Didn’t even have time to post about the biopic about the famous conductor Leonard Bernstein (and there’s always behind-the-scenes drama), Maestro, with Bradley Cooper in the lead role, and boom! People are just talking about his prosthetic nose. Time moves on, but the fashion for badmouthing never gets old. Yes, they’re complaining that in addition to directing, his decision to star in the film has landed him in a role he wouldn’t have been suited for. The world is made of screenwriters and casting directors, it seems.

The discussion now turns to the prosthetic nose that Bradley wears in the movie Maestro, to try to look more like Bernstein. In a performance that puts him among those certainly nominated for an Oscar, with a chance of winning, he is on the path that other colleagues have traced before him. Perhaps the most famous was Nicole Kidman, ‘transformed’ into Virginia Wolff with a nose that many joked was what earned her her Oscar for Best Actress. Wickedness! Steve Carrell was also criticized on Foxcatcher.

The discussion around makeup in Maestro collides with another problem in Hollywood: the actors’ ethnicity or even their religion. Bradley is not Jewish like Bernstein and the nose for many is a form of racism and offense, especially since there was another project with a Jewish actor, Jake Gyllenhaal, which was announced days before Maestro, but which did not get off the ground. Comparisons are inevitable and disrespectful. If so, how is Carey Mulligan playing a Chilean in the same movie when she’s British?

But controversies tend to follow different lines. The Latin nationality does not provoke the same reaction as the size of the nose that Bradley Cooper shows in the trailer, which was supposed to “compensate” for the difference between him and Leonard Bernstein, is so distracting that it is what stands out, even if the actor has the full support of the maestro’s three children: Jamie, Alexander and Nina Bernstein. Returning to the same Nicole Kidman, she was also criticized (but supported by her family) when she ‘dared’ to play Lucille Ball.

Why if heirs approve, is it still not enough for some? Would Jake Gyllenhall have the same problem? We won’t know…

Jake Gyllenhaal’s film the life of Bernstein was called The American and would have the signature of director Cary Fukunaga, but he faced a fierce dispute behind the scenes. His version competed with Bradley Cooper’s and they were in the middle of a fight over the musical rights to the Bernstein estate, with the estate ceding to Cooper. Without permission to feature any of Bernstein’s compositions, including West Side Story, the project was shelved. It is not new that Hollywood wants to tell the life of Bernstein, a script written five years ago passed through the hands of Martin Scorsese before being discarded. With the success of A Star Is Born, Bradley gained leadership in reigniting the idea. Everything is beautiful until the trailer is shown…

In the statement in support of Bradley Cooper, the Bernstein children say it was “it is true that Leonard Bernstein had a nice big nose. Bradley chose to wear makeup to amplify her likeness, and we’re perfectly fine with that. We are also sure that our father would be fine with it too”, adding that “strident complaints on this subject strike us, above all, as hypocritical attempts to demean a successful person – a practice that we observed to be perpetrated very often on our father ”.

Unfortunately, with casting directors on call, biopics are unlikely to ever get right. Neither Meryl Streep nor Anthony Hopkins, award-winning as they already were, were protected from those who complained when they used prosthetic noses to embody Margaret Thatcher and Richard Nixon, respectively. However, Meryl won her third Oscar for the role and nobody dared suggest that the nose ‘helped’, as they did with Nicole years before.

The discussion around the ‘mistake’ of having Bradley Cooper as Leonardo Bernstein also touches on the theme of the retired biopic about Joan Rivers, who initially selected a non-Jewish actress for the role before being shelved, whose suggestion of an actress of a different religion was also used, even though Kathryn Hahn is one of the most respected in the business and excellent comedians today. In this case, the family did not approve either the script or the casting, cutting the production before it even started.

The ‘guilt’ of this discussion is even in the questionable history of old films – such as Cleopatra – which were not concerned at all with a place of voice or even historical respect. It’s always ideal to seek out similar people for a historical role, but ‘transformation’ talent also counts. No? Wouldn’t the freedom of actors overcome social and cultural problems?

The controversy is far from over…

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