For a while, Martin Scorsese was attached to direct, but eventually that wasn’t even going to happen anymore….
According to the new Vanity Fair, Steven Spielberg who had considered directing it, reached out to Bradley Cooper about starring as Leonard Bernstein.
But things really changed when Spielberg’s schedule got too busy (with another Bernstein-related project, his adaptation of West Side Story) and Cooper stepped in to direct and cowrite the film.
The maestro’s daughter, Jamie Bernstein said,
Bradley arrived at this concept that was really not a biopic anymore at all.
It was something else entirely of its own devising—its own creature, really.”
Speilberg & Cooper on the set of Maestro
The biographical romance focuses on Bernstein’s 25-year marriage to Felicia Montealegre, played by Carey Mulligan.
There’s a moment in Maestro where Jamie (played by Maya Hawke) is asking her father about the rumors about his (gay) affairs, which was pulled from Jamie’s memoir,
It was very intense to watch that scene, especially with the way Bradley directed it. There were so many silences in it. It’s a very fraught memory for me.”
Cooper has faced mounting backlash over his use of a prosthetic nose, prompting Bernstein’s children to rush to his defense.
Some on social media have said the use of a prosthetic nose is antisemitic. @StopAntisemitism, an organization aimed at countering antisemitism, said on X,
Hollywood cast Bradley Cooper — a non Jew — to play Jewish legend Leonard Bernstein and stuck a disgusting exaggerated ‘Jew nose’ on him.”
Jamie noticed that the criticism started as soon as the first images of Cooper on set were released in May 2022,
It’s just such an annoying distraction. The people who were waiting to get mad about something were just waiting to pounce.”
Maestro makes its debut at the Venice Film Festival on September 2, then Netflix releases it in select theaters on November 22, before streaming it starting December 20.
Watch.
(via Vanity Fair, NBCNews)
