Actor Bradley Cooper reveals he was held at knifepoint in NYC while picking up toddler from school: '[I'd] gotten way, way too comfortable in the city'

Actor Bradley Cooper recently revealed his personal harrowing experience of being held at knifepoint while on his way to pick up his child at her New York City school.

He was unhurt in the incident.

What are the details?

Cooper told fellow actor Dax Shepard during a recent "Armchair Expert" podcast that he was traveling the subway system of New York City en route to pick up his daughter from her downtown school when he was accosted by a stranger and held at knifepoint.

Citing his complacency as a reason for not being more aware, Cooper said that he simply had "gotten way, way too comfortable in the city" prior to the incident.

"My guard was down," he admitted.

"I used to walk around New York City all the time with [headphones] on — this was pre-pandemic," Cooper recalled. "I was on the subway, 11:45 to pick Lea up downtown at Russian school, and I got held up at knifepoint."

Cooper said that he "felt somebody coming up" and approaching him, and he initially believed it to be a fan requesting a photo.

"I'm up against the post like it's 'The French Connection' or some s**t and then I, like, turned," he said. "I looked down and I see a knife. ... I remember thinking, 'Oh, it's a nice knife.'"

Cooper said that he was still wearing his headphones when he felt the person approach him.

"I’m just listening to music," he said. "So it's scored, the whole thing is scored. ... I see the person's eyes and I'm taken by how young they are."

At that point, Cooper was able to get off of the subway and began running away from the suspect.

"I jumped over the turnstile, hid around the white, tiled foyer entrance to the subway, took my phone out," he recalled. "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."

Cooper said that he was able to grab the attention of two nearby police officers and told them of his experience on the subway.

"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 continued. "What happens is people gets stabbed and they're in shock. I looked to see if he was right. It was crazy."