Bradley Cooper's makeup in Maestro "took over five hours" each day

Bradley Cooper's upcoming biopic, Maestro, where he stars as the legendary American conductor Leonard Bernstein, has already been on the news for a variety of reasons, including complaints about the apparently exaggerated size of Cooper's nose in the film. After impressing critics in the film festival circuit, the film currently holds a 93% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

The exceptional film required some exceptional work from the entire team, including the prosthetics and make-up section, which was largely praised in the reviews. In a recent interview with Entertainment Tonight at the New York Film Festival, prosthetics master Kazu Hiro, who was also behind the iconic makeup of Gary Oldman in The Darkest Hour, revealed some details about the hard work they put in for Maestro.

Hiro revealed that the team would reach the sets of Maestro at 1 in the night and prepare Bradley Cooper for the portrayal of Leonard Bernstein in his 70s. Hiro said:

"The last stage, he had covered pretty much everywhere, the bodysuit and arms. That took over five hours...The last stage, the whole time, our call time was one in the morning. The other thing was he wanted makeup to be finished before the crew call, so he would appear as Lenny to set up the shoot and everything. That also kind of made our call time two hours earlier than normal, so that was quite tough."

He further elaborated on how the makeup got tougher and tougher as Cooper had to portray different versions of the famed composer.

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"[We had to] keep adding because as he gets older"- Kazu Hiro on Bradley Cooper's makeup in The Maestro

Making any biopic that covers decades of a person's life is always a challenge, especially while depicting the aging process. In Maestro, Bradley Cooper portrays many versions of the iconic composer as the film traces the decades-long story of Bernstein and his wife, with a special focus on their bond throughout the years.

Hiro revealed that the makeup got harder as Bernstein aged because they needed more and more material to cover Cooper. He said:

"[We had to] keep adding because as he gets older, we had to add more elements...The younger stage was the nose and lips and chin and a wig. After the third stage, he started having cheek and neck [additions.]"

This hard work also resulted in a lot of praise showered on the makeup work. Bernstein's three children, who were also a part of this film's process from the beginning, praised the makeup work extensively in an interview with Variety earlier. Jamie Bernstein said:

"It took our breath away, it made us gasp...In some pictures, we could tell a little bit that it was Bradley, but there were certain photographs where we would go, ‘Oh my God!’ It was so amazingly perfect."

Maestro was produced by Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, and Bradley Cooper, among others. It additionally stars Carey Mulligan as Felicia Montealegre, Matt Bomer as David Oppenheim, Maya Hawke as Jamie Bernstein, Sarah Silverman as Shirley Bernstein, Gideon Glick as Tommy Cothran, and Alexa Swinton as Nina Bernstein, among many others.

Maestro will premiere on Netflix on December 20, 2023.