- cross-posted to:
- moviesandtv@lemmy.film
Archived version: https://archive.ph/hroNJ
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”.
You must log in or register to comment.
Hollywood is so obsessed with always casting the same 10 actors for everything.
what, you don’t think Bradley Cooper is a National Treasure?!
I’m generally in favour of casting the actor who can best get the non-physical elements right, like the character’s way of thinking and being in the world. So for any single example I’m open to arguments why that person was the right choice.
BUT there’s a larger issue also at play in which roles Jews are cast in. Generally speaking Jews get to play Jews when it’s a negative stereotype - think the loud, shrill, NYC Jewish woman trope, but when it’s a more positive character, those roles generally go to non-Jews. That’s the real problem.
So the little mermaid can be black, but a white guy can’t play a Jewish guy?
Did everyone forget that acting is just a very elaborate game of pretend?
Who cares who the actor is as long as they do the story justice 😤
What color are mermaids in real life?
Mermaids exist in folklore around the world, so I guess they can be any color (except for purple - to hell with purple people)
I think the proper equivalent would be if a white actress wore blackface. As far as I know, being mermaid isn’t a religion or any particular color. This is not good for them to do.
I’m fine with whatever color people want to pretend to be, as long as it serves the story and isn’t disrespectful.
If it serves no purpose other than being a stereotypical caricature, we can all agree that is wrong, but if you are portraying an actual Jewish person it’s not wrong to look similar as a way to lend a little authenticity to the story.
Casting a white actor and then putting them in blackface so they can play a black person is inherently disrespectful. The history of blackface is too racist and disgusting, that to choose that over simply casting a black person would be wildly out of line.
Ehh, that’s kind of a disingenuous comparison, no?
I’m willing to bet most Jewish people in the West would probably be referred to as “white” if they were being picked out of a crowd, so it’s not a huge leap for a white actor (a very popular actor who definitely sells tickets) to wear a small prosthetic to look like the real-life person he’s trying to portray.
Definitely not the same thing as completely painting yourself to appear to be a different race.
Making everyone who has white skin “white” is the very kind of ethnic erasure that people are arguing against. “white” is not a thing, it is not an ethnicity, it is not a single people. “white” is a construct invented long ago to justify a lot of terrible things. It is a consistently changing window on who is and isn’t allowed membership. “whiteness” erases all it touches. “whiteness” is why so many “white” people are confused and frustrated about their identities. It’s really just bad all around.
I was using the term “white” strictly in visual terms. I personally think race is a dumb concept, as it all boils down to where in the world your ancestors were from, and nobody gets a say in that.
As you pointed out, white is an ever changing idea and is decided on by the ones who are bullying. We’re not bullied like that, so how would we even know what they experience?
Another angle that I think you’re missing is that it doesn’t really matter what you think. What matters is how people of the represented race feel about it. In this case, many Jewish people feel it’s racist, just like blackface is seen as racist.
Nobody will be offended by prosthetics/makeup to play an orc, elf, or blue alien, but a lot of people will be offended by prosthetics/makeup to play a different race.
Yikes! They gave Bradley Cooper an even bigger nose than Leonard Bernstein. Is this some kind of antisemitic attack on Jake Gyllenhaal for not taking a pay cut to play the part?
If feel like this is more a studio scandal than a Cooper scandal. They did the casting and approved the prosthetic. I’m disappointed the actor gets the heat and the institution isn’t mentioned.
If you want to get angry at Bradley, his relationship with 21 year old Suki Waterhouse was super gross. The studio holds no blame for that mess.
Cooper is credited as writer, director, and producer on the movie. I don’t think you can put this on the studio.
That definitely changes things. Out of curiosity, I looked up what other movies he directed and produced.
He produced and starred in American Sniper, which was incidentally also kind of a political disaster. The nose prosthetic reminds me of the American Sniper fake baby hilarity. Bradley put the blame on the director, but the director makes it sound like it was a monetary and not an artistic choice. That would put the responsibility on the shoulders of the producer.
Why was his consensual relationship with another adult “super gross”?
🤖 I’m a bot that provides automatic summaries for articles:
Click here to see the summary
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.
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.
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.
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”.