During the press conference at NYFF, Maestro filmmakers discuss working with Bradley Cooper, as well as using makeup to age him.
Maestro NYFF Press Conference
Maestro is a film that spans decades and tells a long but devastating story about the love between Leonard Bernstein (Bradley Cooper) and Felicia Montealegre (Carey Mulligan), in a press conference after the film the daughter of the 2, Jamie Bernstein along with other creatives of the movie took the stage to speak about the creative process. Jamie revealed many details about the process that Cooper went through as the director and actor – revealing that Cooper was honest and willingly open about the film through its conception.
“It felt like we were in unusually good hands” – Jamie Bernstein
This film has been in development for over a decade now with Martin Scorsese initially attached to direct. Though the process was long and hard to get creatives right for the movie, the producer of the film said that once Cooper showed them A Star Is Born they knew he was right for the film. On top of this Cooper was already so invested in the story of Leonard Berstein that throughout the process of the film he wanted to be completely transparent with the Berstein family.
“We were watching the film be put together” – Jamie Bernstein
Jamie also spoke on the long process of the film being made, but further the evolution of the film. From the start it was meant to be a more conventional biopic but Bradley had a different vision which also seemed to satisfy the children of Leonard Bernstein – being a study of the romance between Leonard and Felicia. Jamie reiterated that Cooper could have just gotten the license and left the family in the dust until the film was released but instead he would “send dailys and update with finished and unfinished footage”.
Throughout the entirety of the press conference the creatives kept pushing the sentiment that the film took forever to make but they all seemed happy that it was a long and thoughtful process. Producer Kristie Macosko Krieger mentioned that though they had troubles finding a director, once Cooper showed them A Star Is Born they knew it had to be him. This along with the writer revealing that Cooper was knee deep in the writers room proves to show that the film would not be nearly the same if not for Bradley Cooper leading the charge.
“The movie gods smiled amongst me” – Josh Singer (writer)
As previously mentioned Bradley Cooper was a massive part of the writing process and in the film’s long and tedious cultivation process the script that was once completed by Josh Singer was completely scrapped after Cooper was attached to the project. Singer mentioned that usually when a first page rewrite is in effect the original writer is fired – this time around Cooper worked with Singer to take the elements of Singer’s previous script that worked but morphed it into more of a relationship study which is where the movie stands now.
The makeup designer, Kazu Hiro, also spoke about the evolution of the film – more specifically in his area being the evolution of the makeup. According to Hiro, originally Bradley Cooper only had a regular nose prosthetic but the more Cooper transformed into the character, the more he wanted to truly feel like Leonard Bernstein. Hiro said they achieved this by putting different nose holes in the back of the nose prosthetic, giving him a nasally voice similar to that of Bernstein.
On top of this the makeup designer’s call time was much earlier than everyone else on set, except Cooper. Both Cooper and Hiro were on set early to get Cooper into makeup so that by the time everyone else was on set at call-time, Cooper was in character ready to not only act but also direct.
