In August, the primary trailer for “Maestro,” a biopic of Leonard Bernstein, the composer of “West Aspect Story” and a lot extra, set off a backlash virtually instantly: Bradley Cooper was sporting a prosthetic nostril for the title position.
Critics on social media accused the star, who can be the director, of taking part in into an antisemitic trope with the Measurement XL prosthesis — and requested whether or not somebody who’s Jewish would have been extra delicate about make-up decisions.
Cooper and Netflix, the place “Maestro” will start streaming on Wednesday, declined to remark. In a press release on the time, Bernstein’s three youngsters, who had been working with Cooper on the movie, got here to the actor’s protection, noting in a collection of posts on X, “It occurs to be true that Leonard Bernstein had a pleasant, large nostril.” (The household declined to supply extra remark.)
It’s hardly the primary time an oversize septum has made an onscreen look or courted controversy. Listed below are 12 of essentially the most memorable faux noses in cinematic historical past, sorted by measurement from dainty 🥸 to elephantine 🥸🥸🥸🥸🥸.
Orson Welles, ‘Contact of Evil’ 🥸
Like Edmond Rostand’s poet and swordsman, Cyrano de Bergerac, Orson Welles was obsessed along with his nostril. (He believed his was too small; it was, after all, utterly regular.) However as an alternative of channeling his fixation right into a wholesome pursuit like, say, serving to one other man win the affections of his personal beloved, he sported dozens of fakes over his profession. One of many largest was the pugnacious pair of nostrils he wore because the corrupt police captain Hank Quinlan within the 1958 homicide thriller “Contact of Evil.”
Nicole Kidman, ‘The Hours’ 🥸
Nicole Kidman could have delivered a stirring efficiency as Virginia Woolf in “The Hours” (2002), however Denzel Washington joked that it was the prosthetic beak she wore that gained her the very best actress Academy Award. (“The Oscar goes to, by a nostril, Nicole Kidman,” he joked when saying her win.) Kidman wore a recent one every day on set, although she instructed The Related Press that she held on to a silver one she was given when taking pictures wrapped.
Ralph Fiennes, ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Half 2’ 🥸
Is that factor even purposeful? Most likely not; snakes don’t have noses — simply nostrils — and scent with their forked tongues. We wouldn’t be stunned if J.Ok. Rowling’s reptilian baddie on this 2011 franchise finale had a kind of, too. However no less than we could lastly have a solution as to what Voldemort’s unnaturally lengthy fingers are good for: Nostril-picking.
Meryl Streep, ‘The Iron Woman’ 🥸
Like Kidman, Meryl Streep rode the prosthetic nostril she donned to play the British prime minister Margaret Thatcher in Phyllida Lloyd’s 2011 biopic to an Oscar win (her third). However this time, the transformation’s genius was in its subtlety — when the primary photographs of Streep on set have been launched, the press made nary a peep in regards to the nostril.
Laurence Olivier, ‘Richard III’ 🥸🥸
Not like Welles, Laurence Olivier didn’t habitually don a faux nostril for his roles due to a perceived insecurity in regards to the measurement of his personal; quite, it was simply one of many suite of theatrical equipment, together with masks and wigs, that he, and lots of different actors, used to rework into numerous characters. In “Richard III” (1955), which Olivier additionally directed, his character’s nostril is, as one blogger put it, “majestically distinguished.”
Rudolph, ‘Rudolph the Purple-Nosed Reindeer’ 🥸🥸
With a workshop of Santa’s elves close by on this 1964 particular, the very best Rudolph’s dad, Donner, may do to assist his son slot in in school was make a faux nostril from mud? He gained’t be profitable any father-of-the-year awards for that effort.
Margaret Hamilton, ‘The Wizard of Oz’ 🥸🥸🥸
Margaret Hamilton got here by a number of the items to play the Depraved Witch of the West naturally: She was recognized for her overlarge nostril, which her personal father had inspired her to have surgically altered. However she received the final chuckle when she landed the position of the now-iconic villain in “The Wizard of Oz” (1939) — for which her nostril was made even longer (and greener).
Matt Damon, ‘Ocean’s 13’ 🥸🥸🥸
Certain, there are performers with larger noses on this checklist, however Matt Damon is perhaps the one one who deliberate a con round his. On this 2007 sequel, his character, Linus, dons the prosthesis — which Damon nicknamed “The Brody” in a nod to the actor Adrien Brody’s effectively, you already know — in a bid to disguise himself and acquire entry to a case filled with diamonds.
Steve Carell, ‘Foxcatcher’ 🥸🥸🥸
Steve Carell’s souped-up schnozz on this 2014 true-crime story could have left some folks scratching their heads — the real-life model of his character, John du Pont, the millionaire wrestling enthusiast-turned-murderer, wasn’t well-known, so the eye to element appeared extreme. However the nostril did serve one other objective: It made audiences overlook they have been looking at Carell, who was recognized primarily for comedies on the time.
Alec Guinness, ‘Oliver Twist’ 🥸🥸🥸🥸
Charles Dickens wrote Fagin in “Oliver Twist” as a totally antisemitic villain, and within the 1948 movie adaptation, Alec Guinness, the non-Jewish actor who performed the character, spoke in a droning lisp and appeared with hooded eyes and an unlimited prosthetic hook nostril. The nostril was deemed “extremely insensitive,” as The Jewish Chronicle wrote, and it provoked important anger from Holocaust survivors.
Billy Crystal, ‘The Princess Bride’ 🥸🥸🥸🥸
Billy Crystal was already so humorous in “The Princess Bride” (1987) that the director, Rob Reiner, claimed that he needed to depart the set throughout Crystal’s scenes as Miracle Max as a result of he was unable to comprise his laughter. Including a bulbous tomato of a nostril took Crystal’s bodily comedy excessive. (Mandy Patinkin, who performed Inigo Montoya, really bruised a rib attempting to stifle his personal chuckles.)
Steve Martin, ‘Roxanne’ 🥸🥸🥸🥸🥸
You would land a fowl on that factor (which the director, Fred Schepisi, did). Steve Martin’s five-inch appendage for the 1987 movie took 90 minutes to use each day and two minutes to take away. “God how I hated that factor,” he instructed The Washington Publish.
