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Bradley Cooper recalls being “held up at knifepoint” at NYC subway

By Danielle Long Nov 30, 2021 | 8:00 AM


Raymond Hall/GC Images

(NOTE LANGUAGE) Describing what seems like a scene from a movie, Bradley Cooper reveals he was held at gunpoint on a New York City subway. 

During Monday’s episode of the Armchair Expert podcast, the 46-year-old actor and filmmaker recounted the terrifying incident. 

“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 [his daughter] Lea downtown at Russian school and I got held up at knifepoint. It was pretty insane,” Cooper began.

Cooper said that he was “all the way at the end of the subway” when he felt someone’s presence.

“I thought, Oh, they want to take a photo or something,” he continued. “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 five-time Academy Award nominee shared that he couldn’t “hear anything” because he had headphones but recalled being taken by how “young” the person looked.

Explaining how he got out of the situation, Cooper recalled, “I just started booking, just started running. 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 7th Avenue. I took two more photographs of him.”

Eventually, Cooper was able to flag down two officers, who told him to check to make sure he hadn’t been  stabbed.

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

 

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