Bradley Cooper accused of “Jewface” in new movie

This is a mini-controversy I did not plan commenting on, but, to paraphrase Michael Corleone, I feel like I am dragged into the Leonard Bernstein mess.

Bradley Cooper (left) as Leonard Bernstein (right)
Well, not exactly Leonard Bernstein, who is dead. More like the mess surrounding Bradley Cooper, who is portraying the genius composer and conductor, in a soon-to-be-released Netflix biography. [It is mandatory that I mention Cooper was a Philadelphia Daily News intern, whom I did not meet at the time.] 

Cooper, who is Christian, is directing the biopic, and is playing Bernstein, who was Jewish, with a prosthetic nose.

Why do I feel dragged in? 

Because I am Jewish and some of Cooper’s moronic  critics have complained of casting a non-Jew to play a Jew, that’s one issue. Then they accused him of being anti-Semitic, of “Jewface,” because he is using a largish prosthetic nose. A  large, hooked nose has been used by anti-Semitic cartoonists since they first put ink to paper. Such as this:

The “Jewface” slur suggests all Jews have a particular kind of face. Do they? Let’s ask  Goldie Hawn, Jake Gyllenhaal, Scarlett Johansson, Mila Kunis, David Arquette, Rashida Jones, Adam Levine, Amanda Peet, Paula Abdul, and Jack Black. The Jewish critics, as far as I am concerned, have some unresolved negative emotions about their own heritage and are projecting their dark feelings on to others.

If some are complaining about Cooper’s nose as Bernstein, just imagine what kind of hell the actress selected to play Barbra Streisand will get someday.

Next, complaining about casting a Christian to play a Jew is not at all like the long-ago custom of casting white actors to play Native Americans, or Natalie Wood to play the Latina Maria in “West Side Story.” 

In reality, most American Jews look like everyone else, but, yeah, there are some Jewish “types,” such as Adam Sandler, Woody Allen, Mayim Bialik, Mel Brooks. Every ethnicity has a stereotype — Irish, Italian, English, African, Greek — that apply to some, but not all.

Complaining about Cooper’s casting suggests that roles should be cast by religion, which is unAmerican, and possibly illegal. And harmful to Jewish actors because Jews are only 2.4% of all Americans.

Remember “Hello, Dolly”? It starred Christian Carol Channing as Dolly Levi, perceived as Jewish. Who cared?

No one, but that was before we — some of us — started going nuts over identity. 

Oh — and then there was the all Black version of Hello, Dolly. Again, bupkis complaints

Why? Intent.

The intent was to pay homage. No harm, no foul.

As to Bernstein, the late maestro’s three children and the Anti Defamation League have no problems with Cooper’s portrayal, so who should give any standing to the, pardon me, professional Jewish kvetchers?

“Bradley chose to use makeup to amplify his resemblance, and we’re perfectly fine with that. We’re also certain that our dad would have been fine with it as well,” the Bernstein children said in a statement on X.

There is no doubt that Cooper’s intent is to lionize the late maestro. As he should be for his music and his humanity. And he did have a somewhat large nose, but certainly nowhere near Cyrano de Bergerac. 

Which reminds me, was there any controversy surrounding Steve Martin, in the movie “Roxanne” when he played a character with a shnooz that put Pinocchio to shame?

And while I was grappling with this, a storm blows in about casting the elegant (Christian) Brit Helen Mirren as American-born Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir. Using makeup to make her look more like Golda.

Horrors!

And complaints that Christian Cillian Murphy was cast to play Jewish physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer.

Do these critics have any idea how stupid they sound?

How stupid they are?

The (pardon me) act of acting requires assuming an identity that is not yours.

How many Founding Fathers were nonwhite?

Roughly none.

But what happened when New York Puerto Rican Lin-Manuel Miranda cast Blacks and Hispanics in those roles — in racist America?

He was hailed as a genius.

But casting a white gentile as a white Jew is abhorrent?

Puh-leeze.