In an effort to look more like his character, Bradley Cooper put on a fake nose to play Leonard Bernstein in what looks like a shnoz fe… er shnooze… snooze-fest of a movie. (Maybe not. It looks pretty good, I just liked the wordplay.)
Critics say prosthesis used in Leonard Bernstein biopic is antisemitic.
On Tuesday, Netflix dropped a trailer for Maestro, a biopic about West Side Story conductor and composer Leonard Bernstein that’s headed to theaters on Nov. 22 and to the streaming platform the following month. Netflix plugs the film as a “towering and fearless love story” and “a love letter to life and art,” but all of that is now being overshadowed by the appearance of star Bradley Cooper in the title role. What stood out to viewers: the fake nose worn by Cooper, who also co-wrote, produced, and directed the film, per NBC News.
Outcry immediately emerged from those who called the use of the prosthesis antisemitic and an example of “Jewface,” as Bernstein was Jewish; Cooper is not. “I saw Bradley [C]ooper play the elephant man with no prosthetics on broadway. But then he plays a Jew and decides he needs a huge nose?” one detractor wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, adding that blame couldn’t be passed up the film’s ladder, as Cooper is also the director of Maestro.
The Media Diversity Institute notes the image of “a large, hooked nose” tied to Jewish people is one “so deeply imbedded in modern culture, that most do not acknowledge that it is actually a deeply antisemitic stereotype.” The site says Jewish people weren’t shown as having overly large noses until the 1930s, when Nazi propaganda took hold and made it a “common trope.” In an Instagram post, British actor Tracy-Ann Oberman says Cillian Murphy didn’t wear a phony proboscis for his role as Jewish theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, and neither did Tom Conti as his Jewish colleague Albert Einstein.
It certainly isn’t Mickey Rooney as a “Chinaman.”
Well, Jim Cavezal did the same thing when he played a Jew (Jesus). And have you seen the promos for “Golda”? Look what they did to Helen Miren to make her look like a Jew . This is all so stupid. They made Bradley Cooper look like Bernstein, who happened to be a Jew.
But Leonard Bernstein did!!!!
FJB
Tony R, Jews have a look?
Pray tell, what is that look?
Look for the hook…
rumor has it he stuck his “nose” in Huma? Abadeen? Probably the infection has not been cured.
Of course someone’s panties are in a knot.
What do you think the Vegas odds would be for/against someone’s panties getting twisted?
I’m thinking 100% chance. Just spit balling.
Pretty sure that the Jews who run Hollywood were not only okay with it, but they told him to do it just for the controversy and publicity.
Just hire Lizzo for the lead role.
For any lead role.
Snow White
MacGuyver
Lincoln
Stalin
Jesus
Tojo
Or a really big penguin.
The whole problem with the nose is it is obviously fake. Might as well have included the glasses with the pop-out eyes.
I see move makeup artists’ job as making things look realistic. Even the skin color seems off.
Holly shit, I wish this was our biggest problem in America.
We are intentionally being bombarded with stupid, useless, unnecessary, worthless distractions…..Fuck it all.
Get on board or fuck-off.
It’s OK because the nose identifies as a Roman one.
Get Steven Spielberg, go to the beach, have him do a backstroke, and make another Jaws.
Thinking out Loud, or Lousy, as the case may be: what if they hired a Jewish actor that does not have the semitic nose? Would there be an outcry like: He doesn’t look Jewish enough?
No nose is good nose….
Capt. Kirk is a jew.
But he has a regular looking nose. You know….for a jew.
^^^ No man, he’s Canadian.
Just get Adrien Brody to play all Jewish roles; that should cover it.
Jewnadian
HOTCH-CHA-CHA-CHA. That was a nose.
I don’t think the nose looks fake, and so what. I am not jewish but people thought I was growing up. Later a jewish neighbor told me it was because of my nose. I am just surprised net flicks didn’t use a black, lesbian trans man to play the part of Bernstein.
Grew up in the 50s & 60s and remember being assigned by my teachers to watch Leonard Bernstein’s Young People’s Concerts . Am not a Jew & loved those concerts and Mr. Bernstein. Never noticed his schnoz & have always loved his music & the NY Philharmonic .
Well, at least they casted a white guy.