Bradley Cooper reveals he was once held at knifepoint at a New York City subway

Bradley Cooper recalled a terrifying experience from back in 2019 when he was held at knifepoint on the subway in New York while he was on his way to pick his daughter up from school. 

According to CNN, the A Star Is Born actor made the revelation on the Armchair Expert podcast with Dax Shepard.

"I used to walk around New York City all the time with [headphones]," Bradley said, revealing that the incident happened in October 2019. "I was on the subway, 11:45, to pick Lea up downtown at Russian school, and I got held up at knifepoint." Since he had his headphones on, he couldn't hear anything, per NBC News. 

Cooper revealed that he'd gotten into the last car of the subway and maintained a low profile as always. So, when he was approached by the suspect, he thought that the person had come just for a picture. "I felt somebody coming up, and I thought, Oh, probably wants to take a photo or something," he said. "I look down and I see a knife."

The 46-year-old suspected that the knife was two-and-a-half inches long, joking, "I remember thinking, 'Oh, it's a nice knife.'"

"Now, I had my headphones on the whole time so I can't hear anything," Bradley continued. "I'm just listening to music. It's scored — the whole thing is scored." But he got a chance to look the suspect in the eye, and that's when he realized that it's a young person. "I see the person's eyes. I'm taken by how young they are," he went on. "And then, I'm sure you were taught this, you don't ever run from a knife, you just try to, like, stay there."

But Cooper knocked the person yielding the gun down and jumped a turnstile inside the station, then ran to the entrance, where he was able to get outside. "I just started booking, just started running," he said. "I jumped over the turnstile, hid around the white, tiled entrance to the subway (and) took my phone out. (The suspect) jumped over, running away. I took a photo of him. Then I chased him up the stairs. He started running up 7th Avenue."

Cooper reveals that he got a couple more photos of the suspect and then reported the incident to a nearby police officer. The officer then asked Cooper to check if he was stabbed. "He was like, 'Check to see if you’re stabbed,'" Cooper said. The officer told him that sometimes people are in shock and don't know they've been stabbed.

"It was pretty insane, but I realized I had gotten way, way too comfortable in the city," he added. "My guard was down."

Cover Image Source: Getty Images | Photo by Frazer Harrison