Bradley Cooper revealed he was held up at knifepoint on a New York City subway in 2019 while on the way to pick up his young daughter from school.
As a guest on Dax Sheppard's Armchair Expert podcast, the American Sniper star dubbed the terrifying encounter "pretty insane", adding that it made him realise he had gotten "too comfortable".
"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," he said.
"It was pretty insane. I realised I had gotten way too comfortable in the city. My guard was down - I was all the way at the end of the subway."
Cooper said he "felt somebody coming up" behind him, but thought it would likely be a fan wanting a photo.
"I'm up against the post like it's the French Connection or some shit and I turned - I looked down and I see a knife," he said.
"I have my headphones on the whole time. I can't hear anything. I'm just listening to music. So it's scored, the whole thing was scored."
The Oscar nominee said he couldn't remember what he was listening to, but he was struck by how young his assailant was before he fled.
"I just started booking, just started running," he recalled.
"I jumped over the turnstile, hid around the white, tiled entrance to the subway [and] took my phone out. He jumped over, running away."
Cooper snapped a photo of the suspect before chasing him up the subway stairs and along 7th Avenue, taking more photos as he went, before finding help from authorities.
"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,'. He was like, 'Check to see if you're stabbed.' What happens is people get stabbed and they're in shock."
Cooper said he checked to see if the police officer was right, and upon establishing he definitely wasn't injured, got back on the subway and picked his daughter up.
