Children of Leonard Bernstein on Bradley Cooper’s artificial nose in Maestro: “We’re totally cool with that”

The conductor’s children have defended Bradley Cooper after the actor’s prosthetic nose in the Maestro teaser for the forthcoming Leonard Bernstein biography sparked accusations of antisemitism. The first detailed look at Cooper’s makeup and portrayal of the legendary American composer and longstanding music director of the New York Philharmonic was provided by the teaser trailer for Maestro, which Cooper both directs and stars in. Cooper, who is not Jewish, becomes into Bernstein, who was, by donning a prosthetic nose. Also see Bradley Cooper in the middle of a storm with a Maestro makeover, “It’s a jewface stereotype”

Some others thought Cooper’s nose in the trailer resembled the kind of exaggerated caricature that has often seen in Jewish depictions throughout cinematic history. Stop Antisemitism, a nonprofit organization, termed it “sickening.”

The organization tweeted on X, “Hollywood hired Bradley Cooper, a non-Jew, to represent Jewish great Leonard Bernstein and slapped a nasty exaggerated ‘Jew nose’ on him.

Bradley Cooper is defended by the family of Leonard Bernstein

In a statement supporting Cooper on Wednesday, Bernstein’s three children, Jamie, Alexander, and Nina Bernstein, said they were “touched to the core to witness the depth of (Cooper’s) commitment, his loving embrace of our father’s music, and the sheer open-hearted joy he brought to his exploration.”

“It breaks our hearts to see any misrepresentations or misunderstandings of his efforts,” the statement said. The fact that Leonard Bernstein had a great, large nose is a fact. Bradley made the decision to enhance his similarity using cosmetics, and we have no problem with that. We’re also certain that our father would have approved of it.

The Bernstein kids said, “strident complaints about this issue strike us above all as disingenuous attempts to bring a successful person down a notch — a practice we observed perpetrated all too often on our father.”

Cooper’s spokesperson refused to comment. The movie’s distributor, Netflix, also declined to comment.

The Venice Film Festival is where Maestro will have its world debut next month. It will debut on Netflix on December 20 and in a few cinemas on November 22.
Debating stereotyping

The Cooper-Bernstein case has several facets; it touches on both the general topic of casting when it comes to certain groups and the problem of stereotyping. Who can and should play various roles has been a hot topic of discussion in the acting community in recent years, especially in light of the fact that some groups have had a difficult time in Hollywood finding consistent and meaningful employment over the years.

In Cameron Crowe’s 2015 film Aloha, Emma Stone played a half-Asian character for which she later apologized. According to Tom Hanks, a homosexual actor would play the lead role in Philadelphia (1993) if it were filmed today, “and rightly so.” Some LGBTQ activists have suggested that trans actors should have filled parts like those performed by Jeffrey Tambor in Transparent and Eddie Redmayne in The Danish Girl.

However, others have suggested that the same viewpoint should also apply to Jewish characters. Those conversations have generally concentrated on the accurate depictions of ethnic minorities and LGBTQ characters. From Shakespeare’s Shylock to Nazi propaganda, the image of the big Jewish nose has endured through the years. The Media Diversity Institute states that while the hooked nose is just one antisemitic caricature among many, it is especially harmful since it is taken as fact.

Author of “Jews Don’t Count” David Baddiel denounced both the casting of Helen Mirren as former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir in the forthcoming film Golda and the Irish actor Cillian Murphy as Jewish scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer earlier this year.

According to Baddiel, casting directors are increasingly afraid to cast anybody who is not part of the minority they are casting. But they don’t seem to be as concerned about Jews.

Others have contended that behaving naturally involves metamorphosis. The writer and author from Hollywood, Mark Harris, downplayed the situation. Harris said on X, “We are not going to start the autumn movie season with a silly ‘backlash’ dispute about an actor using cosmetics to more closely resemble the historical character he’s portraying. Actors have done it for years, and they will keep doing it.