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Bradley Cooper is facing criticism for performing in “Jewface” after the release of the trailer for his biopic of Leonard Bernstein, which revealed the facial prosthetics he employed for the role.
Bernstein, the son of Jewish-Ukrainian immigrants to the US, was a hugely talented conductor and composer, best known for writing the music for West Side Story as well as composing three symphonies and becoming music director of the New York Philharmonic. Cooper, who directs, co-writes and stars in Maestro, is not Jewish, and can be seen in the trailer with a noticeably prominent fake nose opposite Carey Mulligan, who plays Bernstein’s wife Felicia Montealegre.
British actor and activist Tracy-Ann Obermann criticised Cooper on social media, writing: “If [Cooper] needs to wear a prosthetic nose then that is, to me and many others, the equivalent of Black-Face or Yellow-Face … if Bradley Cooper can’t [play the role] through the power or acting alone then don’t cast him – get a Jewish Actor.”
Obermann added, referencing Cooper’s performance on stage in 2014 as John Merrick in The Elephant Man: “Bradley Cooper managed to play the ELEPHANT MAN without a single prosthetic then he should be able to manage to play a Jewish man without one.”
The Hollywood Reporter’s chief TV critic Daniel Fienberg called the prosthetics “problematic” when photos from the set emerged in May, and subsequently described the film as “ethnic cosplay”.
In a statement posted on social media, Bernstein’s children Jamie, Alexander, and Nina defended Cooper, saying: “It breaks our hearts to see any misrepresentations or misunderstandings of [Cooper’s] efforts … Bradley chose to use makeup to amplify his resemblance, and we’re perfectly fine with that. We’re also certain that our dad would have been fine with it as well.”
The controversy follows objections to the casting of Cillian Murphy as nuclear physicist J Robert Oppenheimer – again, a non-Jewish actor playing a notable Jewish figure – in the biopic directed by Christopher Nolan, with David Baddiel describing such casting as “complacent” and “doubl[ing] down” on “Jewish erasure”. Baddiel also criticised the casting of Helen Mirren as Israeli prime minister Golda Meir, writing in the Guardian that “over a period of extreme intensification of the progressive conversation about representation and inclusion and microaggression and what is and isn’t offensive to minorities, one minority – Jews – has been routinely neglected”.
So much of Hollywood is run by Jews and so many Jews have portrayed gentiles, it’s ironic they would object to gentiles playing Jews. The nose thing is a bit of a grey area, but Oppenheimers family seem ok with it for the sake of resemblance.
Seriously, “Jewish erasure”? Come the fuck on.
From Baddiel who wrote the screenplay for The Infidel (2010) which starred Omid Djalili (Iranian British) playing a Jewish character…
Pot kettle?
I don’t think anyone has a problem with Jews playing gentiles or gentiles playing Jews. It’s that putting on a nose prosthetic is seen as trying to match a caricature that was used in antisemiric propaganda. The prosthetic appears to be more pronounced than the real nose he had, so it seems an odd choice. However, it seems earnest in seeking to portray him and the family are fine with it. I think it’s a mountain made out of a molehill, but I understand why the question is being asked.
The Oppenheimer film didn’t have a nose prosthetic.
Have you seen it? It’s kinda uncanny valley in some parts with what they did to Cillians face.
Well, that’s because Cillian Murphy basically starved himself to achieve that emaciated look. I haven’t read anything about prosthetics being used. That was all diet and traditional makeup.
And if we’re being fair, Oppenheimer himself had a pretty uncanny valley look about him.
That’s crazy, at the beginning of the movie he looks like he did back when he was first in 28 Days Later. Like he looked VERY young. And then wildly old in other scenes. Or just starved in some others.
There’s also a scene near the end where he’s seen as a very old man, like 80’s and he’s barely got hair left and you can see his skin has the old people freckles.
I saw it twice and the second time was on a true IMAX screen so it was very wild to see that much detail. If there are no prosthetics/CGI then that guy is a fucking wizard.
Yes I have, I didn’t notice anything strange about his face? He looks different, but not in an uncanny valley way.