‘Maestro’: Bradley Cooper Transforms Into Leonard Bernstein

Photos from the movie set released by the streaming giant depict Cooper opposite co-star Carey Mulligan.
Cooper stars in Maestro as esteemed Broadway composer Leonard Bernstein, with Carey Mulligan playing Bernstein’s wife Felicia Montealegre.
The photos show Bernstein at various ages, with impressive make-up work applied to Cooper to nail his look as the elderly Bernstein.
Production on Maestro started this month, but moviegoers will not see the film in theaters and/or on Netflix until 2023.
Spielberg was originally attached to direct a Bernstein biopic and cast Cooper to star in it. Cooper, then coming off A Star Is Born, was more interested in writing and directing movies than taking on an acting role for someone else.
“I told Spielberg, ‘I always felt like I could play a conductor, but may I research the material and see if I can write it and direct it? Would you let me do that?’” Cooper said.
“Steven has a lot of interests — he’ll just choose one thing and all of the other things will be on hold. I think he knew he wasn’t going to make that movie for a while. He was kind enough to hand it off to me, and that’s what I’ve been doing for the last four and a half years.”
Scott Stuber, head of global films at Netflix, said about the pre-production of Maestro: “We’ve done a lot of work on the makeup. We’ve done a lot of work on the voice. I’m excited to see someone so deeply focused on creating a story that means so much to him. And Carey Mulligan is an incredible actress.”
Cooper recently earned rave reviews for his leading turn in Guillermo del Toro’s Nightmare Alley.
His 2018 directorial debut “A Star Is Born” memorably paired Cooper with Lady Gaga to the tune of $436 million worldwide and eight Oscar nominations, including best picture.
See the first photos from Maestro in the post below.