One day after the debut of the teaser trailer for 'Maestro' directed by and starring Bradley Cooper as Leonard Bernstein, the legendary conductor and composer's children are defending the film against online charges of anti-Semitism.
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00:00 - So how long do we have to do this for?
00:01 - Well, we need to build up a very strong connection.
00:04 - Following the debut of the teaser trailer for "Maestro"
00:12 directed by and starring Bradley Cooper
00:14 as Leonard Bernstein,
00:16 the legendary conductor and composer's children
00:18 are defending the film
00:19 against online charges of anti-Semitism.
00:22 The criticism pertains to Cooper wearing a prosthetic nose
00:25 to play Bernstein, who was Jewish.
00:27 Twitter users were quick to call out the aesthetic choice,
00:29 posting side-by-side photos of Cooper's Bernstein
00:32 and his real-life counterpart,
00:33 with some pointing out the prosthetic nose
00:35 was larger than Bernstein's own.
00:37 The online conversation has furthered the ongoing debate
00:40 about who should be able to play Jewish roles,
00:42 as Cooper is not Jewish.
00:44 The conductor's children, Jamie, Alexander,
00:46 and Nina Bernstein, released a joint statement
00:49 in response to the criticism that reads, in part,
00:51 "It breaks our hearts to see any misrepresentations
00:54 or misunderstandings of Cooper's efforts."
00:56 They went on to say,
00:57 "Bradley chose to use makeup to amplify his resemblance,
01:00 and we're perfectly fine with that.
01:02 We're also certain that our dad
01:03 would have been fine with it as well."
01:05 They added, "Any strident complaints around this issue
01:08 strike us above all as disingenuous attempts
01:10 to bring a successful person down a notch,
01:12 a practice we observed all too often perpetrated
01:15 on our own father."
01:16 The Hollywood Reporter has reached out
01:18 to Cooper's reps for comment.
01:19 "Netflix, which is releasing Maestro," referred THR
01:22 to the statement from Bernstein's children
01:24 on the Leonard Bernstein Twitter account.
01:26 For more on this story, go to thr.com.
01:28 This is The Hollywood Reporter News.
01:30 (explosion)