{"id":180228,"date":"2024-03-05T10:17:52","date_gmt":"2024-03-05T18:17:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dailyactor.com\/?p=180228"},"modified":"2024-03-05T10:19:17","modified_gmt":"2024-03-05T18:19:17","slug":"bradley-cooper-maestro-i-direct-the-whole-day-as-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dailyactor.com\/actors-on-acting\/bradley-cooper-maestro-i-direct-the-whole-day-as-him\/","title":{"rendered":"Bradley Cooper on Playing Leonard Bernstein: “I direct the whole day as him. That\u2019s the only way I know to be absolutely free”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Bradley Cooper<\/a> <\/strong>has been nominated for twelve Academy Awards — five for acting — including three for Maestro<\/em>, his biopic about composer Leonard Bernstein. For Maestro<\/em>, Cooper is nominated for Best Picture, Best Actor, and Best Original Screenplay, though much of the focus of the film’s accolades is on Cooper’s portrayal of the acclaimed conductor. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In an interview with The New Yorker<\/a><\/em>, Cooper speaks about portraying Bernstein throughout his life and how he approached the performance for this longtime passion project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cooper points out that though he is playing Bernstein throughout the film, because he is playing him at three different ages he had to approach his portrayal in three different ways. He explains:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

‘”It starts with how I hear and see the movie. I always saw it as one musical element. And part of that music is the interplay between the characters and them speaking the music, the melody of their conversations, particularly between Felicia and Lenny. I had access to these wonderful audiotapes. That\u2019s part of why I started to focus on making the movie about the two of them\u2014the intoxicating melody of their conversations, and particularly him. He spoke melodically.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I knew early on that in order to tell this story about their relationship, it was going to have to take place over a period of time. Bernstein sounded different from years of smoking and getting older. His voice completely changed. I knew early on that I needed to start working on that immediately. Tim Monich [a dialect coach] and I started working on these three separate voices\u2014when he\u2019s in his twenties, when he\u2019s in his fifties, and then when he\u2019s in his late sixties.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Cooper details how he continued to remain completely focused on portraying Bernstein throughout the shoot. He continues, “The only way that I know how to do this is to bank Lenny way before I start shooting. Otherwise, I\u2019d be terrified… So, Leonard Bernstein, that character that you see in the film, was banked maybe six months before we started shooting. When I go through hair and makeup in the morning before crew call, Lenny is there. It\u2019s me, but I\u2019m speaking like him. Everything\u2019s him. I direct the whole day as him. That\u2019s the only way I know to be absolutely free. If I have to put headphones on, excuse my language, I\u2019m absolutely f***ed. All of my energy is put towards the filmmaking and to the other actors, so there\u2019s never a moment on set when I\u2019m thinking about what I sound like.”<\/p>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cooper points out that because he is playing Bernstein at three different ages, he had to approach his portrayal in three different ways.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":180430,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,11213],"tags":[294,2515,2483,12105],"class_list":["post-180228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-actor-tips","category-actors-on-acting","tag-bradley-cooper","tag-creating-a-character","tag-dialect-coach","tag-featured"],"yoast_head":"\nBradley Cooper on Playing Leonard Bernstein: "I direct the whole day as him. 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For more information about Chris, visit his website here!","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.chrismckit.com","https:\/\/x.com\/chrismckit"],"url":"https:\/\/www.dailyactor.com\/author\/chris-mckittrick\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.dailyactor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/actor-bradley-cooper-maestro-leonard-bernstein.jpg","spectra_custom_meta":{"_edit_lock":["1710264762:5"],"classic-editor-remember":["block-editor"],"_last_editor_used_jetpack":["block-editor"],"_uag_custom_page_level_css":[""],"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":[""],"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":[""],"ast-site-content-layout":["default"],"theme-transparent-header-meta":[""],"adv-header-id-meta":[""],"stick-header-meta":[""],"astra-migrate-meta-layouts":["set"],"footnotes":[""],"_edit_last":["5"],"_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":["11213"],"_yoast_wpseo_content_score":["60"],"_yoast_wpseo_estimated-reading-time-minutes":["2"],"_yoast_wpseo_wordproof_timestamp":[""],"_thumbnail_id":["180430"],"_yoast_wpseo_metadesc":["Actor Bradley Cooper on portraying Bernstein throughout his life and how he approached the performance for this longtime passion project."],"_uag_page_assets":["a:9:{s:3:\"css\";s:263:\".uag-blocks-common-selector{z-index:var(--z-index-desktop) !important}@media (max-width: 976px){.uag-blocks-common-selector{z-index:var(--z-index-tablet) !important}}@media (max-width: 767px){.uag-blocks-common-selector{z-index:var(--z-index-mobile) !important}}\n\";s:2:\"js\";s:0:\"\";s:18:\"current_block_list\";a:4:{i:0;s:10:\"core\/image\";i:1;s:14:\"core\/paragraph\";i:2;s:10:\"core\/quote\";i:3;s:22:\"tadv\/classic-paragraph\";}s:8:\"uag_flag\";b:0;s:11:\"uag_version\";s:10:\"1736589009\";s:6:\"gfonts\";a:0:{}s:10:\"gfonts_url\";s:0:\"\";s:12:\"gfonts_files\";a:0:{}s:14:\"uag_faq_layout\";b:0;}"],"_uag_css_file_name":["uag-css-180228.css"]},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/www.dailyactor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/actor-bradley-cooper-maestro-leonard-bernstein.jpg",1280,720,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.dailyactor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/actor-bradley-cooper-maestro-leonard-bernstein-80x80.jpg",80,80,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.dailyactor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/actor-bradley-cooper-maestro-leonard-bernstein-356x200.jpg",356,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.dailyactor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/actor-bradley-cooper-maestro-leonard-bernstein-768x432.jpg",768,432,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.dailyactor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/actor-bradley-cooper-maestro-leonard-bernstein-600x338.jpg",600,338,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.dailyactor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/actor-bradley-cooper-maestro-leonard-bernstein.jpg",1280,720,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.dailyactor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/actor-bradley-cooper-maestro-leonard-bernstein.jpg",1280,720,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Chris McKittrick","author_link":"https:\/\/www.dailyactor.com\/author\/chris-mckittrick\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Cooper points out that because he is playing Bernstein at three different ages, he had to approach his portrayal in three different ways.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dailyactor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dailyactor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dailyactor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dailyactor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dailyactor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180228"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.dailyactor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180228\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":180449,"href":"https:\/\/www.dailyactor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180228\/revisions\/180449"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dailyactor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/180430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dailyactor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dailyactor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dailyactor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}