Bradley Cooper's Maestro Just Cast A Huge Star In A Key Role
Currently, Bradley Cooper and company are currently hard at work on "Maestro," the upcoming biopic about the legendary composer Leonard Bernstein. The project was first announced as a Paramount production back in 2018, and it was acquired by Netflix in 2020. Filming began in May 2022, and the first images from the set show a nearly unrecognizable Cooper as an elderly Bernstein, in makeup provided by stellar makeup artist Kazu Hiro.
Cooper is directing, and the script is co-written by Cooper and Josh Singer, the Oscar-winning screenwriter of "Spotlight." According to Deadline, the film will tell the "complex love story" of Bernstein and his wife Felicia Montealegre, played by Carrie Mulligan. It takes place over 30 years, beginning with a meeting at a cocktail party in 1946, continuing through two engagements, a 25-year marriage, and three children: Jamie Bernstein, Alexandra Bernstein, and Nina Bernstein Simmons.
Now, just a few weeks into filming, the production has added a major comedian in one of the top roles.
Sarah Silverman will be joining Bradley Cooper for Maestro
As reported by Deadline, standup comedian and podcaster Sarah Silverman has joined the cast of "Maestro." She'll be playing Bernstein's sister, Shirley Anne Bernstein.
While Silverman is best known for her comedy career, which includes three specials and the Comedy Central sitcom "The Sarah Silverman Program" (via Dead Frog), she's no stranger to dramatic roles, either. Previously, she had a supporting role in the 2012 drama "Take This Waltz," a relationship drama with Michelle Williams and Seth Rogen, and had a leading role in the 2015 drama "I Smile Back," in which she plays a depressed housewife who spirals into substance abuse (via Time).
Shirley Anne Bernstein was born in 1923 and was a producer of game shows and films in the 1950's and 60's (via IMDb).
Along with Cooper and Mulligan, Silverman joins a cast that includes Matt Bomer and Maya Hawke. The film is produced by Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, Kristie Macosko Krieger and Fred Berner and Amy Durning, and is expected to premiere in 2023.