Somehow, Spielberg knew that Cooper had been obsessed with conducting since he was a child.
He spent hundreds of hours waving his arms, conducting, just like Bugs.
On seeing an early cut ofA Star is Born, Spielberg willingly handed over the reins.
Bradley Cooper and Carey Mulligan at Carnegie Hall.Jason McDonald exclusively for Deadline,
He screenedA Star is Bornfor them, and he shared his enthusiasm and curiosity about their dad with them.
Luckily, they went with us.
And thats when it began.
Bradley Cooper andCarey Mulligan.Jason McDonald exclusively for Deadline
Lenny just sort of took hold of me.
The movie was born in the research.
for make a movie, he told them, there has to be something else.
And I think that what moves me in your fathers story is the relationship between your parents.
That really stunned them, Cooper says.
They didnt quite believe I was actually going to focus on their mother too.
But thats all I was interested in.
I mean, what better way to show his impact than to play his music?
Cooper immediately dove into Felicias life, listening to recordings of her radio shows and appearances on television.
Cooper didnt have anyone earmarked for the role of Felicia.
Hed known Carey Mulligan for a while, but mostly from the circuit.
Carey just kept coming into my head, he says.
So, he reached out to a mutual friend and wondered whether Mulligan would ever be open to talk.
The friend said, Well, shes in New York.
Shes doing a play.
I was like, When?
And it was the following week.
So I went, and I was sitting in the audience… Clearly, the memory is as fresh as the day it happened.
Its a one-woman show, and it starts with a spotlight that shines right on the character.
And she was wearing it up, literally, like Felicia.
I got the chills.
It was Felicia who came right out onto the stage.
Then she started to talk, and I was like, Ihaveto talk to her about this.
In music terms, you could say it was adrammaticomoment.
But she didnt know exactly when.
I didnt know that, he recalls.
And they said, Well, shes lying prone on the floor, but just wait a second.
She was in really dire straits, not doing well.
Mulligan winces at the memory.
The wooden frame of the set hit me on the head, and it sort of dazed me.
I mean, it really,reallyhurt.
But no one saw it happen, because it happened in the blackout.
Like the trouper she is, she carried on.
But when I walked off stage, I suddenly felt like I was going to faint.
I was having a massive panic, thinking that I was in real trouble.
I mean, you know what can happen with head injuries.
It hurt so much, I was crying on the floor in my dressing room.
And then in walks Bradley Cooper.
So off we went to the hospital, much to the delight of the nurses who worked there.
There was no script, there was nothing, he says.
All I knew was that it was going to be about the two of them.
He said, I want to make a film about marriage.
But, for a short time, conversation had to wait.
Not long after that fateful night, they met again for breakfast at Cafe Cluny in the West Village.
I just sort of shared my thoughts and feelings about this project, says Cooper.
He asked her to listen to Make Our Garden Grow, the closing number from Bernsteins operaCandide.
Its a song about young lovers understanding the imperfection of life and the need to face it head on.
she asked, rhetorically).
As a result, she gave Bernstein permission to indulge his double life.
And she said, Yeah.
I was like, You do know its forfree?
Were not getting paid!
But she came anyway, and spent five days in Philadelphia, doing three performances.
And it was wonderful.
That was the beginning of us, brick by brick, becoming closer.
Because wed only known each other on the periphery.
But she was willing to go deeper and deeper, and I asked so much of her.
I asked as much of her as I asked of myself.
Its really kind of a beautiful thing, but its scary.
I saw her bare her soul for Felicia and for me.
And she made me feel safe enough that I could do the same for her.
And that was it, Mulligan adds gleefully.
To reach this level of artistry doesnt just happen by chance: both have honed and refined their craft.
But it definitely wasnt a fluke.
Mulligan excelled playing a possibly abused, narcoleptic teenager.
Scott Thomas led the company to Broadway where critics did cartwheels.
Mulligan insists, however, that Ive never worked like this before.
What does she mean by that?
I mean, its about a marriage.
Its about the two of them.
So, if Id gone in there and not delivered, I wouldve been letting everybody down.
It wouldve been a complete imbalance.
It wouldnt have worked.
So, I did the work.
It was genuinely soul-baring stuff, she remembers.
It was deeply, deeply personal.
You dont need to have inhibitions; you dont need to be self-aware.
As a result, the performance flowed organically.
And when the two of them were acting together, she notes, even less thought was required.
She explains a little further.
You look and you see Leonard Bernstein.
There was just so much faith and trust in between us.
It didnt feel like acting.
Itwasntacting, I have to say.
I know that sounds like…
I dont knowwhatthat sounds like!
But it didnotfeel like acting.
Nothing was ever forced [on her].
The script was so clear about who she was.
But here you have two artists who fall in love and spend their lives together.
One of them is touched by god and the other is an artist.
That was not her.
She refused to be a victim.
Felicia, meanwhile, would just sit in the corner and chain-smoke.
It was always Lenny and Felicia, always unsolicited.
Thats how it was spoken about, the two of them, two alphas, two worthy adversaries.
So that was always clear.
He is exactly the same person.
He doesnt change, actually.
Hes the antagonist.Shesthe protagonist.
Mulligan cites tapes of Felicia and Lenny where theyre talking about their relationship and how they communicate.
And the interviewer says, Do you tell each other everything?
And she says, If theres something that needs to be said, then we say it.
He takes his close friends hand and not hers.
Thats the betrayal, says Mulligan.
But suddenly hes taking someone elses hand for reassurance.
And thats the moment where Mulligan nails it.
In that scene, shes saying, This ismyart.
Ive never forgotten the intensity or the warmth of it.
I met Bernstein again and he gave me another bear hug.
Watching Cooper in the movie, enthusiastically greeting people the same way, gave me chills.
I tell Cooper that I felt as if Id seen a ghost.
Suddenly were interrupted by loud buzzing at the door.
Its a gift for Cooper from the hotel management.
Mr. Merrick is a reference to Joseph Merrick, the subject of Bernard Pomerances playThe Elephant Man.
Cooper laughs at the coincidence.
Josephs like, Dont forget me!
Its not just Lenny there are other ghosts!
To play Bernstein on the big screen, though, a physical transformation required some aid.
They worked so closely that Cooper sometimes stayed over at Kazus house for weekends at a time.
First, they studied his features.
I have a very pronounced nose, Cooper says, so we didnt do much to my nose.
There wasnt a nose we put on, so [the fuss] was just sort of ridiculous.
I actually look a lot like young Lenny, he says.
We were lucky, and I said that to Kazu.
Our nose is the same.
Our lips arent the same, but the nose…
If I showed you the nose I wore in the film, youd see its basically a silk sheet.
It wasnt really a nose as such, but I had to do something otherwise it didnt look human.
Its all about balance.
But we were still shooting.
So, I attended her graduation in full make-up as Lenny.
So much so that some of the mothers must have thought, Who is that guy?
Rumors of a Matt Helm movie are incorrect, however (Its not happening, no).
As for Mulligan, she says she has nothing for now.
She yearns to return to the stage but its tricky with three kids.
Id love to, she sighs.
Im desperate to get back on stage, but missing bedtime is rough at their age.
It seems an appropriate destination.
So, four and a half years ago, I went there.
After that, he returned to the abbey several more times before they went there to scout forMaestro.
He was adamant about shooting on the actual location for what would become a 6-minute-and-23-second scene.
Wouldnt it have been more economical to have created the cathedrals nave on a soundstage in the U.S.?
Well,Netflixcertainly wanted us to, says Cooper.
They were like, Cant you just shoot it with green screen?
We just sort of took over and it changed back to the 70s, says Cooper.
Not only did he want to shoot on location, but he also wanted to shoot the sequence live.
OnA Star is Born, I learned that if you do it live, the camera sees everything.
But then I thought, OK, but how the heck am I going to do it?
The answer was to surround himself with conductors like Gustavo Dudamel and Nezet-Seguin.
In the meantime, Nezet-Seguin made him videos showing baton movements for the piece.
And I kept messing up the whole first day of shooting.
That was Cooper thinking as the director.
But, as Lenny, I kept messing up every single take in front of the London Symphony Orchestra.
Everybodys trusting me and Im blowing it.
Nezet-Seguin remembers it differently.
By the end of the sessions at Ely, he says, the musicians of the L.S.O.
And you could see it on their faces, he recalls.
Their faces were like, Is that Bradley Cooper?
Or is it really Lenny back?
There was something eerie about the whole thing that was very moving for everyone.
Nezet-Seguin emphasized the point that attempting Resurrection is not for the faint of heart.
Its one of the biggest and most complex works of the repertoire.
Its difficult for an experienced conductor, so it was very impressive that he wanted to conduct this.
But also very meaningful for the film.
I had a conversation with Lenny, he recalls.
I know that sounds crazy, but he said, Just do one more.
Now, we werent scheduled to shoot there that day.
Theoretically, wed already got the shot.
Instead, he asked 300 people to come back to Ely.
I said a prayer, publicly, in front of everybody, thanking them and thanking Lenny.
And then, for whatever reason, this time I was able to conduct them.
I stayed on tempo.
I knew everything that was happening, and I conducted them.
And thats whats in the movie.
It was one take.
Mulligans role that day was to stand on one spot.
But I was standing there rooted to the spot, just watching him.
And whats so funny is that he talks about f*cking it up.
Well, I hadno ideahe was f*cking it up.
I just thought, OK, so were doing it again.
But there was no sense that he was f*cking it up.
Everyone else in the room was like, This is f*ckingamazing.
