstein:Bradley Cooper included the three of us along every step of his amazing journey as he made his film about our father.

pic.twitter.com/y9xZWDotJe— Leonard Bernstein (@LennyBernstein) August 16, 2023“It breaks our hearts to see any misrepresentations or misunderstandings of his efforts,” reads the statement. “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.