Bradley Cooper Is Unrecognizable as Composer Leonard Bernstein in Maestro First Look

Netflix

Bradley Cooper is orchestrating his next directorial endeavor.

The 47-year-old actor becomes famed conductor and West Side Story composer Leonard Bernstein for his upcoming film Maestro, which Netflix debuted first look photos of on Monday.

In one image, Cooper and costar Carey Mulligan (who plays Bernstein's wife Felicia Montealegre) smile together, while another behind-the-scenes photo shows Cooper framing a shot on set. Additional images show Cooper unrecognizable as an aged Bernstein.

This is Cooper's return to directing after making his debut with 2018's A Star Is Born.

In January, Cooper teased Maestro during a conversation with Mahershala Ali for Variety, explaining that he personally "wanted to be a conductor since I was a kid."

He said at the time, "I was obsessed with it, asked Santa Claus for a baton when I was 8. Listening to music, falling in love with it and being able to really know every single moment of a piece, like Tchaikovsky's Opus 35 in D major, this violin concerto. I could do it as if I know everything about it without really being able to speak the language, obviously."

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Cooper also explained how he took on the project after director Steven Spielberg was originally attached to it.

"I always knew that Steven Spielberg knew that I had this obsession with conducting," said Cooper. "He had this biopic idea and was talking to me about potentially acting in it. But I had just been working on A Star Is Born. And I said, 'Listen, all I want to do is write and direct movies. I always felt like I could play a conductor, but may I research the material and see if I can write it and direct it? Would you let me do that?' "

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"Steven has a lot of interests — he'll just choose one thing and all of the other things will be on hold. I think he knew he wasn't going to make that movie for a while," the Nightmare Alley star added. "He was kind enough to hand it off to me, and that's what I've been doing for the last four and a half years, and we start shooting in May."

Netflix

Scott Stuber, the head of original films at Netflix, told Variety back in December about progress on Maestro.

"We've done a lot of work on the makeup. We've done a lot of work on the voice. I'm excited to see someone so deeply focused on creating a story that means so much to him," he said of Cooper. "And Carey Mulligan is an incredible actress. We've seen her do such great work. Promising Young Woman was, I thought, one of the best [films] last year."

Maestro, which is expected to debut in 2023, also stars Matt Bomer and Maya Hawke. Martin Scorsese and Spielberg are among the producers.