Prosthetic Nose: Bradley Cooper Slammed for Use of 'Jewface' in Upcoming Leonard Bernstein Biopic ‘Maestro’
Bradley Cooper came under fire this week after it was revealed that the actor used a prosthetic nose to portray Jewish composer Leonard Bernstein in an upcoming film, RadarOnline.com has learned.
The backlash started on Tuesday after the first trailer for Cooper’s upcoming Netflix film Maestro was released.
Maestro is a biopic based on the famous Jewish composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein, and Cooper not only stars as Bernstein but also co-wrote, produced, and directed the flick.
But social media users rushed to X after Netflix released the trailer on Tuesday to criticize Cooper’s use of “Jewface” to portray Bernstein.
“Bradley Cooper is putting himself in an insanely large prosthetic nose to play a Jewish man in Maestro and we’re all just supposed to act like that’s cool and normal?” one person wrote on the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
"I saw Bradley Cooper play the elephant man with no prosthetics on Broadway," another user said. "But then he plays a Jew and decides he needs a huge nose?"
Cooper said his 'no chairs' policy does not extend to his cast or crew.
Other users criticized Cooper’s use of “Jewface” to portray Bernstein because the prosthetic nose was apparently not necessary to depict the West Side Story co-creator who passed away in 1990.
"Just looked up a picture of the real Leonard Bernstein…. the big anti-Semitic prosthetic nose on Bradley Cooper was definitely not necessary…" one critic wrote.
"There was no need for Bradley Cooper to add an odd prosthetic nose on top of this to play Leonard Bernstein," another wrote. "His own nose is longer!”
“And I still would have preferred they at least give Jewish actors a chance to audition before automatically casting someone more famous,” the person continued. “#Jewface.”
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Jewish actress and comedian Sarah Silverman previously defined the term “Jewface” as “when a non-Jew portrays a Jew with the Jewishness front and center, often with makeup or changing of features, big fake nose, all the New York-y or Yiddish-y inflection."
She also noted that Hollywood had a "long tradition of non-Jews playing Jews."
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“And not just playing people who happen to be Jewish but people whose Jewishness is their whole being,” Silverman said in 2021.
"In a time when the importance of representation is seen as so essential and so front and center, why does ours constantly get breached, even today, in the thick of it?"
Bradley Cooper was accused of being an 'ableist' on set.
Meanwhile, Maestro was described as a Bernstein biopic that focuses on the late conductor and composer’s 25-year marriage to Felicia Montealegre.
The film is scheduled to premiere at the Venice Film Festival in September before starting a limited theatrical release on November 22. Maestro will reportedly hit Netflix on December 20.
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