'We never talked about it': Bradley Cooper on not 'labeling' Leonard Bernstein's sexuality in 'Maestro'
NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: Bradley Cooper is getting a lot of praise for his directorial ‘Maestro.’ He was present at costar Carey Mulligan’s play ‘Girls and Boys.’
He signed the latter to lead Bernstein’s wife, Felicia, in the biopic. At Variety’s 'Awards Circuit' podcast, Cooper and Mulligan sat down and discussed the process of diving deep into the mindset to play Leonard Bernstein and Felicia Montealegre in Netflix’s ‘Maestro.’
Carey Mulligan on Bradley Cooper approaching her for 'Maestro'
When asked about how they never ‘labeled’ Lenny as bisexual or never called it an ‘open marriage,’ Cooper said, “I don’t remember having any marco-identifying label conversations on either. It was more about asking Carey to go on this journey and sending her scenes and the script as it evolved. The story and the evolution of this marriage and this relationship. We never talked about it in terms of categorizing. Is that accurate?.”
Mulligan, too, responded with, “Yes, I agree. I just loved getting a text from Bradley; it would be a scene he’d just written. And it would be three years before. From our text thread, there are a million versions of him as Lenny from 2019 onwards.”
“All these different ages, stages, and versions. And then pages and pages of the script. It was like getting a little present. It’s why I’m not such a great producer or anything or haven’t got the bones for it. My favorite thing is opening a script and being surprised,” Mulligan added.
Carey Mulligan and Bradley Cooper on church and Thanksgiving scenes
Talking about the important Thanksgiving scene in the flick, the ‘American Sniper’ star said, “The movie is about their relationship and the evolution of their relationship. And that first scene is the seeming reckoning; even though she doesn’t really come to terms with what she’s actually feeling, she seriously confronts him.”
“And the other scene is the truth of his existence, her seeing that, and then the reconciliation — and the moment where they may actually fall in love for the first, maybe, certainly him,” Cooper added.
Mulligan joined in and revealed, “We did two takes at first, and they just didn’t feel truthful. But it was the third take, which is the one in the movie. The most remarkable thing about working with Bradley as an actor and a director is when he would say things very specifically to me, always as Lenny, that would elicit a certain response from me.”
“And in that third take, everything he did was so intentional, and it pissed me off something rotten [laughs]. He bumped into the furniture, so that was fucking annoying because he’s hungover, or the sunglasses. And again, it’s the third take where we were suddenly flying, and we like, ‘OK,’” Mulligan added.
Referring to the other church shot, which Bradley called to be one of the pillars of the storyline, he shared, “The church was one take. I learned more from Clint [Eastwood] than anybody I’ve worked with: when you know you have it, just move on. I wanted to conduct the London Symphony Orchestra for the cathedral scene, and the day before, I kept messing up.”
