The lifelong love story of a famous musician and an actress is retold in Director Bradley Cooper’s biographical drama, Maestro.

Cooper’s chronicles the epic relationship of conductor-composer Leonard Bernstein and actress Felicia Montealegre Cohn Bernstein, who built a life together after a whirlwind courtship, supported each other’s ambitions and raised three children together.

On November 12, after the DGA membership screening in New York, Cooper discussed the making of Maestro during a Q&A moderated by Director Spike Lee (Da 5 Bloods). He also spoke about the film in a conversation moderated by Todd Phillips (Joker) following the DGA membership screening in Los Angeles on November 19.

During the New York conversation, Cooper spoke about how he is able to accomplish short days on the set.

“I never plan out short days. But I think once you have it, you have it and I do believe that the rhythm of a day dictates many things. I think that you could hurt the character if you keep doing too much. There’s a moment where a scene feels mimed and, rhythmically, you have to move on or you could actually start to cannibalize. I had so much prep that the movie was in my head and I was able to call audibles in my head and play the movie through my head as I was doing it. People have asked me is it harder to act and direct. I think it’s cheating because I can be on the field so to me, it’s easier. I never call action but I set everything up, bring people in and then just bam! But what I ask is everybody better be prepared because if you're not prepared, it’s not gonna go well.”

Cooper’s other directorial credits include the feature film A Star is Born, for which he was nominated for 2019 DGA Awards for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film and Outstanding Directorial Achievement in First-Time Feature Film. He has been a member of the DGA since 2017.