Bradley Cooper’s prosthetic nose defended against “Jewface” criticism by Anti-Defamation League

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has defended Bradley Cooper’s decision to use a prosthetic nose to portray Leonard Bernstein in his upcoming biopic Maestro.

The Jewish organisation, which fights against antisemitism, released a statement on Monday (August 21) addressing the film after the actor was accused of performing in “Jewface”.

In the statement (via Variety), the ADL said the use of prosthetics is not inherently tied to antisemitism. “Throughout history, Jews were often portrayed in antisemitic films and propaganda as evil caricatures with large hooked noses,” the organisation said.

“This film, which is a biopic on the legendary conductor Leonard Bernstein, is not that.”

Cooper, who also co-writes and directs the film, stars opposite Carey Mulligan in Maestro, which charts the relationship between Leonard Bernstein and his wife Felicia Montealegre.

Bernstein, the son of Jewish-Ukrainian immigrants to the US, was a renowned composer and conductor perhaps best known for writing the music to West Side Story.

Earlier this month, Bernstein’s family similarly defended Cooper’s decision to use prosthetics for the role.

“It breaks our hearts to see any misrepresentations or misunderstandings of his efforts,” Bernstein’s children, Jamie, Alexander and Nina, said. “It happens to be true that Leonard Bernstein had a nice, big nose. Bradley chose to use makeup to amplify his resemblance, and we’re perfectly fine with that.”

Last month, the casting of non-Jewish actor Cillian Murphy in the lead role of Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, a Jewish nuclear physicist, faced scrutiny from David Baddiel.

In an article on the Jewish Chronicle, Baddiel wrote: “Yet again, a major movie has cast a non-Jew to play a famous Jew. This may be part of a deeper erasure of Jews – and anti-semitism – going on under the surface of storytelling.”

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