Leonard Bernstein's Family Calls Out Woke Idiots Who Are Trying To Cancel Bradley Cooper For A Prosthetic Nose In 'Maestro'

As John Feitelberg once said regarding company emails, "There has to be a line."

That’s the rule of thumb I deploy for wokeism. There are certain instances of “wokeness” that are fully justified and merited. Without breaking down each and every single issue because we’ll be here all day, there are, in fact, situations where being a little more "woke" to it is beneficial. More than some closed-minded ignoramuses would like to admit.

…But again. There has to be a line. I draw it somewhere between a complete absence of ill will in pursuit of dramatic verisimilitude and the full-fledged endorsement of an entire family. That’s what we’re dealing with here when it comes to Bradley Cooper rocking an enlarged nose thanks to the movie magic of prosthesis for Maestro.

The upcoming film starring my fellow Actors Studio Drama School alum is one he also co-wrote and directed. If you know anything about Bradley Cooper, he gives every ounce of his being to any project he’s working on. As great as his directorial debut was in A Star Is Born, we might be seeing his magnum opus when Maestro drops in several months’ time.

You have to be so dense that light bends around you if you think Cooper was sporting this facial feature just to incite a negative, anti-Semitic reaction. As if he’s doing it only to reinforce a stereotype some would find hurtful. In working so closely with Leonard Bernstein’s family for this film for a period of literal years, you don’t think every single detail was thought through, discussed and cleared with them? Sure, sometimes the progeny of massive celebrities get irked by the portrayal of a legend in certain biopics, but that’s more often due to the execution of storytelling or dramatic liberties taken in pursuit of making the best movie possible. 

This isn’t that. This is people looking for an excuse to be offended. Look, I get that some people are more sensitive to certain issues than others. It just cracks me up when the actual family of the man in question comes out and beats back any notion whatsoever that a single creative choice had any malicious intent. As if it needed to be clarified. The Bernsteins probably had to spend hours of their lives crafting this statement with some PR firm. I think it’s worth it if it gets some people to shut the fuck up and stop questioning where Bradley Cooper’s heart is in portraying Leonard Bernstein. He’s just trying to do the most accurate portrayal possible, and believe it or not, sometimes prosthetics are needed for an actor to look more like their real-life subject. And the artists who make that come to life deserve recognition when they crush it, too.

So yeah. Drawing a line here. Not to be some sort of gatekeeping weirdo about wokeness. Just as a sensible human being. Bradley Cooper isn’t in the wrong with his prosthetic nose in Maestro. Leonard Bernstein’s family has minced no words in saying so. Please carry on, whoever you blindingly stupid people are, and find something more constructive to be outraged about.

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