Kazu Hiro: Oscar-winning makeup artist apologizes for creating Bradley Cooper's controversial 'Jewface' nose for 'Maestro'
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: The makeup artist responsible for Bradley Cooper's transformation into Leonard Bernstein for the film 'Maestro', which featured a controversial prosthetic nose, issued an apology on Friday, September 1.
Kazu Hiro expresses regret over controversial nose prosthetic in 'Maestro'
Kazu Hiro, a Japanese-born American special make-up effects artist and visual artist and a double Oscar winner known for his work in 'Darkest Hour', where he transformed Gary Oldman into Winston Churchill, expressed regret over any hurt caused by the portrayal.
He shared that he didn't anticipate the strong reaction and said, "I wasn't expecting that to happen. I feel sorry that I hurt some people's feelings."
Hiro explained, "My goal, and Bradley's goal, was to portray Lenny as authentic as possible. Lenny had a really iconic look that everybody knows – there's so many pictures out there because he's photogenic too – such a great person and inspired so many people."
"So we wanted to respect the look too, on the inside. So that's why we did several different tests and went through lots of decisions, and that was the outcome in the movie."
Despite the controversy, the film premiered in Venice, where Bernstein's three children were present to promote it.
Bradley Cooper couldn't attend due to the film being a Netflix production, and participating would have been against the ongoing actors' and writers' strikes.
The prosthetic nose in question drew criticism upon the release of the film's trailer and publicity stills. Some members of the Jewish community accused Bradley Cooper of resorting to 'Jewface' in his portrayal.
Leonard Bernstein's family defends Bradley Cooper's portrayal in 'Maestro'
Bernstein's eldest daughter, Jamie, defended the decision in an interview with Vanity Fair as per DailyMail, "It's just such an annoying distraction. The people who were waiting to get mad about something were just waiting to pounce."
She added: "It just made us gasp at what they were able to achieve. He (Hiro) would send us photographs on his phone, and some of them were so spot on that we would think, Oh, come on now, he just sneaked in a picture of our dad."
Jamie also praised Bradley Cooper's performance, "His energy was so similar to our dad's, and his way of being in the world and relating to people reminded us more and more of our dad, and we began to see how right he was for the role in ways that wouldn't even have occurred to us at first."
The siblings, Jamie, Alexander, and Nina, released a joint statement supporting Bradley Cooper's efforts "Bradley Cooper included the three of us along every step of his amazing journey as he made his film about our father."
"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. 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."
The transformation process required up to five hours in the makeup chair for scenes depicting an older Bernstein and around two hours and 50 minutes for younger versions of the character.
Despite the initial controversy, the film's creators and Bernstein's family stood by the artistic choices made in portraying the legendary composer.