BAFTAs 2024: Maestro's sound team reveal their 'terrified' first reactions to Bradley Cooper's 'vision'

Virgin Radio

19 Feb 2024, 14:25

The sound team behind BAFTA-nominated movie Maestro have revealed how nerve wracking it was trying to bring Bradley Cooper’s vision to life. 

The biopic, which was up for seven BAFTA awards, focuses on the relationship between Bernstein (Bradley Cooper) and his wife Felicia Montealegre (Carey Mulligan), and is described as a love letter to life and art, and an emotional epic portrayal of family and love. 

Considered one of the most important conductors of his time, Bernstein mastered many genres, from orchestral music to opera, and received international acclaim for his work in West Side Story. 

Steve Morrow and Jason Ruder were the experts behind the sound of Maestro, and while The Zone of Interest was the winner on the night, they still stopped by the red carpet to chat all about the intense process bringing music to the Bernstien story under Bradley’s rule as director and actor. 

Steve shared to virginradio.co.uk and other press: “[Bradley] had everything lined up exactly. I mean, the movie is exactly what he wanted. When you work with somebody who has that vision, the movie succeeds or fails based on him, and he takes full responsibility - it's inspiring to work with him, because you know that everything that he's done is to his exact thing.”

Within Maestro, Cooper had to embody the power and talent of Bernstein at a concert of the finale of Gustav Mahler’s Second Symphony, all while in front of an actual orchestra and chorus. Safe to say, it was no easy feat for the A-Lister or his sound team. 

Steve added: “When Bradley let us know that we were gonna do [the concert] live, we kind of freaked out for about two years until we got to the day that we filmed the big scene. But no, it's an incredible honour to be able to represent the family and his legacy, in such a beautiful way.”

“It was very scary, but we had the London Symphony Orchestra, who are just magnificent,” Ruder continued. 

The BAFTAs took place at London’s Festival Hall last night (18th February), and Oppenheimer was the big winner of the night landing seven awards in total. 

Christopher Nolan remarkably won his very first BAFTA for directing Oppenheimer, and thanked audiences for “taking on something quite dark and seeing potential in it.”

The annual film celebration was hosted by David Tennant, and you can read more about what happened on the big night on winners and highlights page.