Leonard Bernstein's family denounces cancel culture efforts against Bradley Cooper for portrayal of composer

Some of famed conductor Leonard Bernstein's family members are defending actor Bradley Cooper after he was accused of perpetuating offensive stereotypes against Jewish people.

Cooper was attacked by some social media users after a new trailer for the film "Maestro" was released on Tuesday. 

A number of accounts, identified by NBC News in a recent story headlined, "Bradley Cooper accused of ‘Jewface’ over prosthetic nose in Leonard Bernstein biopic ‘Maestro,’" based their attacks on speculation that Cooper was using a "prosthetic nose."

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Some of famed conductor Leonard Bernstein's family members are defending actor Bradley Cooper after he was accused of perpetuating racist stereotypes against Jewish people. (Theo Wargo/WireImage // Getty Images)

"Bradley Cooper is facing mounting backlash over his apparent use of a prosthetic nose in his depiction of composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein," NBC News wrote. The story also cited a social media user who called the film an example of "Jewface."

But an account that identified itself as representing "Jamie, Alexander and Nina Bernstein," praised Cooper for including "the three of us along every step of his amazing journey as he made his film about our father."

"It breaks our hearts to see any misrepresentations or misunderstandings of his efforts," the statement reads. 

The statement also seemed to reference the controversy around Cooper's portrayal of Leonard Bernstein in the film. "It happens to be true that Leonard Bernstein had a nice, big nose," the statement continued. "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 family pushed back on "strident complaints" around Cooper's physical appearance in the film "as disingenuous attempts to bring a successful person down a notch -- a practice we observed all too often perpetrated on our own father."

Before this statement was released on X, formerly known as Twitter, NBC News included data from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) that indicated there were "3,697 reports of antisemitic incidents throughout the U.S., which it said was the highest number on record since it began tracking antisemitic incidents in 1979."

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The family pushed back on "strident complaints" around Cooper's physical appearance in the film "as disingenuous attempts to bring a successful person down a notch -- a practice we observed all too often perpetrated on our own father." ((Photo by Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images))

NBC News also quoted from actress Sarah Silverman, who has spoken out against Hollywood for having a "long tradition of non-Jews playing Jews." 

Netflix, the company behind Cooper’s upcoming film, "Maestro," and the ADL did not respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital. 

A spokesperson for Cooper also did not respond to a request for comment. 

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Jeffrey Clark is an associate editor for Fox News Digital. He has previously served as a speechwriter for a cabinet secretary and as a Fulbright teacher in South Korea. Jeffrey graduated from the University of Iowa in 2019 with a degree in English and History. 

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