Is This The Face Of A Costa Rican-Born Actor, Or Maybe We Shouldn't Just Be Side-Eying Bradley Cooper!

In all the uproar about Bradley Cooper's prosthetic "Jewface" nose for his portrayal of Leonard Bernstein in the upcoming biopic, shouldn't we also be talking about Felicia Montealegre Bernstein, Leonard's wife? She was a noted actor and activist, born in Costa Rica and raised in Chile by her Costa Rican mother and American-born father. Pictured above is not Felicia, but Carey Mulligan, a UK actress of Irish and Welsh descent. 

So here we have a part-Latina actor born and raised in one of the largest Hispanic regions outside of the U.S, who later married a first generation American Jewish composer born of Russian Jewish immigrants. And they're being portrayed by a UK-born Caucasian actor, and, in Bradley's case, a Caucasian actor of Irish-Italian descent born in America. Should we side-eye this or not?

Yes, there's been many non-Jews who've portrayed Jews, from Cillian Murphy in the current "Oppenheimer" going and all the way back to Hollywood's golden age, where the old saying, "Write Yiddish, cast British," was strictly adhered to - the result being that a Jewish character's ethnicity was frequently erased (or stridently mocked). There's also been many non-Latino actors who've played Latino, including Ben Affleck in "Argo," to Charlton Heston in "A Touch of Evil," who wore brown face so we'd know his character was Mexican (oy!). Traditionally, the thinking has always been, if they're supposed to be light-skinned Latinos, all bets are off in terms of casting Caucasians. This seems to be the case with Mulligan, who's practically translucent. 

These days, no one would even think of casting a white actor to portray a black character. But does representation end with obvious skin tone? Cillian Murphy has earned nothing but praise for his portrayal of J. Robert Oppenheimer, and in 2012, "Argo" won Best Picture. And, yes, actors should be able to act - some even want to play trees! - but I struggle with where to draw the line. Ultimately, with Cooper, it’s not really about the nose, but his apparent need for it (he’s the director, too), when he very easily could have played the role without it, since his normal look is arguably not that far off from Bernstein’s. But Cooper felt he had to have it - or what? We wouldn't believe his performance otherwise? For a ham-handed claim toward "authenticity?" 

Scarlett Johansson in her dream role

I'm of two minds. I would like for Bernstein to have been portrayed by a Jewish performer - and without that honker of a nose - yet I very much enjoyed Murphy as Oppenheimer. I would have preferred Montealegre Bernstein to have been played by a Latina, or at least part-Latina, actor, but I'll freely cop to still enjoying the hell out of Al Pacino in "Scarface." We live in fraught, easily scandalized times - where even a completely made up, imaginary character like "The Little Mermaid" or "Snow White" can elicit hateful vitriol. Yet for me, actual representation isn't just a buzzword. Call me a snowflake (you: "We call you a whore!") (me: "Fair enough!"), but it's time for a change and it shouldn’t be all that difficult. If "Scarface" were remade today with the Cuban refugee crisis as its backdrop in Florida, sorry Al, love you and always will, but I'd want a Latino actor to play the role. 

Photo Credits: Getty Photos, AP, Netflix