Leonard Bernstein

Cooper is legendary Broadway composer Bernstein and Mulligan plays his wife Felicia Montealegre. Producers are Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, Kristie ...

Bernstein did so well his star was launched the next day when his feat made the front page of The New York Times. He was blacklisted before being cleared of being a communist just before he composed the Oscar-nominated score for On the Waterfront, and he was an activist in the civil rights movement, and outspoken on issues including ending the Vietnam War. He is best known in Hollywood for composing the score for West Side Story. But the through line for Cooper’s biopic is the complex story of the marriage between Bernstein and his wife. Bernstein’s career is enough to fill a miniseries: he made his conducting debut at the New York Philharmonic aged 25 when he had to step in at short notice due to a colleague’s illness. In his first directorial effort since A Star Is Born, Cooper stars with fellow Oscar nominee Carey Mulligan, Matt Bomer and Maya Hawke. Cooper is legendary Broadway composer Bernstein and Mulligan plays his wife Felicia Montealegre.

The 47-year-old actor embodies the “West Side Story” composer in the upcoming film “Maestro.” Netflix shared the first look photos on Monday on Twitter, which ...

They shared three children together: daughters Jamie and Nina and son Alexander. 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? “I could do it as if I know everything about it without really being able to speak the language, obviously.” Listening to music, falling in love with it and being able to really know every single moment of a piece, like Tchaikovsky’s Opus 35 in D major, this violin concerto,” the “Nightmare Alley” star said. They reconnected four years later and got married on Sept. 10, 1951. Would you let me do that?’” Cooper recalled, adding that Spielberg “wasn’t going to make that movie for a while.”

The first official Maestro photos from the set of Netflix's forthcoming Leonard Bernstein biographical drama have been released.

Cooper’s main focus on the project has always been the “charged and complex relationship” between Bernstein and Montealegre. The star and filmmaker have reportedly been working closely with Bernstein’s children Jamie, Alexander, and Nina, over the past couple of years. Maestro will span over 30 years in telling the beautifully complex story of the marriage between Bernstein and his wife, Felicia Montealegre. Joining Cooper are Carey Mulligan as Felicia Montealegre, and Jeremy Strong as John Gruen. The Maestro photos, which you can check out below, provide us with our first look at Oscar nominees Bradley Cooper and Carey Mulligan as they transformed into the respective characters of Leonard Bernstein and Felicia Montealegre. Two of the photos also feature Cooper as an older version of the acclaimed conductor.

Bradley Cooper is back behind the camera for his directorial follow-up to "A Star Is Born," playing Leonard Bernstein for a Netflix film.

Scott Stuber, the head of global films at Netflix, updated Variety last December on the pre-production of “Maestro,” saying, “We’ve done a lot of work on the makeup. We’ve done a lot of work on the voice. Cooper was coming off “A Star Is Born” at the time and was more interested in writing and directing movies than taking on an acting role for someone else, even Spielberg.

“Maestro” also boosts some serious pedigree in the form of executive producers Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese. Spielberg originally intended to direct the ...

And right as she just is going on the stage he gets up and I’m like, ‘Oh he’s going to the bathroom now?’ and I was like, ‘That’s it, it’s over. He came, we were sitting there and I’m showing him ‘A Star Is Born’ and he’s all the way on the other side on the front row, it’s a pretty huge screen,” Cooper said. “Maestro” also boosts some serious pedigree in the form of executive producers Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese. Spielberg originally intended to direct the film himself, and reached out to Cooper about playing Bernstein years ago.

The images also give a first look at Carey Mulligan as Felicia Montealegre. maestro-bradley-cooper-featured Image via Netflix.

Bernstein was a Harvard graduate, and the music director of the New York Philharmonic, and the first American-born conductor to lead a major orchestra. The images tease viewers with a glimpse of Cooper and Mulligan completely transformed, transported to the '40s when the couple first met at a party. Originally, a biographical film on the Broadway composer was set to be directed by the renowned Steven Spielberg, and Cooper was set to star in it.

His versatility earned him a lot of awards before he passed away. Composer Leonard Bernstein in a recording studio on November 5, 1974, in New York. 2.

Email us at [email protected] or call 212 416 4552. Who was Leonard Bernstein? Who was Leonard Bernstein?

First-look photos from the one-week, closed-set shoot that ended last Thursday were released by Netflix on Monday. The biographical film is due to release ...

And right as she is going on the stage he gets up, walks over, and says, ‘You’re directing ‘Maestro!’ ” She had married Bernstein in 1951; the couple had three children, Jamie, Alexander and Nina. She performed at the Egremont Barn in May 2020 with Grammy Award-winning songwriter Jesse Harris. The iconic director, also listed as a producer of “Maestro,” handed the film off to Cooper several years ago. I’m excited to see someone so deeply focused on creating a story that means so much to him. I think he knew he wasn’t going to make that movie for a while.

Netflix has unveiled first look photos of Cooper's dramatic transformation as Bernstein—sparking praise and criticism online.

A number of other Twitter users chimed in on the matter, with one saying: "anybody else weirded out by bradley cooper donning enormous [amounts] of makeup and prosthetics to pretend to be an elderly jewish man? Fienberg added in a follow-up tweet: "My critiquing of Bradley Cooper converting to Latex Judaism caused me to fail to even notice Carey Mulligan as Leonard Bernstein's first wife, who was Chilean-Jewish. That's a LOT of ethnic cosplay for one movie." Cooper, who is also directing the project, also appeared to have slightly darker skin in the images, while one feature that stood out was the prosthetic nose he was pictured sporting in a bid to further resemble Bernstein.

Bradley Cooper and British actress, Carey Mulligan, star in the new Netflix biopic about the legendary American conductor and composer, Leonard Bernstein.

See more Bernstein, L Pictures See more Bernstein, L Music (I happen to love you very much—this may be a disease and if it is what better cure?) Let’s try and see what happens if you are free to do as you like, but without guilt and confession, please! See more Bernstein, L News “In fact, it’s a portrait of our parents’ marriage. Alongside Cooper is Carey Mulligan who plays the conductor’s wife, stage and TV actor Felicia Montealegre Cohn Bernstein.

New photos from Cooper's second directorial effort, 'Maestro,' have inspired mixed reviews—and conversation about who gets to play Jewish legends.

Some set stills ( hello, House of Gucci) beg to be discussed far in advance of a movie’s actual release—and that certainly appears to be the case for Bradley Cooper’s second directorial effort. The first pictures from Maestro, an upcoming biopic in which Cooper stars as lauded Broadway composer Leonard Bernstein (West Side Story, On the Town), were released on Monday. In the photos, Cooper can be seen directing and acting opposite Carey Mulligan as Bernstein’s wife, Felicia Montealegre. However, the stills that earned the most attention show Cooper sporting a prosthetic nose and strikingly accurate old-age makeup to portray an elderly Bernstein. His follow-up to 2018’s A Star Is Born won’t hit Netflix until 2023, but if the film’s first imagery is any indication, people will be buzzing about the project until then.

The film will chronicle 30 years of Bernstein's life who rose to fame after he was tasked with conducting the New York Philharmonic when he was 25.

His career skyrocketed when he wrote and composed the music for the iconic Steven Spielberg film "West Side Story". The stills also showcase Cooper as an elderly Bernstein as he conducts an orchestra. Cooper plays Bernstein and Mulligan stars as stage and TV actor Felicia Montealegre Cohn Bernstein, the wife of the late conductor.

The star has been transformed to portray the legendary composer in a new movie, but the lengths gone to make him appear more Jewish have some critics riled ...

“My question, ‘How many pounds of latex would it take to make Bradley Cooper into an elderly Jewish man?’ was supposed to be rhetorical,” tweeted one person. His forehead wrinkles are deeper than the Grand Canyon and his synthetically weathered hands are knotted with prominent veins. Check. Co-signed by Scorcese and Spielberg? Check and check. And, in many cases, it’s making people angry, arguing that it’s inappropriate to rely on such heavy prosthetics to make a non-Jewish actor appear more Jewish. For example, that’s clearly Tom Hanks in a fatsuit and fake Vito Corelone jowls in the Elvis trailer. And Jessica Chastain is just wearing a lot of bronzer in The Eyes of Tammy Faye.

Netflix unveiled a glimpse at their new film Maestro on Monday (May 30), including Bradley Cooper's transformation as Leonard Bernstein.

In the photos released from set, a ’50s-era Cooper is rendered in black and white alongside Carey Mulligan as Bernstein’s wife, actress Felicia Montealegre. He’s also miraculously aged up to portray the conductor in the 1980s, when he was in his 60s, using makeup and a wig. Cooper’s flick actually beat a competing Bernstein biopic to the punch. Slated to premiere on the streamer in 2023, Maestro will also star Carey Mulligan, Jeremy Strong, Matt Bomer and Maya Hawke. Production kicked off last week at Tanglewood, the iconic music venue in western Massachusetts that serves as the summer home for the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

Photos released by Netflix on Monday showed actor Bradley Cooper's transformation into Jewish composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein, ahead of the ...

Would you let me do that?'” Bradley, who made his directorial debut with the Oscar-winning “A Star Is Born,” said during Variety’s “Actors on Actors” series in January. Production on the Netflix film began earlier in May and it is expected to be released in 2023. Some include Cooper’s co-star Carey Mulligan as the conductor’s wife, Felicia Montealegre, who was raised in Chile as a Catholic and later converted to Judaism after marrying Bernstein in 1951.