Apparently there’s some controversy over Bradley Cooper playing Leonard Bernstein in an upcoming film while wearing a large prosthetic nose.
While I do I find the choice odd on the face of it, accusations of Cooper using “Jewface,” just don’t pass the smell test. Critics may sniff at his portrayal, but Bernstein’s family and the ADL say it snot a problem. While stereotypes are certainly nothing to sneeze at, it seems to me that the people picking at his nose are misguided.
Dudes, there are so many play on words in that post, if you didn’t see what he did, that would be the notable thing. Though he is pretty on the nose that this is no big deal.
There’s the whole character of Shylock from Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice. That’s the first example that comes to mind. I think 400 years is historical enough.
I don’t know if you’d call that “making fun of” Jews, but it definitely embodies a lot of negative stereotypes commonly attributed to Jews.
No apologies necessary, I know I punned it up but there is a legitimate conversation to be had. There is certainty a history of Jewish representation in film and other media with big hooked noses. I just don’t see Cooper’s using a prosthetic to pretty faithfully mimic Bernstein’s fairly iconic nose as an issue.
Upon reading an article about it, sounds like a nice, passionate defense from the family and hopefully that will put this kerfuffle to bed. (Probably not. People always gotta be mad about something.)
Leonard Bernstein did in fact have a largish nose. I could see an actor wearing a prosthetic to increase his resemblance to the person portrayed. If the actor had straight hair and the person they were playing had woolly hair, would it be inappropriate for them to wear a wig? If they didn’t actually exaggerate the true size of Bernstein’s nose I don’t see a problem.
Not to mention some very heavy caricatures by the Nazis leading up to Holocaust. No shortage of shit in the US also until the horrors of the Holocaust were revealed.
But this is just an actor looking more like the person they’re portraying. Those complaining should be ashamed and not Bradley Cooper.
Also Jewish and Italian actors have been portraying each other forever and Cooper is Half-Italian.
Just looking at the picture, it does look like the nose on Bradley’s face is very prominent
Bernstein’s looks like a real nose, but Bradley’s looks too large and fake. One reason it looks fake to me is that it’s too blocky. Since large noses are stereotypically attributed to Jewish people, the creators should have been very careful with this prosthetic design. As it is, it looks to me like they used a stereotypically Jewish nose rather than trying to replicate Bernstein’s nose. And the prosthetic should have been designed better so it looks like a real nose rather than a piece of rubber.
That… does not surprise me. My husband was frequently mistaken for a Jew when we lived in Jersey. Especially because he worked in an Orthodox Jewish Community. He has a dark complexion and dark, curly hair that in his younger years looked like a 'fro. He’s 3/4 Sicilian.
Both James Caan & Abe Vigoda are Jewish and they famously played Sonny Corleone and Sal Tessio in The Godfather.
Tony Sirico (Pauly Walnuts of the Sopranos) mentioned in an interview he played either mobsters, Priests or Rabbis.
But the list is actually huge of Italian-American actors playing Jewish characters and Jewish actors playing Italians & Italian-Americans. I know in my early adult years I was often mistaken for Jewish.
It is a classic non-story. Make-up is used to make an actor more closely resemble a character, the only people who’s opinion actually matters say it isn’t a problem and that should really be the end of it.
