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30 November 2021

Bradley Cooper relives ‘insane’ moment knifeman attacked him in New York subway

30 November 2021

Bradley Cooper has revealed that he is lucky to be alive after being held at knife point in a New York subway.

The Oscar-winning actor, 46, described the incident as “pretty insane” when talking about it to Dax Shepard while being interviewed for his Armchair podcast on Monday.

Setting the scene, it was October 2019 and he had been on his way to pick up daughter Lea, whom he shares with model ex Irina Shayk, from school when a man threatened him with a knife.

Telling himself off for becoming complacent and not thinking about the potential dangers a subway could pose, he explained that he “used to walk around New York City all the time” and had “got way too comfortable in the city”.

He told the host: “Innately, I would just go all the way down to the end. I felt somebody coming up. I thought, 'oh they want to take a photo of something.’”

The Silving Linings Playbook star soon realised that was not the case however, when he found himself "up against the post like it's the French connection." Looking down, he saw a knife which he estimated was about two and a half inches long and had a wooden handle.

Cooper was unable to hear what his assailant was saying as he had headphones on “the whole time,” but remembered being shocked at “how young” the guy was when he saw his eyes.

The Hollywood favourite continued: “I just started booking, just started running. I jumped over the turnstile, hid around the white, tiled foyer entrance to the subway, took my phone out. He jumped over, running away, and I took a photo of him.

“Then I chased him up the stairs. He started running up 7th Avenue. I took two more photographs of him.

“I ran down two police officers in an SUV, showed them the photograph and I’m, like, talking to them, and the guy kept saying - it was so interesting - he’s like, ‘Are you stabbed?’ I was like, ‘No, no, no.’ And he goes, ‘No, check to see if you’re stabbed.”

He was advised that mugging victims are often so shocked that they don’t realise until later that they have been injured.

After checking himself over he was thankfully unharmed and went on to pick up up his daughter without further issue.

“It was crazy, bro,” he concluded.

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