Now that’s dedication!
Bradley Cooper was so nervous about getting his character exactly right in his new movie, that he spent 6 years studying how to get one scene exactly right.
In his new movie, he plays the legendary composer Leonard Bernstein and it’s already receiving huge praise.
The movie had a special tastemakers screening in New York on Tuesday and received a standing ovation as the credits rolled.
During the Q&A held after the screening, Bradley Cooper (who also directed, produced, and co-wrote the film) said that he spent six years mastering how to conduct a six-minute sequence.
The scene in question recreates Bernstein’s famous conducting of the London Symphony Orchestra at the Ely Cathedral in 1976. The sequence is being described as the film’s “most rousing, as it fully showcases Bernstein’s musical genius and shows off Cooper’s staggering performance in all its full-bodied glory”.
“That scene I was so worried about because we did it live,” Bradley Cooper said.
“That was the London Symphony Orchestra. I was recorded live. I had to conduct them. And I spent six years learning how to conduct six minutes and 21 seconds of music.”
Cooper credited his “wonderful teachers” for helping him reenact Bernstein’s conducting.
“I was able to get the raw take where I just watched Leonard Bernstein [conduct] at Ely
Cathedral with the London Symphony Orchestra in 1976. And so I had that to study,” Cooper said. “And Yannick Nézet-Séguin made videos with all the tempo changes, so I had all of the materials to just work on.”
Do we hear Oscar buzz already?
Tune in to World Wide Reb, weekday mornings at 8.10am on 98FM's Big Breakfast for all the latest entertainment news 🎬
