Bradley Cooper Weighs In on 'The Nose' Controversy

When images surfaced over the summer of Bradley Cooper wearing a fake nose to portray Leonard Bernstein, the actor took a lot of flak for the choice. Now, able to speak about The Maestro because the Hollywood strike is over, Cooper is explaining—and defending—the decision. Initially, "I thought, 'Maybe we don't need to do it," he told CBS Mornings on Tuesday, per the Hollywood Reporter. He added that "my nose is very similar to Lenny's actually." As a result, they tried it without the prosthetic, but ultimately changed course, per Variety.

"It's all about balance, and, you know, my lips are nothing like Lenny's, and my chin," Cooper told Gayle King. "And so we had that, and it just didn't look right [without the prosthetic]. We just had to do it, otherwise I just wouldn't believe he's a human being." For the record, the conductor's children have defended Cooper for the choice, as has the Anti-Defamation League. "Throughout history, Jews were often portrayed in antisemitic films and propaganda as evil caricatures with large, hooked noses," said the group. "This film, which is a biopic on the legendary conductor Leonard Bernstein, is not that." The movie opens in select theaters on Wednesday, and it begins streaming on Netflix on December 20. (More Bradley Cooper stories.)