Bradley Cooper mocked for crying over Leonard Bernstein on TV: ‘Bro, you’re not getting that Oscar’
Viewers are not raving about Bradley Cooper’s performance … on “CBS Sunday Morning.”
The Oscar-nominated “Maestro” star and director got emotional on the show when asked about his film’s subject, the “West Side Story” composer Leonard Bernstein, by one of the late musician’s children.
“Do you miss him?” daughter Nina Maria Felicia Bernstein asked the actor, who was sitting with Cooper and her siblings, Jamie and Alexander Bernstein, during a December episode of the news program.
“Oh, yeah, man,” replied Cooper, 49, who was only 15 years old and attending high school in Fort Washington, Pennsylvania, when Bernstein died in 1990. The actor never actually met the man.
“What do you miss about him?” interviewer Mo Rocca then wondered.
“It’s hard to talk about,” replied a teary Cooper. “I don’t know. We shared something very special. It’s hard to even articulate. But he was with me certainly throughout the entire time.”
He added: “His energy has somehow found its way to me that I really do feel like I know him.”
The clip recently resurfaced on the social media platform TikTok, where users had a field day over Cooper’s touchy-feely remarks.
“Bro, you’re not getting that Oscar,” said one commenter. “It’s going to Cillian. Just stop with this crap. It’s done,” referring to “Oppenheimer” lead Cillian Murphy.
“My cringe meter just went into overdrive,” said another.
One user referenced his remake of “A Star Is Born”: “The Lady Gaga school of awards campaigning,” they said.
Still, other TikTokers came to Cooper’s defense.
“My mom is an actress and can connect on a deep level to the character she is playing,” said one of the pro-Cooper camp.
Added another supporter: “He literally studied the man for 3 years. Practiced his role day in and day out. No doubt it’s become a part of him.”
“Maestro,” which is streaming on Netflix, is nominated for seven Oscars on March 10, including Cooper for Best Actor.