The Nose Heard Round The World

The Bradley Cooper/"Jewface" Controversy

I’m not sure how long this post is gonna be. I’m just going to start typing and see what happens. Because while the issue in general is worthy of discussion, I’m less certain that the discussion is worthy of the issue.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock you have probably heard that Bradley Cooper is set to star in a biopic about the life of composer Leonard Bernstein. Cooper, or someone on the production team, determined that Cooper should use a prosthetic nose to more closely resemble the Jewish composer, which led to the end of the world as we know it.

As someone who converted to the Jewish faith, and as someone who has a very prominent nose, I both had strong opinions on this and was hesitant to share them. But I have posted some of my thoughts on social media and am confident I am on the right track here, even though some people disagree and that’s ok.

There are some online conversations I have been in where during the spur of the moment I have said things that deserve clarification.

At one point I stated that the term “Jewface” could be considered offensive in and of itself. What I meant by that was simply that Jews come in all shapes and sizes and colors and backgrounds. Once we start going down the road of determining who is a Jew based on certain physical characteristics, we’re already treading in dangerous waters.

This DID NOT mean that I am ignorant of historical and, unfortunately ongoing, stereotypes that are used to demean, defile, or “other” Jews, and that many if these are based on physical characteristics or traits. And one of the common features used in these caricatures include a prominent nose. So once you hear “Jew” and “nose” in the same sentence, red flags start popping off all over the place. AND THEY SHOULD.

I also think that, in general, if the subject of a film’s Judaism was core to that person, if it heavily involves that person’s faith and drives the story, that having a Jew portray that person could add more depth to the story, to the character on screen.

Prosthetic or not, I think casting Bradley Cooper over Adrien Brody in “The Pianist” would have made the movie less powerful. I think in that story, having a Jew in the lead role elevated the performance. Because that story was central to being Jewish. I simply don’t know enough about Bernstein to know how central Judaism was to his story, or the story that the film is based on.

All that said, and this is a very complex issue and should be treated as such, my opinion is this:

If Bradley Cooper was playing some fictional Jewish character, and it was decided that a prosthetic nose should be used to make him look “more Jewish,” that would be a clear case of antisemitism and I would say, yeah, that’s bullshit.

However, this is not the case here. Cooper did not use the prosthetic to look “more like a Jew,” but to look more like Leonard Bernstein, who happens to be Jewish. This is very, very different.

Which brings me back to my nose. The sketch that you see as my profile picture was drawn by a close friend of mine. Anyone who has ever seen me in person knows that it is quite accurate.

When this was drawn, I was well into my conversion process. Had this picture been drawn ten years prior, it would have looked the same, pretty much. But I would have not been Jewish. If it was drawn today, it would look the same, pretty much, and if I’m not Jewish now several rabbis have egg on their face. (Luckily in most cases eggs are pareve).

Let’s say in 20 years someone decides to make a movie about me. And the actor up for the lead role bears a resemblance to me. Everyone has agreed, the producers, the directors, the casting people, my own family, has agreed that this person is the actor for the role. And let’s say someone says to this actor, or the actor says to themselves, I think if I use a prosthetic to accentuate Crobama’s prominent honker, and everyone, including my family agrees that this is kosher, fine!

Now let’s take another look at the flipside. What if it was decided that the actor who would portray me before I was Jewish had an average nose. But then the actor used a nose prosthetic for the years they portrayed me post-conversion. That would be blatantly antisemitic and people should right say, whoa, what the fuck.

I think we have to be so very careful these days which hills we decide to die on. Some people may say, well, this could have all just been avoided had the prosthetic never been used and the use of it caused the problem.

That’s a fine point too. But I hope the discussion can get to the larger issue. Where we can talk about and educate about the fact that not all Jews look alike. Or think alike. Or have the same physical characteristics. Or vote alike. Or are part of a global conspiracy. Or have a proclivity for bagels. Ok the bagel thing is true but still.

There are honest to goodness people out there who want to kill Jews. Who believe that we should not exist. Who want to destroy Israel. American politicians talk in codes that we all hear and we know what they mean.

But we also have a responsibility to use things like this as a time to reflect. As a time to consider the big picture and step back from the outrage a little on things that are worthy of debate or discussion, but do not rise to the level of vitriol this specific thing is escalating.