Bradley Cooper Shows Leonard Bernstein's Life and Loves in Emotional New Maestro Trailer

'Maestro,' Bradley Cooper's second movie as a screenwriter and director, begins streaming on Netflix Dec. 20

Bradley Cooper and Carey Mulligan embark on a lifelong romance in their latest movie.

On Wednesday, Netflix released a new trailer for Maestro, the new movie from writer-director-actor Cooper, 48, in which he stars as the late conductor Leonard Bernstein. Mulligan, 38, costars as Bernstein's wife Felicia Montealegre.

The new trailer meets Bernstein as an older man, recalling his relationship with Montealegre and her advice on how to approach his music. It then flashes between black-and-white and full-color scenes, showing Leonard and Felicia as they meet and fall in love, Bernstein's ascendance to world-renowned conductor — and Felicia's realization that Leonard is living a double life as a gay man.

The movie chronicles the couple's romance, which lasted from 1951 until her death in 1978. An official logline for the movie describes Maestro as "a towering and fearless love story chronicling the lifelong relationship between Leonard Bernstein and Felicia Montealegre Cohn Bernstein." 

(L to R) Bradley Cooper as Leonard Bernstein (Director/Writer/Producer) and Carey Mulligan as Felicia Montealegre in Maestro
Bradley Cooper and Carey Mulligan in 'Maestro'.

Jason McDonald/Netflix

"A love letter to life and art, Maestro at its core is an emotionally epic portrayal of family and love," the logline reads.

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Aside from Cooper and Mulligan, Maestro also stars Matt Bomer, Maya Hawke, Sarah Silverman, Josh Hamilton, Scott Ellis, Gideon Glick, Sam Nivola, Alexa Swinton and Miriam Shor. The film marks Cooper's second project as a screenwriter and director after 2018's A Star Is Born, which received eight nominations at the 2019 Academy Awards and won one Oscar for Best Song ("Shallow").

Cooper cowrote the movie with screenwriter Josh Singer, best known for writing and producing critically acclaimed films like 2015's Spotlight, 2017's The Post and 2018's First Man.

Bradley Cooper as Leonard Bernstein (Director/Writer/Producer) in Maestro
Bradley Cooper in 'Maestro'.

Jason McDonald/Netflix

Maestro made its world premiere at the Venice International Film Festival in September. At a recent New York Film Festival press conference for the movie, Maestro's makeup designer Kazu Hiro said that Cooper utilized a nose plug within the prosthetic nose he wears in the movie to make Cooper's voice sound closer to Bernstein's.

"We made a nose plug. He wanted to talk like and sound like Lenny," Hiro explained of Cooper's request to "change his voice."

"Lenny's nose was wider than Bradley's, so I made it wider at the same time to change his nose shape and voice too," he said at the time.

Maestro will run in select theaters in November before it hits Netflix on Wednesday, Dec. 20.

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