Bradley Cooper endured 5 hours of makeup at 1 a.m. so he could direct Maestro as Leonard Bernstein

Bradley Cooper conducted his Maestro set like a finely orchestrated piece of music — right down to directing portions of the film while wearing makeup and prosthetics that took five hours to apply.

According to two-time Oscar-winning makeup artist Kazu Hiro, who transformed the filmmaker-star into famed composer Leonard Bernstein for the upcoming Netflix film, Cooper moved up some of the film's early-as-hell call times so he could appear to the crew in character as Bernstein.

"The last stage, he had covered pretty much everywhere, the bodysuit and arms. That took over 5 hours," Hiro told an audience Monday night at the film's New York Film Festival screening. He recounted his process of transforming Cooper into Bernstein at various periods of his life — the most difficult, he said, was morphing Cooper into a man of over 70 years old.

"The last stage, the whole time, our call time was 1 in the morning," Hiro continued. "The other thing was he wanted makeup to be finished before the crew call, so he would appear as Lenny to set up the shoot and everything. That also kind of made our call time two hours earlier than normal, so that was quite tough."

Hiro said that Cooper's time in the makeup chair varied as they shot scenes from other parts of Bernstein's life, including lifting the Oscar nominee's face during a two-and-a-half-hour process to make the actor appear as if he was in his twenties. Other stages of Bernstein's life required anywhere between two and three hours to complete, Hiro added.

"[We had to] keep adding because as he gets older, we had to add more elements," he said. "The younger stage was the nose and lips and chin and a wig. After the third stage, he started having cheek and neck [additions.]"

Hiro and the other creatives from the film on stage at the NYFF screening — including writer Josh Singer, costume designer Mark Bridges, production designer Kevin Thompson, conducting consultant Yannick Nézet-Séguin, sound mixer Steve Morrow, and Bernstein's daughter, Jaime — did not address the controversy surrounding Cooper's transformation, which saw some accusing the actor of anti-Semitism for wearing a large prosthetic nose to portray Bernstein.

Bernstein's children, Jaime, Alexander, and Nina, however, previously released a statement in support of Cooper, in which they said he "included" the trio "along every step" of making the movie about their father, and that they approved of his portrayal.

Maestro — also starring Sarah Silverman, Matt Bomer, and Maya Hawke — releases to a limited number of theaters on Nov. 22, followed by a Netflix streaming premiere on Dec. 20.

Check out more from EW's The Awardist, featuring exclusive interviews, analysis, and our podcast diving into all the highlights from the year's best in TV.

Related content:

• Leonard Bernstein's family defends Bradley Cooper's prosthetic transformation for Maestro
• Anatomy of a Fall and Zone of Interest star Sandra Hüller, our Heat Index, and more in EW's The Awardist
• Oscars heat index: Poor Things, Priscilla eyeing potential Oscar nominations after fall festivals
• 11 must-see movies at 2023 fall film festivals, from Bradley Cooper's Maestro to major Oscars contenders