Bradley Cooper Says He's Spending Thanksgiving with Leonard Bernstein's Children After Playing Him in “Maestro”

The actor and director will be visiting the family's home in Connecticut, where they shot some of the film's scenes

Bradley Cooper, who plays Leonard Bernstein in his film Maestro, revealed that he will be spending part of Thanksgiving weekend with the late composer's children.

The actor and director, 48, shared his holiday plans during an interview on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on Tuesday.

"We are going to go to Jersey and then we're going to go to Fairfield, Connecticut to spend it with the Bernsteins."

"The children," he further specified of who he is seeing, noting that they shot scenes for the film "in that house." In fact, the family even let Cooper wear their father's bathrobe for the scenes.

Per Variety, Jamie, Alexander and Nina Bernstein were simply "in awe" of Cooper's performance.

"It took our breath away, it made us gasp," Jamie told the outlet at the film's North American premiere at the New York Film Festival. "We literally opened our doors to Bradley and his team."

"I've always been in love with conducting — fake conducting, as a kid," Cooper admitted to Colbert of his "hundreds of hours conducting in his room," to cartoons like Tom and Jerry, thus his fascination as an adult is real. He said he dedicated six years to preparing for the role, studying Bernstein's work and spending time with both the Philadelphia Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic.

"His music was nuclear," Cooper raved of his work.

Related: Bradley Cooper Shows Leonard Bernstein's Life and Loves in Emotional New Maestro Trailer

Bernstein, a Massachusetts native born in 1918, was the first U.S.-born conductor to lead a major American symphony orchestra.

The Harvard-educated talent, who won 16 Grammy Awards, seven Emmys and two Tonys, also wrote several classical music works, scored movies including On the Waterfront and hosted the CBS series Young People’s Concerts for many years. He died in 1990.

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Related: Maestro True Story: All About Leonard Bernstein, Who Bradley Cooper Plays, and His Complicated Love Life

Netflix released the trailer for Maestro in October. Carey Mulligan, 38, costars as Bernstein's wife Felicia Montealegre.

In the teaser, viewers see Bernstein as an older man, recalling his relationship with Montealegre and her advice on how to approach his music. Footage flashes between black-and-white and full-color scenes, showcasing Leonard and Felicia meeting and falling in love, Bernstein's ascendance to world-renowned conductor — and Felicia's realization that Leonard is living a double life as a gay man.

The movie chronicles the couple's romance, which lasted from 1951 until her death in 1978. An official logline for the movie describes Maestro as "a towering and fearless love story chronicling the lifelong relationship between Leonard Bernstein and Felicia Montealegre Cohn Bernstein."

"It didn't feel like acting, it felt like we were just channeling these people, so it was so thrilling," Cooper said in Tuesday's interview, adding, "I mean, I'll never have an experience like this."

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