Bradley Cooper has been criticized online after he was seen wearing a prosthetic nose to play a Jewish composer in his latest movie.
The Netflix biopic titled Maestro is set to tell the story of the famous composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein, who will be portrayed by Cooper and will primarily center around his tumultuous 25-year marriage with actor Felicia Montealegre Cohn Bernstein, played by The Great Gatsby star Carey Mulligan.
A teaser for the movie dropped yesterday (August 15) and while it received praise from some, the actor started trending on Twitter for a more controversial reason - his prosthetic nose.
Many cited concerns about "Jewface", a term that negatively characterizes stereotypical or inauthentic portrayals of Jewish people.
Check out the teaser for Maestro:The Media Diversity Institute delved into the history behind the idea of "hooked noses" and how they became exclusively associated with the stereotypical "Jewish" look, despite their being little to no evidence to support the claim that it was true.
"It goes back to antisemitic and Nazi propaganda from the 1930s and since then has gone on to become a common trope—and, whether intentionally or not—pushes antisemitic stereotypes to this day," the publisher wrote.
A spokesperson for the anti-racist organization Amadeu Antonio Stiftung added that "the hook nose stereotype is very much still alive, it might be old, but it’s far from being irrelevant."
But for the creators of Maestro to play on something that has been historically harmful for the community, it has not sit well with social media users.
"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?" questioned one user.
Another compared two pictures, one of Cooper and one of the real Bernstein.
A third pointed out that were actually problems with the portrayal of both roles writing: "So... was there anyone (Jewish or not) who thought 'hmm, maybe we shouldn't perpetuate a stereotype rooted in antisemitism?'
They continued: "Were any Ashkenazi Jewish actors even considered for the role?! And Carey Mulligan playing a Costa Rican woman?!"
Another also doubled down on the views, writing: "So am I going to be the one to ask why an English woman is portraying a Costa Rican woman?"
Cooper had previously spoken during an interview with Variety about his admiration for the composer and how Steven Spielberg asked him to potentially star in his version of the film.
"I [said to Spielberg], 'I always felt like I could play a conductor, but may I research the material and see if I can write it and direct it? Would you let me do that?'” Cooper told Mahershala Ali during an episode of Variety's Actor on Actor last year.
"Steven has a lot of interests — he’ll just choose one thing and all of the other things will be on hold. I think he knew he wasn’t going to make that movie for a while. He was kind enough to hand it off to me, and that’s what I’ve been doing for the last four and a half years," he added.
Maestro is set to debut on Netflix on December 20.
