Kazu Hiro – an Oscar-winning make-up artist – has revealed that he “feels sorry” for fitting Bradley Cooper with a prosthetic nose in the upcoming film Maestro.
The make-up artist faced backlash earlier this year after a trailer was shared for the upcoming Netflix film, which sees Bradley Cooper take on the role of legendary composer Leonard Bernstein.
The controversy stemmed from the actor being fitted with a prosthetic nose for the role – with some taking to social media with concerns that the artistic choice was anti-Semitic.
Now, Hiro has come forward to address the backlash, and said that he was only looking to make Cooper’s portrayal of Bernstein “as real as possible”.
“I wasn’t expecting that to happen,” he said of the criticism at the 2023 Venice Film Festival on Saturday (September 2), per Deadline. “I feel sorry that I hurt some people’s feelings.”
“I wanted to portray Lenny as real as possible…He’s photogenic and a great person,” he added. “We wanted to respect and love that look. We did several different tests. That was our [only] intention.”
Hiro has won numerous awards for his work for the hair and make-up sector of the film industry and also worked on 2017’s Darkest Hour and 2019’s Bombshell. Both of which earned him Academy Awards for Best Make-up and Hairstyling.
As for the choice of prosthetics for Maestro, Bernstein’s children, Jamie, Alexander and Nina, have all defended Hiro’s choice, and insisted that they worked with Cooper to help design how their father is presented in the movie.
“We were touched to the core to witness the depth of his commitment, his loving embrace of our father’s music, and the sheer open-hearted joy he brought to his exploration,” their statement read.
“It breaks our hearts to see any misrepresentations or misunderstandings of his efforts. 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. We’re also certain that our dad would have been fine with it as well.”
Co-produced by Steven Spielberg, Maestro will have a limited run in theatres this November, before officially hitting Netflix on December 2. It stars Carey Mulligan, Sarah Silverman, Maya Hawke and more, and tells the story of the multi-Grammy winner, and his relationship with his family.
It also marks the second film Cooper has directed following 2018’s A Star Is Born, where he starred opposite Lady Gaga. A Star Is Born went on to receive eight Oscar nominations, winning Best Original Song for ‘Shallow’.
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