Bradley Cooper sets Carey Mulligan as Leonard Bernstein's wife in Maestro biopic
Why Carey Mulligan Related to Her ‘Wildlife’ Character Realizing a Certain Part of Her Life Was Over
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Carey Mulligan is set to make sweet cinematic music with Bradley Cooper.
EW has confirmed the Academy Award-nominated performer — who will next be seen in Emerald Fennell's potential Oscar contender Promising Young Woman — has been selected to star opposite Cooper in the actor-director's upcoming Leonard Bernstein biopic Maestro.
Mulligan will appear in the Netflix film as Felicia Montealegre Cohn Bernstein, wife of the iconic composer (to be played by Cooper). Shooting reportedly begins in the spring, with Cooper directing his first feature film since 2018's A Star Is Born from a script he co-wrote with Oscar-winning Spotlight scribe Josh Singer.
Maestro follows Leonard (the mastermind behind the music from West Side Story, Peter Pan, and more) and Felicia's complex love story across three decades, beginning with their first meeting at a party in 1946 through two engagements and three children — Jamie, Alexander, and Nina — over 25 years of marriage.
"I was struck by Carey ever since I saw her on stage many years ago and I haven’t missed a performance of hers since," Cooper said of Mulligan in a statement. "I am humbled to be working with such a mammoth talent, as well as such a kind person in Carey."
The Bernsteins' daughter, Jamie, added: "We’re absolutely thrilled that Carey Mulligan will play our mother in Maestro. Carey will surely capture Felicia’s unique combination of wit, warmth, elegant beauty, and depth of emotion. We also love the way Carey conveys a kind of storybook European grace, which was something our mother embodied as well."
Prior to meeting Leonard, Felicia was born to a Costa Rican mother and an American father, later moving to New York City to work as a pianist and actor, which led her to a career that included roles on Broadway and television before she became a social justice advocate.
A release date for Maestro has yet to be announced.
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