Dame Helen Mirren conflicted over Golda and Maestro 'Jewface' backlash

Dame Helen Mirren has said she thinks she ‘can see’ why some people are uncomfortable with non-Jewish actors playing Jewish historical figures and said that there is ‘something offensive’ about ‘assuming a certain physiognomy’ to play a particular race.

Dame Helen, 78, plays the former prime minister of Israel, Golda Meir, in upcoming biopic Golda and was asked if she understood the recent backlash Hollywood actor Bradley Cooper faced over wearing a prosthetic nose to portray the American composer Leonard Bernstein in film Maestro.

Speaking about whether she can see why people are uncomfortable with what some term ‘Jewface’, the actress said: ‘I think I can see, but sometimes I can’t see, because I can’t see who in this room is Jewish.

‘We are all such an amazing mix and certainly I don’t have an issue with Kirk Douglas playing a Viking. Kirk Douglas was Jewish.

‘I think the whole question of assuming a certain physiognomy because you’re playing a particular race. There is something offensive about that.’

‘On the other hand, if you’re playing Leonard Bernstein, and this is really what Leonard Bernstein looked like, you know, maybe it’s a good idea. It’s as I said it’s a very delicate balance,’ she explained on the BBC One programme Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg.

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Cooper was heavily criticised for donning a prosthetic to play Bernstein in his upcoming biopic, also directed by the star, but the composer’s children leapt to his defence.

Jamie, Alexander and Nina Bernstein released a public joint statement in which they said Cooper had ‘included the three of us along every step of his amazing journey as he made his film about our father’.

‘It breaks our hearts to see any misrepresentations of misunderstandings of his efforts. It happens to be true that Leonard Bernstein had a nice, big nose. Bradley chose to use makeup to amplify his resemblance, and we’re perfectly fine with that.’

‘We’re also certain that our dad would have been fine with it as well,’ they added.

Asked if some of politician Meir’s words and actions were unacceptable by Kuenssberg – she once said there was ‘no such thing as Palestinians’ – Dame Helen responded: ‘I think that’s true in the context of today’s world, absolutely.’

The Oscar-winning actress pointed out that we are all ‘the product of the society that we grew up in and the world around us and our education and all the rest of it’.

When speaking on being ‘reconciled’ with those issues, Dame Helen added that she ‘didn’t need to be reconciled to that’.

The Barbie and Shazam! Fury of the Gods star insisted that ‘all she was doing’ was playing Golda ‘during the period of the Yom Kippur War’.

‘I’m not explaining her or rationalising her or reappraising her. I’m just playing a woman of that age, dealing with that situation.’

The new film focuses on the responsibilities and decisions that Meir, also known as the Iron Lady of Israel, had to make during the Yom Kippur War, an armed conflict fought between Israel and a coalition of Arab states that was launched in 1973.

Dame Maureen Lipman had previously criticised Dame Helen’s casting in Golda as somebody who wasn’t Jewish, in what Dame Helen called an ‘utterly legitimate’ discussion.

She even revealed she’d had the same qualms herself, which she’d raised with Israeli director Guy Nattiv.

The Queen actress told the Daily Mail: ‘It was certainly a question that I had before I accepted the role. [Meir] is a very important person in Israeli history.

‘I said, “Look Guy, I’m not Jewish, and if you want to think about that, and decide to go in a different direction, no hard feelings. I will absolutely understand.”’

Golda is released in UK cinemas on Friday, October 6.

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