Bradley Cooper's Prosthetic Nose In Bernstein Biopic Isn't Anti-Semitic: This Debate Distracts Us from Real Anti-Semitism

Leonard Bernstein was an American conductor, composer, pianist, humanitarian, and author that brought us musicals as West Side Story, Candide, and On the Town. His influence in the world of music was great enough that Netflix decided to produce a biopic called "Maestro." The producers hired renowned actor Bradley Cooper to play the role of Leonard Bernstein. Between his activism and sexual relations with men while being married to a woman, it makes for an interesting story. In order to play Bernstein, Cooper made the artistic choice of depicting Bernstein while using a prosthetic nose that is larger than Cooper’s actual nose (see comparison below). 

Much like so many other topics in our polarized world, this caused a wave of controversy. This sort of debate is unsurprising in the Jewish world because of "three Jews, five opinions." Being Jewish, I can at least understand why it would cause controversy in the first place. The depiction of Jews having large noses dates back to the Middle Ages. Back then, Christian artists wanted to depict Jews as demonic and animalistic, which include a large, animal-like nose. The Nazis portrayed Jews with having grotesque, exaggerated noses. 

I know it the idea of a "Jew nose" is ridiculous because I converted to Judaism and my nose looks nothing like "the Jew nose." Plus, anyone who has met Jews of color, Mizrahi Jews, Sephardic Jews, or other Jewish converts know that the idea of a "Jewish nose" is bunk. Even most Askhenazi Jews do not have “the Jew nose.” It does not matter that the Jewish nose is more myth than anything else. Nevertheless, portraying Jews with the "Jew nose" is commonplace in the Muslim world when they want to paint Israel in a negative light. It is also used in certain extremist groups on the Far Right. 

In spite of the negative stereotype not based in reality, I do not have an issue with Cooper using the prosthetic nose. Let's start with the fact that Bernstein's own children defended the decision. In their statement, his children said "It happens that to be true that Leonard Bernstein had a nice, big nose." Yes, Jews are not any more likely to have large, grotesque noses than non-Jews. However, that was not the case for Bernstein. 

We can get into a debate of the proportionality of Cooper's prosthetic relative to Bernstein's actual nose. Anyone who has seen movies knows that Hollywood has a tendency to embellish. Even if you are to argue that Cooper's prosthetic is slightly larger than Bernstein's, Cooper's prosthetic does not have any resemblance with the deformed caricatures that were used in the Middle Ages or used by Nazi propagandists (see below). 

Then there is the matter of intent. Cooper did not come into this role thinking of what he could do to paint Jews in a bad light. His goal was to depict Leonard Bernstein to the best of his ability. To reiterate, Leonard Bernstein had a large nose, which his own children admit. Cooper's choice to use the prosthetic nose he used was not out of malice towards Jews, but an artistic choice used. You can love or hate the choice of whether he used a prosthetic or if it was a wee bit too big, but Cooper didn't do it to stick it to the Jewish people. 

8-23-2023 Addendum: Cooper is hardly the only actor who has used a prosthetic nose to better depict a character. There has been Meryl Streep, Anthony Hopkins, Robert DiNero, Steve Carrell, and Jared Leto. 

Whether Cooper is playing "Jewface" (when a non-Jew plays the role of a Jew) tangentially brought up the debate of whether a character from a minority group should be portrayed by an actor or actress from that minority group. Personally, I don't care if a non-Jew plays the role of Leonard Bernstein. Good acting is about being able to suspend audience members' reality and take them to a time and place that is not our own. If Cooper can pull that off with Bernstein, it doesn't matter that he's not Jewish. I also understand that does not matter in a world of identity politics. Just ask Scarlett Johansson when she auditioned for the role to play a FTM transgender individual. 

This obsession over identity politics does not only corrupt the art of acting. It misses the forests for the trees because it does elucidate us upon the dangers that face Jews. You would think that anti-Semitism would have died with Hitler after he carried out his morally egregious "Final Solution" and killed six million Jews. Sadly, anti-Semitism is still with us and is on the rise. It is not something that is solely on the Far Right, but has made its home in the Far Left with the so-called "progressives." The sad truth is that anti-Semitism is becoming en vogue once more and more ubiquitous in nature.

For those who are concerned about rising anti-Semitism, there are plenty of action steps that can be done. Engage with people who are Jewish, particularly if you are not Jewish. Learn more about anti-Semitism, Jewish people, and the Jewish religion. Speak out against anti-Semitic jokes or people who use anti-Semitic tropes. Donate money to organizations that fight anti-Semitism. But obsessing over an actor's artistic choice that is not based in Jew-hatred? That is not one of them.