Bradley Cooper had 1 a.m. call times for Maestro

The makeup for Bradley Cooper’s Maestro, in which he plays legendary composer Leonard Bernstein, has drawn a lot of attention. Not all of it has been positive, but some crew members want moviegoers to know just how dedicated Cooper was with the makeup — and his duties as director — saying he pushed some call times up to an absurd hour so he could direct his cast “as” Bernstein.

Makeup artist Kazu Hiro told attendees at the New York Film Festival that not only was there a consuming amount of time that went into turning Cooper into Bernstein, but he was adamant about having the Maestro makeup and hair team in at 1 a.m. at one point “The last stage, the whole time, our call time was 1 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.”

Hiro also pointed out that at younger years, the makeup was focused more around the nose and chin, but as Bernstein aged, the team had to redirect their attention and time to not just details in the cheeks and neck but even lower. “The last stage, he had covered pretty much everywhere, the bodysuit and arms. That took over 5 hours.”

But will Bradley Cooper’s insanely early Maestro call times pay off? No doubt the movie will earn nominations for its makeup, despite early controversy that it was an example of “Jewface”, although the Anti-Defamation League was quick to jump to the movie’s defense. Hiro already has two Oscars for his work: 2017’s Darkest Hour (as Kazuhiro Tsuji, prior to his American citizenship and name change) and 2019’s Bombshell. Previous nods came for Click and Norbit, showing he might be better off with real-life figures…

Reviews all around for Maestro have been quite strong as well, potentially pointing to Bradley Cooper earning a nomination in a fifth category: Best Director. He currently has nods for Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Picture with no wins. Maestro has a limited theatrical run on November 22nd before hitting Netflix on December 20th.

Are you looking forward to Bradley Cooper’s Maestro? Do you see it has a top contender in the makeup categories?