Maestro movie faces backlash for giving Bradley Cooper fake nose

❘ Published: 2023-08-16T09:00:51

Netflix

Netflix released the trailer for the upcoming movie Maestro this week, and already lead star and director Bradley Cooper is facing backlash for wearing a fake nose.

The last black-and-white biopic Netflix produced was Blonde, starring Ana de Armas as Marilyn Monroe – and we all know how that turned out. The movie stirred controversy, with critics describing it as “torture porn,” while the audience rated it just 34% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Nonetheless, the streamer is moving forward with its next film of the same ilk: Maestro, a biopic chronicling the life of famed composer Leonard Bernstein, which blends black-and-white with color photography and stars Carey Mulligan as his wife Felicia Montealegre Cohn Bernstein.

The film is the talk of the town after the trailer dropped this week, with fans shocked to see an “unrecognizable” Bradley Cooper leading the cast. However, much like Blonde, it appears Maestro is already running into controversy.

Netflix movie Maestro faces backlash for Bradley Cooper fake nose

While viewers were excited to get a glimpse of Maestro, the teaser trailer has sparked criticism online due to the fact that lead star Bradley Cooper is seen wearing a prosthetic nose to play a Jewish character.

Cooper, who also directed the Netflix movie, is of Irish-Italian descent and was raised catholic, with Jewish star Tracy-Ann Oberman comparing him wearing the fake feature to “Black-Face or Yellow-Face.”

Speaking to Page Six, the Doctor Who actress said: “If Bradley Cooper is able to play the Elephant Man without any prosthetics, he should be able to play a Jewish man without any need for prosthetics – especially a ‘Jewish’ nose.

“If he needs to wear a prosthetic nose then that is, to me and many others, the equivalent of Black-Face or Yellow-Face.”

Over on Twitter, one commenter shared side-by-side images of Cooper both in real life and in costume for Maestro, alongside a photo of the real Leonard Bernstein.

“This feels especially sinister because Bradley Cooper’s nose is already the same shape and size, if not slightly larger, than Leonard Bernstein’s was,” they wrote.

Another said: “Just looked up a picture of the real Leonard Bernstein… the big antisemitic prosthetic nose on Bradley Cooper was definitely not necessary.”

Not everyone agrees with this sentiment, however, with Jewish The West Wing star Joshua Malina telling Page Six: “I do not take issue with Bradley Cooper being made to look like a real person.

“Were an actor to don a big hooked nose to play Shylock, or a random, fictitious Jew, I think I’d have a problem with the propagation of a well-worn antisemitic stereotype.

“Jews do not, in fact, have bigger noses than other people do; Leonard Bernstein did. That’s the end of the story for me.”

Maestro drops on Netflix on September 2. In the meantime, you can check out some of our other Netflix coverage below: