by In a weird turn of events that transpired in a New York City subway in broad daylight, actor and Academy award winner, Bradley Cooper got held at knifepoint by a person, allegedly old enough to be his son. The actor was on his way to pickup his daughter, Lea, from the Russian school when the incident took place. There weren’t enough witnesses to the situation since the actor’s immediate reaction was to raise his defences and run for his life, which he managed to do. But the altercation did leave him a bit stumbled and as he later believed was due to him letting his guard down.
Cooper opened up about his experience in a podcast interview, the “Armchair Expert” podcast, aired on November 29 . According to him the entire scene played out, as if he were on the sets of the French Connection or something. It was around 11:45 am when the actor was on his way downtown to pick up Lea from her playschool. He would usually travel or walk about the city or even the subway with his headphones turned on, music blasting and was almost all the way down the subway, when the attacker approached him. At first he dismissed any suspicion off the approaching silhouette of his would-be attacker, thinking him to be a fan or someone wanting to take a picture with him. But immediately the man tackled him against the post and then thrust his steel edged blade against his abdomen.
According to the actor, the knife seemed pretty nice sharp, three inches long almost and looked like it had some nice history to it. It felt like the entire event was taking place against the backdrop of a dramatic music sequence, which was essentially playing in his ears. He got a hint of how young his assailant was when he turned to look up, right into his eyes. In a flit of a moment, without even giving things a second thought, he dashed towards the exit. The actor recalled how he never once turned back to look at the scene.
“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,” said Bradley Cooper on the podcast.
He ran towards a police SUV that was parked out front and showed them the photograph and talked about the possible assaulter. One of the two policemen who were at the scene then asked him to check if he has been physically injured or stabbed. Luckily he wasn’t but then explained how most people often miss it in a state of adrenaline rush and do not realise it until later, when the damage from the wound is too much.
Once the incident was reported, he got back on the subway to pick up his daughter from school. The incident occurred pre pandemic in 2019.
The actor shares his daughter Lea with ex-wife and supermodel Irina Shayk after they split up.
