Bradley Cooper's new look is making us do a double-take.
On May 30, Netflix released set photos of the Hangover star, 47, fully transformed into his role as Broadway composer Leonard Bernstein for the upcoming film Maestro. In the images, Cooper is seen portraying the late esteemed musician in various stages of his life, using makeup to nail Bernstein during his elderly years.
Production on the Netflix film— which also features Carey Mulligan as Bernstein's wife Felicia Montealegre—began earlier this month and it is slated to be released next year. Though Steven Spielberg was originally supposed to direct the biographical drama, Cooper told the critically acclaimed director that he was more interested in writing and directing Maestro than acting in it.
"I [told Spielberg], ‘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?'" the Star Is Born actor told Variety in January.
"Steven has a lot of interests—he'll just choose one thing and all of the other things will be on hold," he continued. "I think he knew he wasn't going to make that movie for a while. 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."
Cooper also shared that becoming a conductor was one of his childhood dreams, adding that he "asked Santa Claus for a baton" when he was 8 years old.
"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," he told Variety. "I could do it as if I know everything about it without really being able to speak the language, obviously."