Bradley Cooper Says He Was Held At Knifepoint In NYC Subway

The Late Show With Stephen Colbert/YouTube

“A Star Is Born” actor and director Bradley Cooper recently revealed that he had a near-death experience while on his way to pick his daughter up from school

During this week’s episode of Dax Shephard’s Armchair Expert podcast, Cooper shared details of the incident that took place in 2019.

“I used to walk around New York City all the time with these [headphones] on…this was pre-pandemic…I was on the subway [at] 11:45 to pick up Lea downtown at Russian school and I got held up at knifepoint. It was pretty insane,” Cooper said. “I realized I had gotten way, way too comfortable in the city.”

He went on to explain that he was “all the way at the end of the subway” when he realized that he wasn’t alone.

“I thought, Oh, they want to take a photo or something,” he shared. “As I turned, I’m up against the post like it’s the ‘French Connection’ or some s—, and I turned. I looked down and I see a knife.”

The Philadephia native-turned New Yorker added that he couldn’t hear anything because he had headphones but was surprised at how young the culprit was. Cooper’s first instinct was to run and get himself out of the dangerous situation.

“I just started booking, just started running,” Cooper said. “I jumped over the turnstile, hid around the white, tiled entrance to the subway and took my phone out. He jumped over, running away. I took a photo of him. Then I chased him up the stairs. He started running up Seventh Avenue. I took two more photographs of him.”

The actor flagged down two officers who made sure that he hadn’t been stabbed in the near-altercation.

“What happens is people get stabbed and they’re in shock. I looked to see if he was right,” he explained. “And then I got back on the subway and picked up my daughter.”

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