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Information reaching Kossyderrickent has it that Outrage as Bradley Cooper used prosthetic nose to play role of Jewish actor in MAESTRO.
‘It seems completely unnecessary to have gone in that direction given the uncanny resemblance,’ one user said ‘the real Leonard Bernstein did not have the funny nose that Bradley Cooper is wearing in Maestro.’
Another user added that ‘there was no need for Bradley Cooper to add an odd prosthetic nose on top of this to play Leonard Bernstein,’ as ‘his own nose is longer!’
Response to Jewface in the Jewish community has often been mixed, with some, like author David Baddiel bemoaning what they see as an erasure of Jewish actors when Jewish parts are given to Gentiles.
Recently Baddiel criticised the casting of Irish actor Cillian Murphy as Robert J Oppenheimer in blockbuster released earlier this summer.
Others have argued that all actors should be given an equal chance to play characters based on the merits of their performing abilities.
One user noted that the Academy Award-nominated star, who is not Jewish, should not have even been in the casting discussion with ‘so many great Jewish actors out there.’
Jake Gyllenhaal, who is Jewish, had a competing biopic but lost in the battle of rights to use Bernstein’s material against Cooper and his producing team on the film, which includes filmmaking icons Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg.
Said another user: ‘I still would have preferred they at least give Jewish actors a chance to audition before automatically casting someone more famous.’
One user said that Cooper’s appearance was both offensive and unnecessary to the actual storytelling process in the film.
‘Bradley Cooper wearing a prosthetic nose to play Leonard Bernstein is the equivalent of Black face,’ the user said. ‘He should be able to portray the character through the magnificence of his own acting.
‘Particularly if Cooper has been hired over a Jewish actor. There has to be a line.’
In the clip, Cooper can be seen in costume as Bernstein with a clearly prosthetic nose.
Last year, when stills of the film were first released, many Jews said that the choice to give him the exaggerated nose played into antisemitic stereotypes.
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