Extended interview: Bradley Cooper on playing Leonard Bernstein and more

[@CBSSundayMorning]

Watch more extended interviews from “CBS Sunday Morning”: kzbin.info/aero/PLwBoQZPcMB03n8K69HrfxRsnw2L-jlMXK

[@cliftonbowers6376]

Good to see Christian ..hope to see in nyc in a few months ..I run in to Mr. Cooper on an occasion too..😮

[@jacobfield4848]

Just give Cooper an Oscar he is killing us with his antics.

[@waltergodsoe5526]

It was a magnificent feat. Lenny was a Giant of a human being. I had a friend who was a cellist with the Philharmonic, he was dying of AIDS, abandoned by so many. Lenny, threw him a party, bringing together members of the orchestra and friends to celebrate my friends life, at his home in the Hamptons. He did this repeatedly for others. He stood up while so many just disappeared. Thank you Lenny and Bradley. Life well lived.

[@Hannibal082]

He was such a Giant, he had magnificent feet.

[@gemgirl2000]

As a young musician in school, I loved listening to Bernstein’s music. I cannot wait to sit down and absorb this movie. Yes, absorb because the music is something to be absorbed and experienced.

[@cindymaceda2999]

Lenny Bernstein was physically beautiful as well as internally. Even in his elderly years. Simply drop dead gorgeous.

[@danielgloverpiano7693]

I agree. I saw him in person once on the street. I lived a few blocks from him as a Juilliard student.

[@cindymaceda2999]

@@danielgloverpiano7693 You were so lucky. He was like a god !

[@danielgloverpiano7693]

@@cindymaceda2999 I agree. The legacy he left us is something to treasure. I’m glad so much is preserved on film, and video.

[@tommoncrieff1154]

I LOVED this movie. It received a round of applause in the cinema where I saw it.

[@siemprebmw3284]

but where are all the people of color ? is this just for white people ?

[@jacobfield4848]

No it did not.

[@Mrstobastoba]

​@@jacobfield4848yes it did. I should know, I was Maestro

[@jackieb8265]

COOPER S ACTING DIRECTING AND WRITING WERE FANTASTIC...A WORK OF ART ON ALL LEVELS...KUDOS TO BRADLEY

[@sebastiankinnunen5549]

❤Bradley is multitalented genious❤And very handsome❤Already iconic❤love from Finland❤

[@sebastianalegria3401]

Bradley has become one of my favourites actors/directors over the years and the more I see his films, the more I'm fan of his and if you ask me about Maestro as a Netflix film, I found it a truly masterpiece because, I realized how much dedication he put on his movie, which resulted in a great biopic and musical. Regarding Leonard Bernstein, I didn't know who he was, but the movie let me know a bit more about his life whose Bradley Cooper's performance amazed me as much as the whole cast. So, thank you Bradley for paying tribute to Leonard Bernstein through this movie, and I wish also Bradley could win the Oscar, which he's waited for a long time.

[@dburlin5304]

I cannot wait to see this film. I used to take my little girl to his Children's concerts at Lincoln Center. Even in these old black and white film clips of him conducting, of him rehearsing with his musicians, he is electrifying. He was 100% alive and in love and energized when he was conducting. What a well-lived life!

[@muchomacho79]

This movie moved me to pieces. Got a really healthy cry in today. Movie of the year!

[@elizabethgalligan1805]

I think it helped that Bradley Cooper looks like Bernstein and Carey Mulligan looks like Felicia! So that was a positive . And both are excellent actors!😊👌

[@henrykaspar3634]

He doesn’t. He is 6’1, moves like a lanky 6’1 guy. Bernstein was a compact 5’7. He has blue eyes, Bernstein’s were light brown. Cooper looks like a ghost with the Bernstein make-up and the watery blue eyes. And the conducting doesn’t work, there is no connection to the music and the musicians, and with his long limbs, the exaggerated movements - that with little Bernstein were authentic - look like absurd gymnastics. I appreciate Cooper’s love for Bernstein, but then he should have chosen a more suitable actor than himself.

[@TheFitchhung]

@@henrykaspar3634you described perfectly what I was trying to figure out about why this movie didn’t work in my eyes. Carey as Felicia was amazing in my eyes but Bradley as an actor and the director just did not work for this movie and it suffered as a result.

[@Tytusikjenia]

absolutely excellent performance.

[@rjcarter2904]

Maestro is an amazing film, and Bradley Cooper did a spectacular job in the role of Bernstein, the writing, and the directing. It's not particularly uplifting, but it is real.

[@leeboriack8054]

Maestro is simply one of the finest films in decades. No reliance on CGI or other gimmicks to trigger adrenaline. World class talent in every aspect.

[@susanwangcfa3685]

One of the finest films in DECADES? Are you being serious?

[@sophrosynemind]

​@@susanwangcfa3685 😂 I can't even.

[@juggles5474]

Damn bro you should really, really watch more movies. This was one of the most boring, self-important pieces of Oscar bait I’ve seen in my entire life

[@marisolgarcia3123]

😂😂😂 what the scrip is crap 😅

[@TinaLucas49]

Totally agree….. a masterpiece….. as is Mr.Cooper.

[@beatlessteve1010]

God i got giant goosebumps watching Bradley transform...he is special and i have an even greater respect for his hard work and loves!

[@danielgloverpiano7693]

It’s poetic that this multi-talented actor/director played such an iconic composer/conductor/pianist/influencer. Bradley is so handsome and talented, as was Bernstein. I saw Lenny once when I was living a few blocks from him as a Juilliard student. He was backing his convertible out of the Dakota building and I had to stop for it to pass over the sidewalk. It was like seeing Beethoven on the street. He was that much of a giant in our field. He was a gift to humanity. Good to know he was a night owl, like me. I’m writing this at 3am! Saw the movie two nights ago, and would like to purchase it to watch again and again. It deserves several Oscars. Bravo, Bradley!

[@patricedonofrio2438]

From one New Yorker to another....I love your post!❤

[@clifftanton8385]

My mother loved Bernstein and his composition and music never forget

[@wotan10950]

Fascinating! Would you believe I once met Bernstein? Long story short, my dad was an IRS agent, assigned to the soprano Eileen Farrell and her policeman husband. We drove from the Bronx to Staten Island over the brand new Verrazano Bridge. Miss Farrell offered me a lemonade while dad and Mr Regan got down to business. Dad was a classical music and opera buff, and we heard some tinkling on the piano in another room. Miss Farrell noticed dad’s interest, and she said, “wanna meet Lenny? he’s in the music room.” So I met Eileen Farrell and Leonard Bernstein on the same day!

[@robertcuratolo5339]

✌😊2 hit movies as director.

[@renatamariabuenodepaiva5249]

Bradley Cooper deveria ter ganho o Oscar. Ele interpretou magnificamente o grande Leonard Bernstein,, meu querido Lenny!

[@sajaeggi]

Bradley Cooper is an absolute genius! Congratulations on the making of a true masterpiece! Bravo!

[@sevtaptincer8194]

What masterpiece are you talking about. The film which sidestepped music for social drama. His creativity, conducting skills and being a great educator are all butchered for some Hollywood cliche in order to attract more audience for box office. I am sure you would like to see a short scene from his signature work The West Side Story

[@sophrosynemind]

​@@sevtaptincer8194 not just for box office....but Cooper's Hunger for an Oscar ruined it all. Cringefest.

[@jimvinespresents...8463]

Saw the film yesterday and absolutely loved it. Bravo to Bradley Cooper and his cast and crew!

[@teresab126]

I love that Bradley puts his entire self into each project ❤❤❤

[@andrewgonzalez6208]

Bradley Cooper is amazing

[@deerhoda7574]

Tracy the jacket your wearing is art. Bradley Cooper.....amazing.

[@KathySolorzano-qe4di]

..He was robbed of Oscars in A Star is Born...I hope they appreciate his Genious in this Film...

[@maryannevitale2515]

Bravo Bradley Cooper!

[@andrewtestin9080]

Art thank God we still have it

[@marcstone60]

Simply genius. The best movie in years. That Cooper has a bright future 😊

[@shankarbalakrishnan2360]

Bradley❤❤

[@baharam98]

It is amazing, Bradley with the prosthetic nose, looks sooooooo much more handsome. If it were me, I would have kept the nose off screen too. Much LOVE and respect to all who made this wonderful movie...

[@leeboriack8054]

Cinema needs more films of this caliber.

[@sherrykelley741]

Loved both pieces well done

[@coreygarnett5826]

This movie and Bradley are definitely going to win an Oscar, Carey Mulligan for best supporting actress.

[@misslauralizz]

Carey Mulligan is up for best actress :)

[@coreygarnett5826]

@@misslauralizz if she isn’t she should be.. l ❤️the part where she jumps in the pool..

[@salvadorneto686]

I loved the film

[@Martvandelay]

Fantastic film ❤️

[@lizholdford7688]

Such a Wonderful movie ❤

[@ivaga7741]

Bradley Cooper, excelent job!

[@cynthialambeth6894]

Yep, there are days like today. Fortunately, your mom has many good ones. ❤

[@henrykaspar3634]

For me little in this movie worked. There are so many fascinating facets and stories about Bernstein that would have been worth retelling, but the script managed to make even his (!) life look dull - a successful fellow who had a nice wife and lived in a nice house and went to nice parties but was drawn to men. So? What about the man who was so charismatic that could run a successful prime time TV show about classical music that educated millions? Who went to Russia in the midst of the Cold War, charmed Shostakovich and moved Russian audiences to tears? Who the German government chose over all the German conductors to perform Beethoven 9 after the downfall of the Berlin Wall, and who took the freedom to replace the word ‘joy’ with ‘freedom’? Who got the Vienna Philharmonic to rediscover, perform and love their own former director, Gustav Mahler? And Cooper as Bernstein - nah. A lanky 6’1 guy with long limbs and a prosthetic nose seeking to imitate a small, compact 5’7 fellow. He moves differently from Bernstein by the design of their bodies, he stands higher, sits higher at the piano, looks at people from a different angle. In the conducting scene, the key Bernstein ingredient is missing: Bernstein’s unparalleled ability to communicate musical intentions to the orchestra. Whatever movements he made were never show for its own sake but in the service of music. Without Bernstein’s genius for communication, the scene degrades into grotesque gymnastics. There is also this strange stare Copper’s Bernstein has, and that results from Cooper’s watery, somewhat hollow blue eyes, as opposed to the warm, light brown eyes Bernstein had. Cooper’s eyes don’t go with the face, hence he looks like a Bernstein Zombie at Halloween - too scary though to give him candy. I respect Cooper’s love for Bernstein, but then he should have chosen a more suitable actor for this role than himself.

[@beatlessteve1010]

Wow quite specific and cutting in your criticism...It must be difficult to live up to your expectations...

[@DFM3333]

❤maestro ❤

[@IFUPokeTheLAMBULWakeThaLION]

well done, thank you!

[@djjoeykmusic]

Bravo! Thank you 🙏🏾

[@pamelamccall5653]

Bradley Cooper’s blue eyes are so iconic. I was very surprised he didn’t wear brown contacts to play Bernstein.

[@piustwelfth]

He should have. Given the extreme measures that Cooper took to resemble Berstein, why would he not have brown eyes in the film? Vanity.

[@ebriggs3498]

@@piustwelfth: not necessarily. He may have tried them and they hurt his eyes.

[@abbygreenwald-waterland8637]

earned best actor, director and writer!

[@clifftanton8385]

Genius I like Cooper special and talented

[@lynnloehr1566]

Wow Josh, I am so impressed!! You have it under control!! Looks like an amazing feast. You are so organized!! I hope you and your family have a wonderful visit together, I am sure Sarah is in heaven so proud of the job you are doing. Merry Christmas!

[@christinekirkland4164]

Can’t wait to see this movie x

[@sandythompson5096]

I would agree with Jamie. I imagine the long-term complexity of their relationship sapped Felicia's strength. She was, no doubt, worn out.

[@cindymaceda2999]

She smoked incessantly and died of lung cancer during an era when people didn’t know it was dangerous.

[@piustwelfth]

@@cindymaceda2999 Everybody knew smoking was bad for his/her health long before the Surgeon General's warning. People who smoked heavily had terrible coughs and problems with their lungs, and they knew it was related to cigarettes.

[@ok.elenh.]

❤❤❤❤❤

[@ssehe2007]

Loss of time, total absorption in the task at hand, loss of ego- Bernstein was clearly in a flow state while conducting

[@DeeDee-tq4cg]

Excellent!!!!! Thank you!!!

[@bluepandaman]

My mom passed away when she was about the same age as Felicia Montealegre. Seeing her die in this film felt devastating since I know what it's like from the kids perspective.

[@caroleem1319]

Did he get a Oscar for West Side Story? Or Candide? Sure hope so! Brilliant writing, brilliant theatre

[@LMays-cu2hp]

Thank you for sharing. Merry Christmas and Happy New Years.😊😊

[@twinEAH]

Thats weird. My mother died of lung cancer in her mid-50s. My father was a conductor. He died at 72 also. I can't wait to see this movie. 🎻🎺🎷📯

[@janepowers6711]

I did love the film and I thought that Bradley Cooper did a magnificent job & to me Carrie Mulligan was brilliant perfection.

[@deboerkanericdeboer7528]

Great movie Bradley!

[@Karlinberlin1]

A brilliant screen play and hope it gets the recognition. First it balances the Felicia characgter against this enormous public figure. It keeps the Felicia character intelligent and sympathetic where others woud have been made her pathetic and wrong-done. Also, Bernstein himself is presented as gragarious, dominant, brilliant, thoughtless - all extenal qualities. Bradley focused on Berstien the public figure - no sad, introverted homosexual here. In the end it`s probably the best written story about gay marriages in pre-Stonewall that`s ever been done.

[@sunflowerdisabilty]

Want to see this film. Mary Quant is the Mother of the mini skirt. She was a1960s icon.

[@UrsulaPowers]

Very good interviews! I also enjoyed the skirt segment.

[@angelmatos9143]

A decent man.

[@om111]

I wish Bradley an Oscar... he deserves an Oscar for his contribution to cinema - good actor... but I was not impressed by this film... I expected more music and more talk about the mastery of the great Bershtein, but not so many cigarettes that made me sneeze at the weight of the film. Is this a film about the complexity of love? I did not get this feeling...but i got a lot of biopic facts about a self-centred man, in which Bershtein's greatness disappears... I love the first role of Leah... she is a pure angel... thanks to her Russian mother...;)

[@shayhamilton4086]

Hevwas phenomenal in this part I was not a fan but he deserved an Oscar for that

[@seanpopecoffey1340]

That’s the look of a family that just BANKED!

[@cindymaceda2999]

Sorry but pity that none of Lenny’s children took up music as a vocation. Their father was born of poor, oppressed Jewish refugees who had no musical inclinations, but he developed his genius into a global phenomenon.

[@cynthiaguest4509]

There’s a correlation between mini skirts and pantyhose - couldn’t have happened otherwise

[@gabrieleulbricht7722]

Oh, oh. Very especaly. you have to see it twice

[@dan_gabriel]

😍😍😍

[@tb77]

I get what Bradley is saying. A couple of weeks ago, I was at a bachelor party, and things got really out of hand. People disappeared, we woke up with no recollection of what had happened during the night...and there was a tiger... Crazy stuff. But I think of Bradley (well, he is Brad to me)...and I feel he was there with me. There was a bond... 🥹 I'm sorry...I can't talk about it...😥😥😥

[@starwarsjunkie7776]

As a professional musician who has seen quite literally 100s of Lenny’s videos, I will say that Cooper did a fine job in the choir rehearsal portion. The rest of the conducting parts were trash and he has no sense of what the time signatures were and where to put the strong beat in his gestures. Bernstein’s body language was truly difficult to mimic because he was a MASTER at the highest level.

[@clifftanton8385]

I like this guy different does not care about conventional film making brilliant

[@danielgolarz674]

Bradley Cooper I'm the author of EIGHT DAYS IN AN INNER CITY SCHOOL please talk about the out of control OCCUPATIONAL LICENSING for k-12 teachers that's why we have teacher shortages

[@BenjaminLove-mq2em]

I’m glad the son didn’t just go along with the daughter saying “she died early because she stuck by him.” I mean she chose to be with him. That was her choice.

[@johnurban7333]

And it sounded like she died from lung cancer

[@samtan4729]

In Maestro, the great Bernstein's musical genius took a backseat to the depiction of his marriage which is a pity.

[@navblue20]

It has been said in multiple interviews if you bothered to pay attention with due respect that was not the Bernstein that they wanted to portray. Steven Spielberg originally was supposed to direct this movie and he was going to do exactly what Bradley Cooper did. We and the world know what he did as a musician and as a composer And there are documentaries just full of that information.

[@suzetebrito4506]

I watched the film and in the end I shouldn't say that I like the way he, Bradley Cooper, chose to approach Bernstein's life. We know that he was homosexual, that he had several affairs throughout his marriage, but in the film B. Cooper decided to emphasize this too much. So, the film practically does not explore Bernstein's professional life and musical talent, but only his personal life, his complicated marriage and his homosexuality and promiscuity... Younger people who have never heard about Bernstein, people in the twenties like my son, leave the film without knowing him... A person who worked with Callas, with Pavarotti who conducted orchestras, who must have spent days, months dedicated to studying scores, appears reduced to someone whose sexual life was the pure debauchery. Even if that was the case, I think he deserved more, he deserved a film that also valued him from the point of view of his talent.

[@karinfandrey181]

... i do not think, that you are right ... in the focus was the lovestory ... allthough he had affairs ... but the family gave him power to be "that Maestro" at the outside ... i was never a fan of classic music ... but the film also makes me curious about Leonard Bernstein ...

[@leftyla]

"Please give me an Oscar" -- Bradley Cooper. Sorry, but this is acting with a capital A. Not a compliment.

[@martinanidjar]

That they used a prosthetic nose in the movie I think is not anti semitic. But how CBS chose to describe the issue seems to be, at least to me: ‘the use of a prosthetic nose for the non-Jewish Bradley Cooper to play the Jewish Leonard Berenstein’. It implies only a Jew can have such a nose, or that he had that nose because he was Jewish. Pathetic @cbs

[@denisechavoya2813]

@martinanidjar I thought the same and agree with you!

[@JaySmith-rw5kj]

Agreed. He used a prosthetic nose to look more like Bernstein, not to “look Jewish”. With the nose he looks surprisingly like Bernstein. Without, he looks like Bradley Cooper. Bernstein’s face was also longer than Cooper’s, but there’s no real way to move his features further apart.

[@KMayflower]

Totally agree!

[@NoteFromSELF]

Bradley Cooper is extremely talented. I'd love to have his success. My only issue with him is that I SEE him TRYING to win an Oscar. I don't know how else to say it. Winning an Oscar isn't what it's about.

[@chipchiperson679]

Bradley Cooper didn’t talk like Leonard Bernstein, had some kind of a muffled broadway accent that sounded nothing like Bernstein’s polished academic new york jewish dialect

[@kennethdower7425]

Bernstein was from Massachusetts and went to Harvard; there was no "polished academic new york jewish dialect", whatever that exactly means.

[@chipchiperson679]

@@kennethdower7425 where did he live?

[@caroldwyer4471]

I just watched an interview with the older Bernstein to re-acquaint myself with his speech. I watched the Young People's Concerts as a child. He had nothing like a polished NY Jewish dialect in either case. Cooper pretty much got it right; Bernstein sounded like a person from somewhere nondescript in the Northeast with a stuffed-up nose, and so did Cooper.🙂

[@caroldwyer4471]

He grew up in Lawrence, Boston and Newton, Mass. He didn't go to NYC until the beginning of his career, after training under Koussevitsky (director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra) at Tanglewood, Mass., later taking over for him upon his death.@@chipchiperson679

[@cmoran9103]

He sounded exactly like him. It was perfect.

[@bernardabelsbondchannel]

👍

[@xelamercedes]

what fun! Women have known for a long time that not every skirt looks good on every woman. Now men will discover this fashion truth.

[@katherineferguson9880]

Have not seen the movie yet but Cooper’s voice is wrong for Bernstein. It sounds like he has a cold and is unable to breathe through his nose.

[@caroldwyer4471]

Cooper doesn't normally sound like that. If you watch interviews of him, Bernstein did.

[@leeboriack8054]

Constant fashion changes create sales.

[@edwingchambi9954]

Not good movie very superficial way to remember Leonard Bernstein

[@hinhwood1629]

Is this his coming out movie?

[@questocd174]

Animals over Dark Side. White Album over Sgt. Peppers. Hunky Dory over Ziggy. Your missing Odyssey and Oracle and Village Greenand Siamese Dream and In Rainbows and OK Computer and Unknown Pleasures and Fear of Music. Many many others could have taken the place of Selena, or any of the rap albums. Sigh. Oh well.

[@piustwelfth]

Before this interview, I thought Cooper was Jewish due to his nose and overall facial appearance. He has a very large, prominent nose. There was no need to enlarge it.

[@lanamuir9352]

I tried watching "Maestro" on Netflix the other night and ten minutes into it, I couldn't take it any more. Was Leonard Bernstein really that frenetic? Good grief.

[@sophrosynemind]

Oh my God! Exactly the same experience... I didn't see Bernstein anywhere... it was just Cooper playing 'Cooper plays Bernstein'

[@RubySlippers1100]

I was not impressed either. They made Bernstein more of a caricature of himself. Over the top. I've never seen so much smoking! He had a cigarette the whole time filming! Ghastly!

[@karinfandrey181]

The same with me ... at first ... but afterwards, i did continue watchong the film ... and i have been watching some KZbin clips with the real Leonard Bernstein ... Cooper wanted to show the lovestory AND the Maestro ... one gave the power for the other ... yes ... Cooper seemed to do "too much" ... but now i believe ... a Bernstein with less energy ... would not have been this brillant figure ...

[@hemiolaguy]

@@RubySlippers1100 Bernstein was a heavy smoker for most of his life, even after his diagnosis of emphysema, so the movie got that part right.

[@sarahjones-jf4pr]

What is it with American voiceover narratives? "Interview with the first born"JEANNIE?????"Jamie please.........

[@TheVykingJoe]

Why does everybody have a lisp?

[@TitusWasBorn]

It's their dentures

[@michaeldonovan4793]

Loved a star is born but maestro never touched my heart..Carey mulligan a few times...Script was all over the place and two rebellious artists in real life were shown here as predictable and bland..Next time out, I hope bradley cooper stays behind the camera..

[@crew-dog2668]

I did not like the movie at all. It didn’t flow right, scenes weren’t connected, left with an hour to go.

[@aimiamano1628]

He looks so weird and those ears 👂 😂😂

[@truecrime_and_everything_else]

Maybe I am the only one who didn't like it.. I hated his performance.. I couldn't get past 20 mins.. sorry...

[@susanwangcfa3685]

Bradley looks good here thanks to make-up, lighting, and maybe a bit of filler, but the movie wasn't even a Critic's Pick from the NYT.

[@RubySlippers1100]

It was a disappointing movie

[@TheHomeExpert5]

Sounds a little too much like they worship this guy

[@inquiring8059]

Boring interview and, according to audience reviews, 'Maestro' is a monumentally boring movie...

[@RubySlippers1100]

It is! I never thought it would end!

[@inquiring8059]

@@RubySlippers1100 ... That's sad to hear - I was so looking forward to seeing it, admiring Bernstein's role in music history as I do. Now I'm happy to wait until I might come across it on disc.

[@HOLLYKelley-u3h]

HOW ABOUT A CAT ON A SKIRT ???

[@EternalLife42]

Yes he's ending all this and he's going to tell the truth what he did