Bradley Cooper Reveals Why He Was ‘Terrified’ to Film His TV Debut in Sex and the City

Bradley Cooper will never forget his screen debut as “Jake, the downtown smoker.” Sex and the city.

As a director and star Maestro was awarded the top honor of best performer of the year at the Santa Barbara Film Festival on Thursday, also reflected on his career in a retrospective Q&A. Among the stories he told at the DAOU Vineyards-sponsored event, Cooper recalled his first on-camera role as a short-lived flirt for SATC heroine Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker).

The Oscar-nominated actor specifically revealed why he ended up being “terrified” to be cast as sports car-driving, inner-city party guy Jake in a Season 2 episode of the hit HBO series.

“I still remember that: I was Jake, the smoker in the center,” he said.

“I auditioned for it and I didn’t really realize at the time that I could ever get the job,” recalled Cooper, 49. “Honestly, I thought I had a job as a doorman at the Morgans Hotel, and then I’m lucky enough to audition.”

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Bradley Cooper at the 39th Annual Santa Barbara International Film Festival.

Tibrina Hobson/Getty

The A star is born Helmer explained that because he didn’t expect to actually book the role, the lie he told during the audition came back to haunt him. “I remember being terrified when I got the call to do it. ‘What do you mean I’m actually going to have to do that?’” he joked. “I couldn’t drive a manual transmission, so they sent me to Models Driving School and I was terrified.”

He continued, “I messed up though, so they said someone else was driving the car and I just had to…pretend we stopped.”

Despite being petrified at the start, the experience ended up being “really fun”, with Cooper confirming that star “Sarah Jessica Parker was amazing”.

When it was noted that this year would be the episode’s 25th anniversary, he joked that he felt “old” and added, “S—, I’ve been there, man.”

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Bradley Cooper at the 39th Annual Santa Barbara International Film Festival.

Tibrina Hobson/Getty

Cooper guest stars in They Shoot Singles, Don’t They? happened after Parker’s character decided to let off steam by dating after her 30-something single status was used as a warning to New York Magazine cover story.

Desperate to feel young and attractive, she went to a downtown bar and met bad boy Jake, who she described as “everything I was looking for that night: single, straight, and smoking.” However, the romance barely got out of first gear – Jake went to the bodega to get a pack of cigarettes and found a less-than-flattering magazine cover, prompting Carrie to flee.

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Cooper’s appearance on the show was also the subject of debate last year Sex and the city director and screenwriter Michael Patrick King, who opened up about working with the star on the Max episode And just like that…A room for writers podcast.

“Bradley Cooper — the first job — said he could drive a stick to get the job because the character drove a Karmann Ghia,” said King, 69, referring to the Volkswagen model. “Four in the morning, another Friday off 14th Street and I said, ‘Bradley, you’re driving here, you’re leaving.’ And he says: ‘I don’t know how to drive a club’.”

The showrunner explained that they ended up tweaking the episode because of that. “And so we fixed it, changed it, turned it around,” he said. “Sarah Jessica’s character Carrie crawls out of the Karmann Ghio and walks home alone.”

A few years after the actor’s appearance on Sex and the citydebuted in 2001 A wet hot American summer. During the 2000s, he also guest starred in series such as Law and Order: Special Victims Unit and Biting/pullinghe had a recurring role on Alias and starred in a film inspired by Anthony Bourdain Kitchen Confidential as he solidified his film career.

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