Maestro First Look: Bradley Cooper Looks Unrecognizable as Legendary Conductor Leonard Bernstein

Maestrothe first preview is here. On Monday, streaming platform Netflix shared some footage from its biographical drama about the life of iconic Broadway bandleader Leonard Bernstein to pique fans’ curiosity. In them, we see Bradley Cooper in a virtually unrecognizable avatar as he transforms into a music legend. His body language and intense gaze are hard to miss. These images also give us a glimpse of the sweetest moments in Bernstein’s life as we see Cooper with Carey Mulligan, who plays his wife Felicia Montealegre.

Besides Cooper and Mulligan, the Maestro the cast includes Jeremy Strong as art critic John Jonas Gruen and Maya Hawke as Bernstein’s daughter, Jamie Bernstein. The rest of the cast is expected to be announced later this year. The actor is directing the film from a screenplay he wrote alongside Josh Singer. Maestro is produced by Cooper, Fred Berner, Amy Durning, Emma Tillinger Koskoff, Kristie Macosko Krieger, Todd Phillips, Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg

In case you didn’t know, Bernstein’s biopic was originally going to be directed by Spielberg with Cooper in the lead. The actor, however, asked him to just produce it as he wanted to write and direct it himself. This paved the way for Maestro as we know it.

Earlier this year, Cooper told Variety, “I said to Spielberg, ‘I always felt like I could play a conductor, but can I research the material and see if I can write it and direct it? Would you let me do that?’ “Steven has a lot of interests – he’ll just pick one thing and all the other things will be on hold. I think he knew he wasn’t going to make this movie for a while. He was kind enough to entrust it to me, and that’s what I’ve been doing for four and a half years.”

MaestroInterestingly, won’t be Cooper’s first directorial venture as he previously directed the musical drama A Star Is Born, which became a blockbuster when it was released in 2018.

So go Maestro live up to the standards Cooper set for themselves with A Star Is Born. We’ll find out when the movie hits Netflix in 2023.