Bradley Cooper was rejected for Best Director at the Oscars for his film Maestro.
The 49-year-old actor was nominated for the series' other major awards, but failed to impress the Oscars voting committee.
Bradley starred in, co-wrote, co-produced and directed the Netflix biopic Leonard Bernstein and secured nominations for Best Actor and Best Picture.
But the director's snub will no doubt be a sore subject for the star, who made his feelings very clear when he failed to receive Oscar love for his directorial debut in 2018's A Star Is Born.
The film was a critical success and was nominated for eight Oscars, but Bradley said he was “embarrassed” by not being nominated for the Best Director category.
Bradley Cooper (pictured on Tuesday) was rejected for Best Director at the Oscars for his film Maestro, despite working on it for six years
Bradley starred, co-wrote, co-produced and directed the Netflix biopic Leonard Bernstein and managed to get nominations for Best Actor and Best Picture, but not for Best Director
The snub will no doubt be a sore subject for the star, who made his feelings very clear when he failed to receive any Oscar love for his directorial debut in 2018's A Star Is Born (pictured in the film with Lady Gaga).
The actor and filmmaker spoke out during Oprah's “SuperSoul Conversations” in Times Square and admitted, “I was embarrassed.” I was in a coffee shop in New York City and I looked at my phone and Nicole [Caruso, his publicist] congratulated me and told me what we were nominated for.
“You didn’t even tell me the bad news. I was embarrassed because I felt like I hadn’t done my job.”
Although he didn't receive any credit for A Star Is Born, he was clearly bitten by the directing bug, as he had started thinking about Maestro during the film's promotional campaign.
His work on the biopic began in 2018 when he was hired to play Bernstein in the project directed by Steven Spielberg.
When Steven pulled out of the project to devote more time to his West Side Story remake, self-proclaimed lifelong classical music fan Bradley refused to abandon the project and instead presented himself as the new director.
He convinced Steven to let him take on the role after showing him his directorial debut in A Star Is Born. Maestro producer Kristie Macosko Krieger revealed that he couldn't get Maestro out of his head even during the promotional campaign for his musical drama and suggested then the idea came to her.
She told The Hollywood Reporter: “He said, 'Can I present to you my idea for the opening of the film?' He introduced me, frame by frame, to what we're actually seeing now in a film in 2023.
“He thought about the film non-stop for six years. I would venture to guess that I easily received 3,000 text messages from him over the course of filming the film.”
Bradley completely transformed himself into composer Leonard Bernstein for the biopic Maestro (immediately in 2022) through the artful use of prosthetics and film makeup.
Bradley used method acting to get into the psyche of Leonard Bernstein (pictured)
Not only did Bradley make sure he could do the film justice with his direction, but he also made sure he embodied the role of the famous American composer by spending six years learning how to compose… for a six-minute scene.
The scene in question was the recording of Bernstein's iconic performance as conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra at Ely Cathedral in 1976, which “terrified” Bradley.
During a Tastemaker screening, he confessed: “That scene worried me a lot because we did it live.” That was the London Symphony Orchestra. I was recorded live, I had to conduct them.
“And I spent six years learning how to conduct six minutes and 21 seconds of music,” he admitted, thanking his “wonderful teachers” for all their help along the way.
“I was able to get the rough version where I just saw Leonard Bernstein [conduct] In 1976 I took part in Ely Cathedral with the London Symphony Orchestra and so I had the opportunity to study that.
“And Yannick Nézet-Séguin made videos with all the tempo changes, so I had all the materials that I could just work on,” he continued.
“It was really about choosing exactly what I wanted cinematically and then inviting them to inhabit that space and trusting that they all got the job done.”
“Because I think I knew it, I was terrified, absolutely afraid that if I hadn't done the work I wouldn't be able to enjoy those scenes. And that's what everyone did.'
Bradley also practiced method acting for the role and even stayed in character while directing scenes.
When Steven pulled out of the project to devote more time to his West Side Story remake, self-professed lifelong classical music fan Bradley refused to drop the project
Explaining that he has been using method acting since he starred opposite Christian Bale in 2018's American Hustle, he revealed: “I've played Lenny his whole life.” I spent three to six hours every day Makeup trailer before the crew arrived.
“It was hilarious because back in the days when I was little Lenny, the energy on set was faster and we got more done.” And when I was the old Lenny, things slowed down. If you ask the crew or cast, Lenny directed the film.
He added to the Hollywood Reporter: “I have hand signals with the sound mixer and the cameraman. “I'm not calling for action. After everything is set up, I just start talking and bring the actors along, and often they don't know we're getting started.
“And then they say, 'The scene is over.' And they say, “Huh?” I am [playing] “Lenny Bernstein, I’m not breaking into the role.”
Full list of 2024 Oscar nominations – see who's nominated for this year's Academy Awards
best picture
American fiction
Anatomy of a fall
Barbie
The leftovers
Flower Moon Killer
maestro
Oppenheimer
Past lives
Poor things
The zone of interest
Best Director
Justine Triet, Anatomy of a Fall
Martin Scorsese, Killers of the Flower Moon
Christopher Nolan, Oppenheimer
Yorgos Lanthimos, poor things
Jonathan Glazer, The Zone of Interest
Actress in a leading role
Annette Bening, Nyad
Lily Gladstone, Killers of the Flower Moon
Sandra Huller, Anatomy of a Fall
Carey Mulligan, maestro
Emma Stone, Poor things
Actor in a leading role
Bradley Cooper, maestro
Colman Domingo, Rustin
Paul Giamatti, The Holdovers
Cillian Murphy, Oppenheimer
Jeffrey Wright, American Fiction
Actress in a supporting role
Emily Blunt, Oppenheimer
Danielle Brooks, The Color Purple
America Ferrera, Barbie
Jodie Foster, Nyad
Da'Vine Joy Randolph, The Holdovers
Actor in a supporting role
Sterling K. Brown, American Fiction
Robert De Niro, Killers of the Flower Moon
Robert Downey Jr., Oppenheimer
Ryan Gosling, Barbie
Mark Ruffalo, Poor Things
Animated feature film
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Elementary
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Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
cinematography
El Conde
Flower Moon Killer
maestro
Oppenheimer
Poor things
Original script
Anatomy of a fall
The leftovers
maestro
May December
Past lives
Adapted script
American fiction
Barbie
Oppenheimer
Poor things
The zone of interest
Success in production design
Barbie
Flower Moon Killer
Napoleon
Oppenheimer
Poor things
Performance in sound
The creator
maestro
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One
Oppenheimer
The zone of interest
Original song
“The Fire Inside” by Flamin' Hot
“I’m just Ken” by Barbie
“It Never Went Away” by American Symphony
“Wahzhazhe (A Song for My People)” by Killers of the Flower Moon
“What was I created for?” by Barbie
Original score
American fiction
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
Flower Moon Killer
Oppenheimer
Poor things
Live-action short film
The after
Invincible
Knight of Fortune
Red, white and blue
The wonderful story of Henry Sugar
Animated short film
Letter to a pig
95 senses
Our uniform
pachyderm
THE WAR IS OVER! Inspired by the music of John and Yoko
Documentary feature film
Bobi Wine: The People's President
The eternal memory
Four daughters
Kill a tiger
20 days in Mariupol
Documentary short film
The ABC of book banning
The Barber of Little Rock
island in between
The last repair shop
Nǎi Nai and Wài Pó
International feature film
Io Capitano, Italy
Perfect days, Japan
Society of Snow, Spain
The Teachers' Lounge, Germany
The Zone of Interest, United Kingdom
Make-up and hair styling
Golda
maestro
Oppenheimer
Poor things
Society of Snow
Success in costume design
Barbie
Flower Moon Killer
Napoleon
Oppenheimer
Poor things
Success in film editing
Anatomy of a fall
The leftovers
Flower Moon Killer
Oppenheimer
Poor things
Visual effects
The creator
Godzilla Minus One
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One
Napoleon