PARS.- The actor and director Bradley Cooperwho plays musical genius Leonard Bernstein in Maestro, in Netflix starting December 20, he explains to AFP that this film forced him to grow up.
At 48 years old, the actor – who started as a director five years ago with the film A star Is Born (with Lady Gaga) – spent years researching, writing, filming and acting in this biopic about the famous American composer and director.
Maestro In two hours, it details the love life of Bernstein, who died in 1990, his homosexuality and his tormented relationship with his wife of Chilean origin Felicia Cohn Montealegre, played by Carey Mulligan. The film also shows Bernstein’s relationships with his three children, from whom he hides his homosexuality.
The extraordinary career of the composer, who conducted the New York Philharmonic Orchestra and who remains in the annals for his score of West Side Story -great Broadway success- is nothing more than the backdrop.
In United States, Maestro was preceded by a controversy over Cooper’s decision to use a nasal prosthesis to play this son of Ukrainian Jewish immigrants. Some saw it as a way to feed stereotypes, but the composer’s children supported it.
The film was nominated for the Golden Globes in the categories of Best Film, Best Actor and Best Actress.
Co-produced by Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg, it received no mention at the Venice Film Festival in September.
Interview with Bradley Cooper and Carey Mulligan
Question: Bradley, what attracted you: the music or the relationship between the spouses?
Bradley Cooper: “The first thing was the obsession with conducting. (…) But, during my research and writing the script, it was the relationship between Leonard and Felicia that intrigued me and became the central point.”
Q: How did playing Leonard Bernstein change you?
BC: “I became an adult thanks to this film, appropriating their way of life. An incessant search, oriented towards a goal.”
Q: What would you ask Leonard Bernstein if he were alive?
BC: “I would ask you if you feel lost. In the years after your wife’s death, did you feel free to live your best life? Would you like to talk to someone to calm down?”
Q: For the role, you spent months learning how to conduct an orchestra. Would he really be able to do it?
BC: “Not at all! It would be a disaster (laughs)! I only learned to conduct six minutes of Mahler (…)”
Q: What did you learn about conducting?
BC: “It’s like riding a stallion. The orchestra is a being in itself, that breathes. It is very powerful and has its own mind. Bernstein’s genius was to be able to be very harsh but always with love. He knew what he was doing. He reconciled romance and passion with a true musical sense.”
Q: Carey, do you consider Felicia a victim in this couple?
Carey Mulligan: “She was determined not to be. Obviously, she made a lot of sacrifices but she made them from the heart, without hesitation, and it was only later in her life that it caught up with her.”
Q: How would she react to your character on screen?
BC: “Her kids said Felicia would be horrified because she was so shy, but secretly happy to be played by Carey Mulligan (laughs)!”
CM: “I wrote him a letter when we were about to start filming. Obviously, I didn’t send it. But I wrote: ‘I hope you’re okay and don’t be mad at me’ (Laughs).”
Q: Bradley, you made a movie about rock (A star Is Born) and it is about the classic. What’s next?
Carey Mulligan interrupts Bradley Cooper: “The techno!”
FUENTE: AFP
