Bradley Cooper Is Being Accused of ‘Jewface’ In His New Movie

Bradley Cooper’s Nose Prosthetic

Bradley Cooper did use a nose prosthetic in Maestro. The trailer was immediately met with backlash from X (the platform formerly known as Twitter) users.

“remember how bradley cooper basically stole the rights for this film from a jewish man who had been passionately trying to make it for years? and now he’s wearing prosthetic nose to play a jewish man and directing it himself,” one user posted. Another posted, “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 ?”

“*insanely* funny bit for Bradley Cooper to pour his soul for years into a passion project, creating what may well be a masterpiece, every element crafted to perfection, a sure bet to sweep the Oscars….. if only he’d not worn the comically offensive fake giant Jew nose,” one X user posted.

One user even put a side-by-side comparison between Leonard Bernstein and Bradley Cooper’s faces. “just looked up a picture of the real leonard bernstein…. the big antisemitic prosthetic nose on bradley cooper was definitely not necessary….”

Leonard Bernstein’s Children’s Reaction To Bradley Cooper Controversy

In a statement on Leonard Bernstein’s social media, his children spoke out on the backlash Cooper has received for his portrayal. “Bradley Cooper included the three of us along every step of his amazing journey as he made his film about our father,” wrote Jamie, Alexander and Nina Bernstein. “We were touched to the core to witness the depth of his commitment, his loving embrace of our father’s music, and the sheer open-hearted joy he brought to his exploration.”

They continued, “It breaks our hearts to see any misrepresentations or misunderstandings of his efforts. 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. Any strident complaints around this issue strike us above all as disingenuous attempts to bring a successful person down a notch — a practice we observed all too often perpetrated on our own father. At all times during the making of this film, we could feel the profound respect and yes, the love that Bradley brought to his portrait of Leonard Bernstein and his wife, our mother Felicia. We feel so fortunate to have had this experience with Bradley, and we can’t wait for the world to see his creation.”