“I asked Santa Clause for a baton”: Bradley Cooper Proves He was Born to Play the Lead in Maestro with His Obsession as a Kid
The nine-time Academy Award-nominated actor Bradley Cooper made his debut as a professional actor with a guest role in the TV series Sex and the City in 2009. However, he did not get his breakthrough role until 2009 when he starred in Todd Philips’ comedy The Hangover, which was a critical and commercial success and even spawned two sequels.
Bradley Cooper appeared alongside Emma Stone in the 2008 comedy The Rocker, and they have been friends ever since. This year, both Stone and Cooper gave their best performances in Poor Things and Maestro respectively. So, Variety had the excellent idea of putting the two friends together for an interview. During the interview, the All About Steve actor revealed what made him the perfect lead for his role in Maestro.
Bradley Cooper on How He Got into Conducting
The movie Silver Lining Playbook solidified Bradley Cooper‘s position in Hollywood as both he and his co-star Jennifer Lawrence were applauded for their performances in the movie. Cooper sure had a slow start in Hollywood, but he has proved his proficiency as an actor again and again throughout his career.
The American Sniper star made his directorial debut in 2018 with the movie A Star Is Born, in which he played the role of an alcoholic musician alongside Lady Gaga. Defying his fear that the movie might annihilate his career as a director, the movie did incredibly well. By the end of 2017, he started working on Maestro.
While talking to Emma Stone for a Variety interview, Bradley Cooper said that much like his lead character in Maestro, he has loved conducting since he was a kid. When asked how he got into it, he said:
“Tom and Jerry, Bugs Bunny. I asked Santa Claus for a baton when I was around 8 years old, and then I would just conduct all the time because there was classical music playing in my house. I would spend hours and hours.”
Maestro sees Cooper in the role of American conductor and composer Leonard Bernstein so his obsession with conducting must have been of great help during the filming of the movie.
Bradley Cooper on the Conducting Scene in Maestro
For those unversed, Maestro chronicles the relationship between composer Leonard Bernstein and his wife Felicia Montealegre. Earlier this year, Bradley Cooper was under fire for using a prosthetic nose in the movie. However, Bernstein’s children came to his defense.
Emma Stone told the Guardians of the Galaxy star that the conducting scene in the movie was incredibly good. So, Cooper went on to explain how it came about, saying:
“I messed up the whole first day. The minute I was behind tempo, it was over. So I woke up in the morning, walked into that church, and it was empty — we’re not supposed to shoot there that day. I was like, I got to give it one more shot. I brought everybody back in, and I actually said a prayer to Lenny (Leonard Bernstein) in front of everybody, like, “Thank you for this opportunity. We’re going to do it again.” That’s what’s in the movie. It was one take.”
Bradley Cooper’s work in this movie has proved his brilliance as a director once again. Not to mention that he has given a phenomenal performance as Leonard Bernstein.
Maestro will be streaming on Netflix from December 20, 2023.
