Bradley Cooper kinda Ratatouille’d his way through Maestro, except the Remy in this situation is an acclaimed music director of prestigious institutions. Cooper directed and starred in the upcoming Netflix film about the life of conductor Leonard Bernstein, faithfully embodying the eponymous character with the help of a professional, of course. Cooper enlisted Yannick Nézet-Séguin, the music director of the Metropolitan Opera, to bring Bernstein’s conducting to life — who even supplemented Cooper’s monthslong training with an earpiece to whisper vital cues in his ear while filming. “We had to analyze and keep the essence of Bernstein, whilst making him believable, so [Cooper] could really conduct orchestras and choirs.” Nézet-Séguin told Vulture at the Maestro’s New York Film Festival premiere on October 2. “When he came to me, he really studied a lot like the great actor he is. He could see the face of Lenny.”
Cooper had trouble with conducting gestures that are “very difficult” even for professionals. Even Oscar-nominated multi-hyphenates who rehearse and mimic like mad can stumble, too. “We have to talk about the right hand, because the right hand is really where the beats have to be the most consistent,” Nézet-Séguin generously explained while miming the actions. “When the strong beat has to be down, and then it has to be up and to the side [dramatically gesturing] — for some of those scenes, I used an earpiece where I was actually saying down and up and hold, because we didn’t want him to start calculating. We wanted him to be super emotional, like the great actor he is.” He and Bradley had an intense collaboration for those moments. “He’s conducting, but I’m also a bit in his mind,” Nézet-Séguin said before getting whisked away into the premiere. Hopefully he’s hired whenever someone makes a new Lydia Tár biopic.
