LOS ANGELES.- When Kazu Hiro started practicing make-up In his adolescence, a face was repeated in the magazines: Leonard Bernstein. Four decades later, the legendary artist You will see a cycle complete in your career with Maestrowork that put him in the sights of another scar.
“Leonard Bernstein was a big inspiration when I was growing up,” Hiro told AFP. “Whenever he created a face he needed a reference photograph. In those days, without the Internet, he had to go to the bookstore to buy magazines. And he appeared in each one.”
Shortly afterward, Hiro, in his native Kyoto, saw the musician in a documentary. “His words really inspired me and I thought I would like to work on a movie about Leonard Bernstein one day,” he said.
Artist Opportunity with Bradley Cooper
The opportunity came to him through Bradley Cooper, who directed, co-wrote and starred in Maestrowhich opens a window to the marriage of the director and composer with the actress Felicia Montealegre.
“It was really a passion project because Bradley and I really thought of Leonard Bernstein. It was very meaningful for us to represent him in this story,” he said. “It was kind of the perfect project that I kind of waited for for the last 36 years.”
Hiro was born in Japan, where he learned the craft of transforming factions, through trial and error, using his face. Self-taught, he progressed rapidly and moved to the United States in the 1990s where he would become one of the most sought-after artists in the film industry.
He worked on dozens of blockbuster films such as El Grinch (2000), in which he transformed Jim Carrey into the special character of Dr. Seuss, and Nutty Professor II: The Klumpscon Eddie Murphy.
With an overwhelming career of more than two decades and two Oscar nominations -with Norbitagain with Eddie Murphy, and Click: Losing controlwith Adam Sandler- in 2012 Hiro retired to dedicate himself to sculpture.
But some projects seduced him back to Hollywood. As, in 2017, he transformed Gary Oldman into Winston Churchill in Darkest Hourand in 2019 I assumed Bombshellin which Charlize Theron gets into the shoes of television presenter Megyn Kelly.
Both works earned him his first two Academy Awards.
Cooper’s call was not only irrefutable due to its emotional connection, but it also earned him his fifth Oscar nomination.
“Perfectionists”
Hiro and Cooper met for the first time in 2020 to discuss how to bring Bernstein back to life, and how to portray him throughout the 50 years covered in the script.
The artist divided this period of time into five stages, which involved rejuvenating Cooper, now 49 years old, and then progressively aging him.
Preparations for filming took longer than expected, partly due to the pandemic, but also due to the complexity of the project.
Practicality, Hiro added, is the most important element when it comes to daily filming.
“(The youngest stage) took about two and a half hours. Then the middle stage was about three hours and the last stage was about five hours, because you had to cover him from head to toe.” “We are both a little perfectionists,” said the 54-year-old artist.
“When I was working on the makeup, I could see how, little by little, (Cooper) was conjuring Leonard Bernstein from the inside out.”
difficult moment
But Maestro brought another kind of challenge for Hiro.
When Netflix released the first images of the film last year, the film and Cooper, specifically, came under criticism due to the use of a prosthetic nose to resemble the American actor’s features with the late Jewish composer.
Bernstein’s children defended the production’s decisions and questioned accusations of anti-Semitism as disingenuous attempts to put down a successful person.
Hiro maintained that it was a difficult moment.
“It left me really confused,” he said. “It took me a while to digest it.” “We had so much respect for Leonard Bernstein. And he happened to have that nose. So that was an important part.”
Now outside the networks, to Hiro, who spent countless hours analyzing the composer’s features, several musicians and acquaintances of Bernstein told him that Cooper in character looked exactly like Lenny.
“And this proved that our objective was achieved,” he added. Something that the Academy seems to ratify with its nomination.
Hiro and his team are favorites to win the statuette for Best Makeup and Hairstylist at the March 10 gala, for which the artists of Poor Creatures, Oppenheimer, The Snow Society y Golda.
FUENTE: AFP
