This year’s Oscar nominations were announced on 23 January, and while Maestro received a nomination for Best Picture, the individual responsible for bringing this picture to life was left off the Best Director category. This is a disappointment to the director Bradley Cooper who has been vocally chasing this goal since his directorial debut A Star Is Born in 2018. Sadly he was also left off the nominees list then as well. Even though the film was a critical success and was nominated for 8 Oscars, Bradley Cooper openly stated that he was embarrassed about not receiving the nomination.
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The pursuit of the shiny statue
Bradley Cooper fell in love with directing while working on A Star is Born. He made this quite clear in several public interviews. While in the media campaign for the film his mind had already leeched onto his next potential project.
In 2018, Bradley Cooper was slotted to star as iconic composer Leonard Bernstein with Steven Spielberg as the director. Circumstances made it so that Spielberg couldn’t stay on the project due to his work on West Side Story and the project almost fell apart. However, Cooper took it upon himself to will the project into existence by convincing Spielberg that he had both the passion and technical prowess to take over as director. He showed Spielberg his directorial debut which had him convinced. He then reached out the Maeostro’s producer and pitched his ideas for the film’s opening. Macosko Krieger spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about Cooper’s vehement passion for the project stating:
He thought about the movie for six years, nonstop. I would hazard a guess to say that I’ve probably received 3,000 texts from him, easily, over the course of us making the movie.
Bradley Cooper’s method acting
Cooper is an avid fan of classical music, Maestro was an opportunity for two passions of his to converge into one. Cooper did everything he could to morph into Leonard Bernstein including learning how to conduct an orchestra. In the film, there is a 6-minute scene of an iconic performance: Bernstein conducting the 1976 London Symphony Orchestra. To show his commitment to the role, Cooper spent 6 years studying footage of the actual performance and taking up lessons to be able to perform the piece live along with today’s London Symphony Orchestra. For Cooper, this was his opus. He states:
It was really about dialing exactly what I wanted cinematically and then inviting them into then inhabit that space and trusting that they have all done the work.
Because I think that I knew, I was terrified, absolutely terrified that if I hadn’t done the work that I wouldn’t be able to enjoy myself in these scenes. And everybody did.
He also remained as Bernstein throughout the film to try to reach the pinnacle of authenticity. And if you watch his performance, the passion from the method acting is palpable throughout each frame.
Sadly, Cooper couldn’t receive the nomination yet again this year. Despite his best effort as the competition was fierce and there were only 5 Best Director slots.
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Sources:
Daily Mail: Was it worth it, Bradley? As Cooper gets another 'embarrassing' Director Oscars snub for Maestro a look at how he spent SIX years preparing the film
Time: Greta Gerwig, Bradley Cooper, and the Strange Curse of Ambition
