Bradley Cooper Attends NYFF Maestro Premiere Amid Actors’ Strike – The Hollywood Reporter
Bradley Cooper made a surprise appearance at the North American premiere of his latest project at the New York Film Festival maestro on Monday evening.
The actor plays the role of legendary conductor Leonard Bernstein in the Netflix film, which he also directed and co-wrote. Because of the ongoing actors’ strike, he had missed press opportunities, including the film’s world premiere at the Venice Film Festival, but was in the audience at David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center on Monday night.
As she introduced herself, she spoke from the stage maestroLeonard Bernstein’s daughter Jamie triumphantly told the packed audience that Cooper was able to watch the film in accordance with SAG-AFTRA strike rules.
“Screen Actors Guild guidelines allow our director, Mr. Cooper, to view his film here with us tonight,” Bernstein said. “So let’s all welcome Bradley Cooper to the debut of his beautiful film.”
A representative from SAG confirmed this The Hollywood Reporter that Cooper was allowed to attend the screening because he was not promoting the film, and pointed to the film festival section of the strike rules, which states, in part: “Performers are free to attend film festivals or other events.” However, they cannot “attend such “Promoting events for striking workers or striking companies” by, for example, “participating in a question and answer session” or walking the red carpet.
Representatives for Cooper and Netflix have not yet responded THRRequest for comments.
The Directors Guild of America quickly reached a new agreement with the AMPTP group, which represents studios and streamers over the summer, while the Writers Guild of America reached a tentative agreement with the AMPTP. The Writers Guild voted to end the strike last week while the agreement was still being ratified.
Meanwhile, SAG-AFTRA is still on strike but resumed negotiations with the AMPTP on Monday. The two sides are expected to speak again on Wednesday.
Due to the end of the writers’ strike, Cooper’s co-author Josh Singer skipped the world premiere in Venice maestrowas able to attend the NY Film Festival event, spoke to media members on the red carpet and participated in a question and answer session after the screening.
Speak with THR Regarding the end of the writers’ strike before Monday’s screening, Singer said he was grateful to the WGA negotiators, “who I think have worked very hard and fought courageously to ensure the protection of writers for many years to come.”
He added: “And I’m also grateful that it’s over and I can stand here today and talk about a film that I’ve been working on for nine years.”
Singer added that he hopes for a quick resolution to the actors’ strike.
“I know there are various problems [with the actors than with the WGA]“But I’m confident the city can get back to work,” he said. “But I think actors need to be given the protection they want.”
When asked if he and his fellow producers would consider introducing Maestro in light of the ongoing actors’ strike, producer Fred Berner said he was confident a solution would be found soon.
“I’m just sad that I can’t hug and celebrate all of these people,” he said. “Hopefully we will have a chance. I think it’s starting to thaw a little.”
He added: “I think it’s worse for [the actors] than it is for us. How can you put all this time and energy and love into something and not just stand there and get a fraction of it back?”
