Think what you will of Bradley Cooper, but you can’t deny his talent.

The man has appeared in a massive range of roles, but his incoming Netflix release is a far cry from his days in Failure to Launch or even Guardians of the Galaxy. Early reactions hint toward the award-winning potential of Maestro, Cooper’s latest project, which he wrote, directed, and stars in. The film is already being discussed as an Oscar contender several times over and Cooper is a huge part of that.

Even past the backlash, the film is soaring past initial expectations and collecting high praise for Carey Mulligan and Cooper’s performances. Cooper in particular is on the receiving end of praise as people once again gape at his range of talent. The man can act — both in live-action and animation — sing, and now he’s revealing yet another talent: piano playing.

Cooper plays legendary American composer Leonard Bernstein in the self-directed flick and the role demands quite a bit of the star. Most notably, it requires him to play the piano, a skill few people realized Cooper possessed. Let’s not forget, of course, that movie magic is real and it’s entirely possible that all those musical moments were simply the result of good acting and a stand-in pianist. That said, how much actual skill did Cooper contribute to the movie?

Does Bradley Cooper actually play the piano in Maestro?

The piano is, in many ways, the core of musical composition. Obviously this tends to hinge on what kind of music one is making, but it’s rare that the very first notes of a masterpiece are laid down on anything but a set of ivories.

As such, it was guaranteed that Cooper’s Bernstein would be featured on the piano with some degree of frequency in Maestro. What was less guaranteed was that Cooper would actually learn the piano first, but anyone who’s followed the 48-year-old’s career probably realized that he’d do just that. Cooper loves to dive deep into his projects, and Maestro is no exception.

Cooper learned to play the piano ahead of his appearance in the 2023 release, but he didn’t suddenly become a savant. So while those scenes of him playing the piano are real, and he did in fact learn how to hold his hands, move his fingers, and project an air of authority on the instrument, it won’t be his music you hear in the film.

The final music included in Maestro and on its soundtrack comes from Victoria Ruggiero, but the hands we see on the keyboard are very much Cooper’s. He learned the basics of the piano so he could give a believable performance, but it takes years of practice to produce the actual Bernstein’s level of piano magic and mastery. We’ve got Ruggiero to thank for that, as she provides the soundtrack to bolster Cooper’s potentially award-winning performance.

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