Embodying a musical figure as towering as Leonard Bernstein is a challenge most actors would be intimidated by.
Not just his movements or mannerisms – but his conducting. Bradley Cooper took on the challenge to play Bernstein in Maestro, the acclaimed Netflix biopic, with help from the Metropolitan Opera's music director Yannick Nézet-Séguin. We spoke to Nézet-Séguin and to Bernstein's daughter Jamie to find out more about the Hollywood actor's journey to becoming Leonard Bernstein.
‘The emotionality of it is so intense,’ Jamie Bernstein begins. ‘I noticed that the people who were coming up to my sister and me to talk about the film (after screenings) all had this same gesture of putting their hands over their hearts as they spoke.’ I realise I’d done the exact same thing when my conversation with the eldest of Leonard Bernstein’s three children began, just an hour after seeing Bradley Cooper’s Maestro.
There was great joy and happiness... but there was chaos and sadness, too
Such is the disarming, emotional impact of this film, a beautiful and very cinematic chronicle of Leonard Bernstein’s marriage to actress Felicia Montealegre. The pair met in 1946, eventually marrying in 1951. Their years together saw many moments of great joy and happiness, but there was not a small amount of chaos.
And some sadness, too, as Bernstein navigated not just his rise to stardom but his many loves – both artistic and personal. Despite all that, they gravitated toward each other, and needed each other. When Montealegre was diagnosed with the cancer that would ultimately take her life in 1978, Bernstein was by her side.
How Bradley Cooper came to be involved with Maestro
It was way back in 2018 when news first broke that Bradley Cooper was to embark on a Bernstein biopic, fresh from his acclaimed directorial debut A Star is Born. The project, with an original script by Josh Singer, had in fact already been on the boil in Hollywood for some ten years, but as Jamie Bernstein shares, Cooper was surprisingly well placed to take it on and finally see it to fruition.
‘We didn’t realise that he was quite as much like our father as he turned out to be,’ she says. ‘He didn’t have to be like Leonard Bernstein to play Leonard Bernstein; he’s an actor. But it turned out that his whole approach to creativity and performance were so similar to our dad’s and we were very touched by that. His enormous open-heartedness was the really essential similarity, and we didn’t see that coming; he was the perfect guy for this project.’
‘Bradley would send us pictures from his phone, sitting in the make-up chair’
Jamie Bernstein
Taking on the role of Leonard Bernstein
Cooper used the time to immerse himself fully in Bernstein’s world, his life and his music. I recall him being present at the Bernstein Centennial celebration concert at Tanglewood in August 2018. He also used the time to get to know the family and made sure they were involved every step of the way.
‘The minute he had the project to himself, he was not obligated to discuss anything with us ever again,’ Jamie Bernstein tells me. ‘But it was his choice to involve us in his process, and it was just our lucky break that we got to be part of his journey.’
That included getting their father’s look just right, as she recalls. ‘Bradley would send us pictures from his phone, sitting in the make-up chair. And then one time, my sister said that her phone rang and it was an unknown number FaceTiming her.
'She took it and there was her dad, with his glasses and his cigarette! She had such a moment of shock. But she then burst out laughing when she realised it was Bradley pulling a fast one on her.’
Bradley Cooper's Bernstein prosthetics
The actor/director worked for many hours with make-up designer Kazu Hiro to get the various ages of Bernstein’s look just right, and while Cooper’s use of a prosthetic nose made headlines, it was a non-issue for the family who were quick to put out a statement in support of him and the offending piece of latex. Indeed, Cooper’s visceral character portrait of their father gets a thumbs up from the Bernstein siblings. ‘It is a version of him that we recognise, yes,’ says Jamie Bernstein.
Carey Mulligan as Bernstein's wife, Felicia Montealegre Bernstein
Bernstein's children were equally taken aback by Carey Mulligan’s take on their mother. ‘We were floored,’ she tells me. ‘The thing about our mother is that she was such a nuanced person. Very private, very subtle, very hard to explain.
'Carey had a million questions for us about our mother, and we would really struggle to find words to explain her, because she was so unusual. And then somehow Carey was able to convey some essence of our mother that we recognised as totally authentic. I don’t know how she did it; it was a magic trick, truly.’
Mulligan’s portrayal shines a light on a remarkable woman who was a gifted artist in her own right, with a strength of heart and mind that galvanised her (for the most part) in the midst of a marriage that was sometimes far from easy.
'I told a very honest story'
It’s a story that will be largely familiar to readers of Humphrey Burton’s great Bernstein biography and Jamie Bernstein’s own terrific 2018 memoir, Famous Father Girl. The publication of the latter meant the Bernstein siblings were well prepared for this very public airing of their parents’ marriage, as Jamie Bernstein shares.
‘In the process of writing that book I told my brother and sister that I was going to show them every word I wrote and that they had total veto power, and if there was anything they didn’t like, or were uncomfortable with, or didn’t want me to talk about, I would take it out,’ she says. ‘But my siblings were so supportive and in the end, they never vetoed anything. So I told a very honest story and in a way that was preparation for what we went through with the film.’
Did Bradley Cooper learn conducting for Maestro?
Bernstein’s music-making of course plays a significant role, from his last-minute New York Philharmonic debut in 1943 (standing in for a poorly Bruno Walter) to what would be his very last conducting appearance, at Tanglewood in 1990. Getting under the skin of Bernstein the musician was integral to Cooper if he was to not only look like the man, but look like the man conducting. Enter conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin, to whom Cooper turned to hone his baton technique.
'It had to be believable and not just an impression of a conductor, without sacrificing all the emotional impact that made Lenny Lenny'
Yannick Nézet- Séguin
‘We were absolutely committed not to have Bradley becoming Bradley Cooper the conductor, but solely being Lenny as a conductor,’ Nézet-Séguin reveals. ‘My role was not to start from scratch and teach him how to conduct, but to create very believable gestures.
'This was especially important in the right hand. He had to make sure that the baton and beats were in the right place and at the right moment. It had to be absolutely believable and not just an impression of a conductor. But it couldn't sacrfifice all the emotional impact that made Lenny Lenny.’
Is he really conducting in the film?
That really is Bradley Cooper conducting Mahler in Ely Cathedral, among other scenes. That was the result of lots of hard work on the actor’s part – and no small amount of help from Nézet-Séguin, who was on hand during the last five years.
‘I did a lot of commentary on videos of Bernstein to help Bradley prepare for it,’ he tells me. ‘I would be commenting on the beat, why he was looking left and right, why he was closing his eyes.’ The conductor was also present on set. ‘I was there for every conducting scene. I prepared the groups, whether it was the choruses or the orchestra, in front of Bradley.
' A Lenny interpretation of things'
'We crafted a Lenny interpretation of things and I let him sail. Sometimes he was completely alone, sometimes I gave comments in between, or other times with an earpiece while he was conducting. I didn’t need to tell him everything he needed to do, because he knew it. I could leave him free to be the actor, playing Lenny, while helping him to secure the technical aspects.’
The emotionally charged Mahler 2 scene in Ely Cathedral is one of many memorable musical moments in Maestro. The LSO perform on screen as well as on the wider soundtrack conducted by Nézet-Séguin. The use of Bernstein’s own music in place of an original score is a wise move. These new renderings are stunning, amping up the emotional impact.
‘It had to strike the right balance in key moments,’ says Nézet-Séguin. ‘I had watched the different edits of the film, so I could understand what was important to Bradley. I could see the best way to convey the intentions through the orchestra, or what was happening when they were playing excerpts from “Jeremiah” or from Anniversaries.’
A celebration of music made, lives lived and a love endured
The director’s musicality and cinematic eye shines through in the scoring choices made and in any number of beautiful scenes. It was noticeable for Nézet-Séguin on set too. ‘He always knew exactly what to ask of the director of photography, and from everyone, in order to get “that” shot or “that” angle and the beauty. But it was always beauty at the service of expression. This is, in my mind, the most musical description of things. He’s very much like the best of conductors in that way.’
‘He’s so connected with us, and we with him, that it was not like a normal piece of work’
Jamie Bernstein
So Cooper’s film is at once a celebration of music made, lives lived and a love endured. For Bernstein and Montealegre’s children it has been a source of great joy and a few surprises. Jamie Bernstein concludes: ‘The first time we saw the final cut was at Bradley’s home, and he said, “I want you to listen to the music at the very end of the credits.”
This was a ruse, because it was the Candide overture – and we were fine with that. He wanted us to watch it to the end because the very last thing you see on the screen is “To Jamie, Alexander and Nina”. We were gobsmacked and we just came apart; it was so emotional. He’s so connected with us, and we with him, that it was really not like a normal piece of work. It was so intimate; it was a gift.’
Maestro is available to watch on Netflix
Top image: Bradley Cooper as Leonard Bernstein in Maestro. Credit: Jason McDonald/Netflix © 2023.
