Bradley Cooper faces backlash over prosthetic nose in Maestro
Meanwhile, Jewish actor Joshua Malina has supported Cooper.
Bradley Cooper has been called out for playing to ‘Jewface’ stereotypes after the trailer for his upcoming Leonard Bernstein biopic Maestro revealed his prosthetic nose.
Netflix released the first teaser for the film on Tuesday and it showed Cooper, 48, portraying the legendary Jewish musical conductor and wearing a prosthetic nose.
Social media users subsequently called out his appearance, with some using photos to show that Bernstein’s nose was not close to that size.
“The real Leonard Bernstein did not have the funny nose that Bradley Cooper is wearing in Maestro,” one user wrote. “‘It seems completely unnecessary to have gone in that direction given the uncanny resemblance.”
EastEnders actress Tracy-Ann Oberman, who is Jewish, has also lashed out at The Hangover star’s decision to wear a fake nose.
“If Bradley Cooper is able to play the Elephant Man without any prosthetics, he should be able to play a Jewish man without any need for prosthetics – especially a ‘Jewish’ nose,” the 56-year-old told Page Six.
“If he needs to wear a prosthetic nose then that is, to me and many others, the equivalent of Black-Face or Yellow-Face.”
However, The West Wing star Joshua Malina, who is also Jewish, supported Cooper, telling the outlet he does not “take issue” with him “being made to look like a real person”.
He added, “Jews do not, in fact, have bigger noses than other people do; Leonard Bernstein did. That’s the end of the story for me.”
The film – which also stars Carey Mulligan, Jeremy Strong and Maya Hawke – was co-written and directed by Cooper and produced by Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese.
Maestro will premiere in competition at the Venice Film Festival in September. It will be released in limited cinemas on 22 November before streaming on Netflix from 20 December.
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