Bradley Cooper defends ‘Maestro’ nose prosthetic after “Jewface” controversy

Bradley Cooper has addressed the controversy surrounding his decision to wear a prosthetic nose in upcoming film, Maestro.

The actor plays Jewish conductor Leonard Bernstein in the biopic, which is also co-written and directed by Cooper. Following the film’s first trailer, some criticised the decision to use a fake nose to play the character.

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Speaking about the controversy during an interview on CBS Mornings on Tuesday (November 21), Cooper explained how they nearly considered not using the prosthetic.

“The truth is I’ve done this whole project out of love, and it’s so clear to me where I come from with this,” Cooper said. “My nose is very similar to Lenny’s actually, so the prosthetic is actually like a silk sheet.

“And I thought, ‘Maybe we don’t need to do it,’ because it’s all about time of prep. But it’s all about balance, and, my lips are nothing like Lenny’s, and my chin. And so we had that, and it just didn’t look right [without the prosthetic].”

“We just had to do it,” Cooper added. “Otherwise I wouldn’t believe he was a human being.”

Shortly after the first trailer, Bernstein’s children, Jamie, Alexander and Nina, released a statement defending Cooper’s decision to use prosthetics for the role.

“It breaks our hearts to see any misrepresentations or misunderstandings of his efforts,” they said. “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.”

During the interview, Cooper described the response from Bernstein’s children in the wake of the controversy as “very moving”.

“I read it and I called Alex to thank him,” Cooper said. “I couldn’t believe it but this huge emotional exhalation came out and I just was crying so hard I couldn’t even thank him. And he started crying, it was an incredible moment.

“I couldn’t believe that gesture, it was very moving to me.”

The Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish organisation, also defended Cooper’s use of the prosthetic, saying it isn’t inherently tied to anti-Semitism.

Maestro also stars Carey Mulligan, who plays Bernstein’s wife Felicia Montealegre. The film is released in cinemas from November 22, before it arrives on Netflix on December 20.