" That ’s a lot of pagan cosplay for one movie . "
Bradley Cooperis beingcalled “antisemitic"for his choice of prosthetics in his new movieMaestro, and now he’s responding to the backlash.
In this biographical film, Bradley portrays the life and career of Jewish-American composer Leonard Bernstein. It also centers around his relationship with his wife, Felicia Montealegre Bernstein, played byCarey Mulligan.
Bradley not only stars in the film, but he also co-wrote it, co-produced it, and directed it. This will be his first time in the director seat since his hit 2018 release ofA Star Is Born.
Negative reviews of Bradley’s involvement in the Netflix movie first began with the casting choices. The Hollywood Reporter film critic, Daniel Feinberg,pointed outthat not only is Bradley a non-Jewish actor playing a historic Jewish figure…
…but Carey, a white English actor, is portraying his Costa Rican-Chilean wife.
“That’s a lot of ethnic cosplay for one movie,” Daniel tweeted.
My critiquing of Bradley Cooper converting to Latex Judaism induce me to fail to even notice Carey Mulligan as Leonard Bernstein ’s first married woman , who was Chilean - Judaic . That ’s a LOT of pagan cosplay for one motion picture .
Some also mentioned theirdisappointmentofJake Gyllenhaal(a Jewish actor)losing out on the rights to the film, after decades of hoping he’d get to bring Leonard’s story to the big screen.
And as thetrailerand more images fromMaestrowere released, people couldn’t see past Bradley’s decision to use a prosthetic nose to increase the size of his natural nose, saying that it plays into Jewish stereotypes.
Hi , also a Judaic person and a makeup artist . The problem with this is they chose to accent Bradley Cooper ’s nose so he could play a Judaic man . The hooklike / large nose is a stereotype that has been used for one C to depict us as demons , hobgoblin , witch , and snakes.https://t.co/DYNiU0SD27
The prosthetic was n’t require . If you ’re give way to portray a Jewish man , the least you may do is not perpetuate stereotypes . Bradley Cooper ’s rude nose is bigger than Bernstein ’s . Yet he used a prosthetic ? Make it make sense . Just embody the character . Ughhttps://t.co/fdh8ezyBK5
Well, Bradley is finally speaking out. During a recent interview withCBS Mornings, he admitted he was initially against using a prosthetic nose.
“I thought, ‘Maybe we don’t need to do it,'” Bradley said. “But it’s all about balance, and, you know, 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].”
Leonard’s three children, who were involved in the making of the movie, also chimed in to support the film’s use of prosthetics, adding that their late father would’ve agreed with the choice as well, because he did in-fact have a “nice, big nose.”
“ It happens to be true that Leonard Bernstein had a nice , big olfactory organ , " theywrote in a joint statementon Twitter . " 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 all right with it as well . ” They also mark that the review were “ disingenuous attempts to fetch a successful person down a notch — a practice we observe all too often pull on our own father . ”
Bradley spent six years preparing for this role, which included learning how to properly conduct an orchestra and mastering Leonard’s mannerisms.
And despite the recent backlash, whenMaestrofirst premiered at the 80thVenice International Film Festivalit was met with predominantly positive reviews (currently holding an81% rating on Rotten Tomatoes).
How will this controversy surrounding the film play out during awards season? Only time will tell.Maestrois expected to hit Netflix on Dec. 20.
Netflix
