Bradley Cooper's "guard was down" when he was threatened at knifepoint in New York City

He shared: "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 Lea downtown at Russian school and I got held up at knifepoint.

"It was pretty insane. I realised I had gotten way, way too comfortable in the city. My guard was down … I was all the way at the end of the subway.

"Innately, I would just go all the way down to the end. I felt somebody coming up. 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 s***, and I turned. I looked down and I see a knife."

The Hollywood star recalled the knife being almost three inches long.

He joked: "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.

"I can’t remember [what I was listening to]. I look up, I see the person’s eyes, and I’m taken by how young they are."

Bradley then started running towards an exit in a bid to escape.

Appearing on the 'Armchair Expert' podcast, the actor explained: "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.

"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.’ He was like, ‘Check to see if you’re stabbed.’ What happens is people get stabbed and they’re in shock.

"I looked to see if he was right. … And then I got back on the subway and picked up my daughter."