Bradley Cooper has opened up about a terrifying experience in which he was held up at knifepoint in a New York subway while on his way to pick up his young daughter.
Speaking to Dax Shepard and Monica Padman on a new episode of the Armchair Expert podcast, Cooper revealed that in October 2019, he had been confronted by two men while he was wearing headphones as he walked through the subway.
“I used to walk around New York City all the time with these on and this was pre-pandemic – and I was on the subway, 11:45, to pick Lea up downtown at Russian school, and I got held up at knifepoint,” Cooper recalled.
“How are we best friends and I’m just learning that now?” Shepard then asked in shock.
Cooper replied, “I had realised I had gotten way, way too comfortable in this, like my guard was down.
“[The headphones] takes away on sensory guidepost, just gone, and then you wear sunglasses and a hat… and I’m all the way at the end of the subway.”
The actor explained that while he could sense someone approaching him, he assumed it may have been a fan who was hoping for a selfie or an autograph.
“As I turn, I look down and I see a knife,” Cooper said, explaining that the weapon seemed to be a “2-and-a-half to three-inch” pocketknife. “I remember thinking, ‘Oh, wow, it’s a nice knife.'”
He continued, “I had my headphones on the whole time so I can’t hear anything. I’m just listening to music, so it’s scored. The whole [interaction] is scored.”
Cooper said he then pushed the assailant arm away in defence and “just started booking, just started running… jumped over the turnstile and hid around the white-tiled entrance to the subway.”
As the attacker began to run, Cooper said he was able to use his phone to take photographs before alerting two police officers about the incident.
“The [officer] kept saying, it was so interesting, he was like, ‘Are you stabbed?’ And I was like, ‘No, no,’ And he goes, ‘No, no, no. Check to see if you’re stabbed.’ Because what happens is, people get stabbed and they’re in shock,” Cooper shared.
“So I looked to see. But it was crazy.”
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Check out Bradley Cooper on Armchair Expert:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcU11G4FRmw&feature=emb_title
