‘Maestro’ hoping to follow in the Oscar wake of ‘The Whale’

Jacob Sarkisian
·6 min read

Last year, Brendan Fraser won Best Actor for “The Whale,” which also won Best Makeup and Hairstyling for artists Adrien Morot, Judy Chin, and Annemarie Bradley. This is a combination of Oscar categories that have popped up several times over the years. But could it happen again this year? Well, theoretically, yes.

The brilliant makeup artist Kazu Hiro, also known as Kazuhiro Tsuji, turned Bradley Cooper into Leonard Bernstein in Netflix’s “Maestro.” Kazu Hiro landed himself an Oscar nomination for Best Makeup and Hairstyling alongside Kay Georgiou and Lori McCoy-Bell. Meanwhile, Cooper is nominated for Best Actor.

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Along with “The Whale,” several other movies have done well with this pair of Oscar categories. In 2018, “Darkest Hour” won Best Actor for Gary Oldman and Hiro won Best Makeup and Hairstyling alongside David Malinowski and Lucy Sibbick. In 2014, “Dallas Buyers Club” won both awards, too, with Matthew McConaughey winning for acting and Adruitha Lee and Robin Mathews for their makeup and hair work. Those are the three winners of Best Actor and Makeup and Hairstyling in recent times, but there have been many occasions where a film has won one of the awards but just missed out on the other.

In 2021, “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” won Makeup and Hairstyling for Sergio López-Rivera, Mia Neal, and Jamika Wilson and almost won Best Actor for Chadwick Boseman (Anthony Hopkins won for “The Father”). In 2019, Christian Bale just missed out on Best Actor for “Vice” (Rami Malek won for “Bohemian Rhapsody”) but that biopic did win for its hair and makeup team: Greg Cannom, Kate Biscoe, and Patricia Dehaney. And, in 2020, Joaquin Phoenix won Best Actor for “Joker,” which was nominated for Best Makeup and Hairstyling but couldn’t quite win. That award went to “Bombshell,” which was also nominated for Best Actress for Charlize Theron.

There have also been plenty of films to be nominated in both categories and not win, including one from earlier this year: “Elvis” (Best Actor for Austin Butler and Best Hair and Makeup for Mark Coulier, Jason Baird, and Aldo Signoretti).

But could “Maestro” win these awards? Well, the film is nominated for Best Makeup and Hairstyling alongside “Golda” (Karen Hartley Thomas, Suzi Battersby, and Ashra Kelly-Blue), “Oppenheimer” (Luisa Abel), “Poor Things” (Nadia Stacey, Mark Coulier, and Josh Weston), and “Society of the Snow” (Ana López-Puigcerver, David Martí, and Montse Ribé). “Poor Things” won the BAFTA award but “Maestro” won both Best Period and/or Character Make-Up and Best Special Make-Up Effects at the MUAHs, the makeup and hairstyling guild awards. Therefore, we are predicting “Maestro” to take home this prize come Oscar night. That’s one out of two.

Best Actor looks a little trickier, however. “Oppenheimer” actor Cillian Murphy won the Golden Globe for Best Drama Actor plus the SAG and BAFTA awards for Best Actor. Meanwhile, “The Holdovers” star Paul Giamatti won the Golden Globe for Best Comedy Actor and the Critics Choice Award for Best Actor. They are the two frontrunners. Cooper’s best chance of winning Best Actor is taking the Adrien Brody route. Brody won Best Actor in 2003 for “The Pianist” after Daniel Day-Lewis (“Gangs of New York”) and Jack Nicholson (“About Schmidt”) split the vote in a two-horse race of their own. It could happen, but it’s unlikely.

Cooper’s role in “Maestro” does fit the bill for a Best Actor winner, to be fair. He’s playing a real-life icon in a biopic, which we know the academy likes — Butler was nominated for “Elvis” this year, Will Smith won for “King Richard” last year, Oldman was nominated for “Mank” in 2021, and Malek won for “Bohemian Rhapsody” in 2019. It’s a transformative performance, which follows previous nominees and winners such as Fraser in “The Whale,” Butler in “Elvis,” Bale in “Vice” (2019), and Oldman in “Darkest Hour.”

Plus, the academy loves it when an actor puts in a lot of effort in their performances — whether that be donning an accent, undergoing an extensive physical transformation, or learning a new skill or language. Well, Cooper does all of that. Cooper himself was nominated for Best Actor in 2019 for “A Star is Born,” which involved him singing and playing the guitar. Here, Cooper not only plays the piano but conducts entire orchestras. It shows incredible commitment and artistry. Lots of actors have put in this sort of effort and found an Oscar nomination as a reward, including Butler for “Elvis,” Andrew Garfield for “Tick, Tick… Boom!” (2022), Riz Ahmed for “Sound of Metal” (2021), Willem Dafoe for “At Eternity’s Gate” (2019), and Daniel Day-Lewis for “Phantom Thread” (2018).

Cooper has reaped four Best Actor bids in total now, with the previous three coming for “Silver Linings Playbook” in 2013, “American Sniper” in 2015, and “A Star is Born” in 2019. He’s also picked up a Best Supporting Actor nomination (for “American Hustle” in 2014) and a Best Adapted Screenplay bid (for “A Star is Born”). Surprisingly, the category he has received the most nominations in is Best Picture — with five so far. His first came in 2015 for “American Sniper” and he was nominated in 2019 for “A Star is Born,” which he also wrote and directed. He contended in 2020 for “Joker,” in 2022 for “Nightmare Alley,” and in 2024 for “Maestro.” He also earned a Best Original Screenplay bid with Josh Singer for “Maestro.”

Hiro was nominated in 2007 for “Click” (with Bill Corso) and in 2008 for “Norbit” (with Rick Baker) before he won in 2018 for “Darkest Hour.” He then won his second Oscar in 2020 for “Bombshell” alongside Anne Morgan and Vivian Baker.

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