Bradley Cooper has a unique set of rules while he’s directing, including “no chairs” on set.
“For me, it was such a natural transition, once I had the courage to write and direct a movie. But when I direct, I don’t watch playback. There’s no chairs,” Cooper, 48, told Spike Lee about filming Maestro in an interview for Variety published on Wednesday, December 14. “I’ve always hated chairs on sets; your energy dips the minute you sit down in a chair.”
Considering filming can typically consist of 12 to 16-hour days, Cooper’s commitment to keeping his actors in the moment certainly seems intense, which he understands. He admitted he “changed” during the process of filming, and he wasn’t surprised if his film wasn’t loved by all viewers.
“I will say this about Maestro: I grew up on this movie,” he continued. “It changed me as an artist. And people may not like it. I’m sure they won’t.
In addition to no chairs, the American Hustle actor also noted that “there’s no video village” on set, which alludes to him doing away with the monitors that usually surround the director while filming.
Cooper directed and starred in Maestro as composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein opposite Carey Mulligan, who played the music legend’s wife, Felicia Montealegre Cohn Bernstein. The star-studded cast also included Matt Bomer (David Oppenheim), Maya Hawke (Jamie Bernstein), Sarah Silverman (Shirley Bernstein), Jeremy Strong (John Jonas Gruen), and Sam Nivola (Alexander Bernstein). Maestro marks Cooper’s second major motion picture directing gig since 2018’s A Star Is Born.
Cooper praised “thoroughbred actor” Mulligan, 38, for her talent and commitment.
“I wasn’t focused half the day trying to get Carey Mulligan to a place where I believed that she was serving Felicia Montealegre’s needs. She put the work in. And there’s very demanding scenes in this movie,” he explained. “There’s a fight scene that lasts three or four minutes where it’s one wide shot. Also, I have a push-in that lasts four minutes where she’s receiving guests when she’s dying of cancer. And I told her, I said, ‘Look, I don’t want to cut from this.’ Because she has such a skill set as an actor, because she understands rhythm, we were able to make music together as Lenny and Felicia.”
Of course, Cooper is far from the first director to have unique rules on set. In fact, he’s not even the only director who is known for banning chairs. Anne Hathaway said director Christopher Nolan also doesn’t allow chairs on set, explaining, “If you have chairs, people will sit, and if they’re sitting, they’re not working,” in a 2020 episode of Variety’s “Actors on Actors.”
The Oppenheimer director’s team denied claims and said Nolan personally chooses not to sit while working on set.
“For the record, the only things banned from [Nolan’s] sets are cell phones (not always successfully) and smoking (very successfully),” the director’s spokesperson Kelly Bush Novak told IndieWire at the time. “The chairs Anne was referring to are the director’s chairs clustered around the video monitor, allocated on the basis of hierarchy not physical need. Chris chooses not to use his but has never banned chairs from the set.”
