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  • 3 weeks ago
One day after the debut of the teaser trailer for 'Maestro' directed by and starring Bradley Cooper as Leonard Bernstein, the legendary conductor and composer's children are defending the film against online charges of anti-Semitism.
Transcript
00:00So how long do we have to do this for?
00:01Well, we need to build up a very strong connection.
00:10Following the debut of the teaser trailer for Maestro,
00:13directed by and starring Bradley Cooper as Leonard Bernstein,
00:16the legendary conductor and composer's children are defending the film against
00:20online charges of anti-Semitism. The criticism pertains to Cooper wearing a prosthetic nose
00:25to play Bernstein, who was Jewish. Twitter users were quick to call out
00:28the aesthetic choice, posting side-by-side photos of Cooper's Bernstein and his real-life
00:33counterpart, with some pointing out the prosthetic nose was larger than Bernstein's own.
00:37The online conversation has furthered the ongoing debate about who should be able to
00:41play Jewish roles, as Cooper is not Jewish. The conductor's children, Jamie, Alexander,
00:47and Nina Bernstein, released a joint statement in response to the criticism that reads, in part,
00:52it breaks our hearts to see any misrepresentations or misunderstandings of Cooper's efforts.
00:56They went on to say,
00:58Bradley chose to use makeup to amplify his resemblance,
01:00and we're perfectly fine with that. We're also certain that her dad would have been fine
01:04with it as well.
01:05They added,
01:06Any strident complaints around this issue strike us above all as disingenuous attempts to bring
01:11a successful person down a notch, a practice we observed all too often perpetrated on our own
01:15father.
01:16The Hollywood Reporter has reached out to Cooper's reps for comment.
01:19Netflix, which is releasing Maestro, referred THR to the statement from Bernstein's children on the
01:24Leonard Bernstein Twitter account. For more on this story, go to THR.com. This is The Hollywood
01:29Reporter News.
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