Bradley Cooper in the midst of a controversy: his prosthetic nose for “Maestro” accused of anti-Semitism: Femme Actuelle Le MAG

Not yet in theaters, but already at the heart of a lively controversy. On Wednesday August 16, 2023, Netflix unveiled the trailer for Maestro. This film, directed by Bradley Cooper, tells the story of Leonard Bernstein, one of the greatest composers of 20th century cinema to whom we owe West Side Story. For his second film, after A star is born where he gave the reply to Lady Gaga, the actor-director decided to interpret the main role and to resemble him as faithfully as possible. For this, he notably wore a prosthetic nose. On social networks, many Internet users and associations have accused him of maintaining anti-Semitic stereotypes. “Hollywood cast Bradley Cooper – a non-Jew – as Jewish legend Leonard Bernstein and gave him an exaggerated, disgusting ‘Jewish nose'”wrote Stop Antisemitism on X, the new name of Twitter. “Bradley Cooper puts uunbelievably large prosthetic nose to play a jewish man in Maestro and we’re all supposed to consider that cool and normal?”, “I just looked at a picture of the real Leonard Bernstein…Bradley Cooper’s anti-Semitic big prosthetic nose was definitely not needed…”wrote two other netizens. “I saw Bradley Cooper play the elephant man without a prosthesis on Broadway. But since he’s playing a Jew, he decides he needs a huge nose?”annoyed another.

Leonard Bernstein’s kids support Bradley Cooper

Some Internet users have even gone so far as to compare Bradley Cooper’s prosthesis to a “black face”, an ancient theatrical practice where white actors painted their faces to play black people. Faced with this outcry, the three children of the composer spoke through a press release. On X, Jamie, Alexander and Nina Bernstein claimed to be “totally agree” with the fact that the American director uses “artifices to amplify his likeness” with their father. “Leonard Bernstein happened to have a nice big nose”they added, explaining that they had the “Broken Heart” in the face of numerous criticisms. The children of Leonard Bernstein, who died in 1990, preferred to congratulate the former companion of Irina Shayk For “the depth of his commitment”. For the moment, the American actor has not responded to this controversy. This film about the former director of the New York Philharmonic is due to premiere at the Venice Film Festival, which begins August 30, 2023, before it hits Netflix on December 20, 2023.