What if Oscar voters pick Bradley Cooper’s nose?
Bradley Cooper, as Leonard Bernstein, gets fresh makeup. Photo by Jason McDonald/Netflix
By PJ Grisar January 23, 2024
The Oscar nominees are out, and maybe we should spare a thought for Bradley Cooper and, yes, his schnozz.
Cooper, who many say committed the cardinal sin of wanting an Academy Award too much, was bypassed for a best director nomination, even as his film Maestro is up for best picture, original screenplay and lead actor for himself. But as early as the first production photos, Cooper’s film couldn’t shake the scent of controversy.
Some took aim at the non-Jewish Cooper’s phony proboscis in the role of noted Jew Leonard Bernstein, and, keeping his real nose clean during the actor’s strike, Cooper couldn’t defend his decision until days before the film’s limited release. But if the Golden Globes — during which Rob Lowe made the major gaffe of congratulating Cooper over text for an award won by Cillian Murphy — are any kind of barometer, it seems extremely likely that Maestro won’t be walking away with much of an Oscars haul. The exception, of course, might be for a category the Globes doesn’t recognize: hair and makeup.
It is possible that Maestro, which has so far whiffed the whole awards season, may be recognized for the controversial prosthetics designed by Kazu Hiro. Or the award could go to Golda, a film similarly besieged with accusations of “Jewface.” By rights it should go to Poor Things for attaching what looks like a slab of ham to Willem Dafoe’s face, but there’s no guarantee that voters go for the whimsical when they can instead laud the transformation of a recognizable actor into another famous person, as the awards are wont to do. Maestro could win by a nose.
Where does that leave us? As concern over antisemitism rises, even as many, including Bernstein’s children and writers for the Forward, are none too bothered by Cooper’s fake physiognomy, a win would place the conversation over who is allowed to play a Jew back in the spotlight for another grueling round of discourse.
This, of course, would be a distraction from an otherwise great slate of films, among them Jonathan Glazer’s stunning Zone of Interest and Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, which, to my surprise, contains more Jewish content (and even more Yiddish) than Cooper’s treatment of one of the world’s foremost Jewish artists.
There is a historic potential win for Lily Gladstone in Killers of the Flower Moon, a low-key Jewish nominee (Anatomy of a Fall’s co-writer Arthur Harari, grandson of Egyptian-French actor Clément Harari) and even a possible posthumous accolade for The Band frontman Robbie Robertson’s score for Killers. In this field, Maestro, whose concern with Bernstein’s sexuality can’t help but feel dated, doesn’t stand much of a chance in anything but a technical award. Whether the work passed the smell test for everyone is another matter.
Either the Academy will pick the nose, or it will turn theirs up at Maestro. In any case, it’s not worth getting our own noses out of joint for.
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