Members of Leonard Bernstein’s family weighed in to defend Bradley Cooper and his forthcoming biopic of Leonard Bernstein against charges of antisemitism.
Specifically, his nose.
The trailer for the film, which co-stars Carey Mulligan as Bernstein’s wife, Felicia Montealegre, was released Tuesday, Aug. 15, by Netflix. It was greeted by howls of protest over Cooper’s use of a prosthetic nose considerably larger and more prominent than the original.
Bernstein’s children, Jamie, Alexander and Nina, responded the following day with a public statement paying tribute to Cooper’s “amazing journey” in making the film, which he stars in, wrote and directed.
“It happens to be true that Leonard Bernstein had a nice, big nose,” the statement read in part. “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 fine with it as well.”
(1/6) From Jamie, Alexander, and Nina Bernstein:
— Leonard Bernstein (@LennyBernstein)August 16, 2023
Bradley Cooper included the three of us along every step of his amazing journey as he made his film about our father.pic.twitter.com/y9xZWDotJe
“Maestro,” which is scheduled for release in theaters on Nov. 22, was always likely to be a source of controversy, just as its subject was. But observers expected the turmoil to surround depictions of Bernstein’s sex life, which included frequent encounters with men during his 27-year marriage.
Instead, the blowback concerned what many critics saw as an exaggerated vision of a stereotypical Jewish feature.
On the website X (formerly Twitter), the account@StopAntisemitism posted, “Hollywood cast Bradley Cooper — a non-Jew — to play Jewish legend Leonard Bernstein and stuck a disgusting exaggerated ‘Jew nose’ on him.”
Concerns about the casting of non-Jewish actors as Jews have resonated through Hollywood along with analogous discussions about queer, Asian and Black actors. In 2021, the actress and comedian Sarah Silvermanprotestedagainst the practice in an episode of her podcast.
So far, Cooper has not responded publicly to the brouhaha.
Reach Joshua Kosman:jkosman@sfchronicle.com; Twitter:@JoshuaKosman