Bradley Cooper Addresses Backlash

Bradley Cooper appeared on Tuesday’s (November 21st) episode of CBS Mornings and addressed the backlash he’s received for wearing a prosthetic nose in Maestro. Cooper portrays conductor Leonard Bernstein in the new biopic and has been accused of perpetuating antisemitic stereotypes by using the prosthetic.

“My nose is very similar to Lenny’s actually. So the prosthetic is actually like a silk sheet and I thought, ‘Maybe we don’t need to do it because we can take down time of prep,’” the A Star Is Born actor said. “But it’s all about balance. My lips are nothing like Lenny’s, and my chin. And so we had that, and it just didn’t look right.”

Commenting on how the movie spans several decades of Bernstein’s life, he added, “When he’s young, we had a prosthetic [around my nose] and then it just moves out so by the time he’s older, it’s the whole face. So, we just had to do it, otherwise I wouldn’t believe he’s a human being.”