Earlier this week, Netflix released the first trailer for the biopic “Maestro,” which is both directed by and stars Bradley Cooper, with the actor playing legendary composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein.
Bernstein, the son of Jewish-Ukrainian immigrants to the US, wrote the music for “West Side Story,” as well as composed three symphonies and became music director of the New York Philharmonic.
Since its release, a good portion of the discussion surrounding the trailer has been about the large prosthetic nose that gentile actor Cooper wears in the film to play Bernstein.
In fact, it has attracted so much controversy that Bernstein’s children have come to Cooper’s defense and have issued a rather long statement saying Cooper had included them: “along every step of his amazing journey as he made his film about our father”.
Jamie, Alexander and Nina Bernstein say in their statement on Twitter: “It breaks our hearts, to see any misrepresentations or misunderstandings of his efforts. 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.”
The Bernsteins added that they believe their father would have been “fine” with the use of prosthetics and call the “strident complaints” as “disingenuous attempts to bring a successful person down a notch – a practice we observed all too often perpetrated on our own father.”
Cooper joins other actors who have encountered scrutiny for their portrayal of figures with Jewish heritage recently, such as Helen Mirren’s recent performance as Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir.
“Maestro” is set to world premiere at the Venice Film Festival in a few weeks, will have its U.S. premiere at the New York Film Festival, and is due to hit select theaters on November 22nd before arriving on Netflix on December 20th.
Source: The New York Times, Twitter
