Bradley Cooper reveals he was held at knifepoint on New York subway
"I realised I had gotten way, way too comfortable in the city. My guard was down"
Bradley Cooper has revealed he was held at knifepoint during a journey on the New York subway in 2019.
Speaking on Dax Shephard’s Armchair Expert podcast yesterday (November 29), Cooper revealed that the incident took place in October 2019, when he was on his way to pick up his daughter Lea from a school class.
“I was on the subway, 11.45, to pick [up] Lea downtown at Russian school and I got held up at knifepoint… It was pretty insane,” Cooper said, adding: “I realised I had gotten way, way too comfortable in the city. My guard was down.”
“I’m all the way at the end of the subway… I felt somebody coming up but I thought, ‘Oh, they want to take a photo or something.’ As I turned, I’m up against the post like it’s The French Connection or some shit. And then I turned and I looked down and I see a knife,” he remembered, saying the knife was around “two-and-a-half inches” long.
“I just started running, jumped over the turnstile, hid around the white, tiled entrance to the subway, took my phone out,” he said.
“He jumped over, running away and 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. I ran down two police officers in an SUV, showed them the photographs.”
Cooper’s next film comes in the form of ‘Licorice Pizza’, the new movie from Paul Thomas Anderson that also stars Alana Haim.
Early reviews of the film have been hugely positive, with a 91% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and particular praise for Haim multi-instrumentalist Alana Haim’s acting debut in the leading role. Film critic Ben Mankiewicz said on Twitter: “The movie world needs to prepare itself for the overwhelming charm, likability, and humanity of Alana Haim in @licoricepizza.”
The film, Anderson’s ninth as writer and director, follows Haim’s character, photographer’s assistant Alana Kane, as she befriends a teenager (Cooper Hoffman) and navigates the tumultuous political and cultural landscape of the San Fernando Valley in 1973.
‘Licorice Pizza’ will be released in the UK on January 7, 2022.