Bradley Cooper criticized for wearing fake nose to play gay Jewish composer Leonard Bernstein

Following the release earlier this week of the first teaser trailer for the upcoming Leonard Bernstein biopic Maestro, Bradley Cooper, the film’s writer, director, and star, has been criticized for wearing a prosthetic nose to play the legendary gay, Jewish composer.

“We are living in times where there is huge sensitivity and debate over ethnic & minority representation,” British actor and activist Tracy-Ann Obermann wrote in an Instagram post. “If Bradley Cooper greenlights your film to play the Jewish composer Bernstein and you want him over a Jewish A-Lister who can equally play that role – then let Bradley Cooper’s acting be so magnificent and truthful that the character of Bernstein shines through what he already looks like.”

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

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“I’ve talked about authenticity casting not applying to Jews – and what that means – many times. The only difference here is it’s more – well – on the nose,” tweeted British comedian and author David Baddiel. Baddiel directed readers to his 2022 Guardian piece criticizing the film and television industry for continuing to cast non-Jewish actors to play Jewish characters even as the argument for hiring queer, trans, disabled, and fat performers to play queer, trans, disabled, and fat characters has gained more attention in recent years.

This isn’t the first time Cooper, who is neither queer nor Jewish, has been criticized for playing Bernstein. As Israeli newspaper Haaretz noted last year, the controversy goes all the way back to 2018 when Cooper and Steven Spielberg secured the music rights from Bernstein’s estate over actor Jake Gyllenhaal, who is Jewish, and director Cary Fukunaga.

When Netflix released photos of Cooper in character earlier this year, social media users blasted his decision to wear a prosthetic nose as “antisemitic.”

This…feels antisemitic. Y'all couldn't find a single actor with those features? I'm not picky, he could be greek, italian, Turkish, whatever. But like…Bradley Cooper in prosthetic Mediterranean features? https://t.co/udoMzOdbDT

— Usdi Crittenden ✡️🏳️‍🌈♿ (@LilUsdi) May 30, 2022

“Don’t give non-Jewish actors a fake nose to play Jews,” out Israeli author Hen Mazzig tweeted. “This stereotype leans into Nazi race science on what Jews look like, centuries of hooked nose imagery, and propaganda made to dehumanize Jewish people!”

The Hollywood Reporter‘s chief television critic Daniel Fienberg described the decision as “problematic.”

In a piece for The Canadian Jewish News, lawyer and podcaster James Hirsh described Cooper’s performance as “Jewface.” While Hirsh noted that “there’s no reason to believe that the decision to wear a fake nose is a deliberately antisemitic act,” he noted that Cooper didn’t wear prosthetics to play other real-life characters in American Sniper, Licorice Pizza, and The Elephant Man.

“The association between Jews and a hooked or large nose dates back to the 13th century. Antisemitic propaganda has long focused on this facial feature to highlight Jews as ‘others,’” Hirsh wrote. “Jews shouldn’t tolerate ongoing caricatures on the big screen regardless of whether it is done overtly or subconsciously or in a movie with Jewish producers. And so, if Bradley Cooper cannot figure out how to portray Leonard Bernstein without a prosthetic nose, then he shouldn’t be playing him at all.”

On Wednesday, Bernstein’s children addressed the controversy. In a statement posted to Twitter, they defended Cooper, saying that the actor “included the three of us along every step of his amazing journey as he made his film about our father.”

“It breaks our hearts to see any misrepresentations or misunderstandings of his efforts,” they wrote. “It happens to be true that Leonard Bernstein had a nice, big nose. 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:
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

— Leonard Bernstein (@LennyBernstein) August 16, 2023