Bradley Cooper may be one of Hollywood’s most bankable leading men today, but in the early days of his career, he wasn’t above stretching the truth a bit if it helped him land a job.
Appearing on Watch What Happens Live last week, fellow actor Cynthia Nixon recalled Bradley’s appearance on an early episode of Sex And The City that aired in 1999.
In what was reportedly his first on-screen role, the Oscar nomine played Jake, a fleeting love interest for Sarah Jessica Parker’s Carrie Bradshaw.
As Nixon noted, the scene required Cooper to drive a vintage sports car with a manual transmission ― something the future Silver Linings Playbook actor hadn’t quite mastered yet.
“He told them he knew how to drive a stick because it was his first job and he was desperate to get it,” Cynthia said.
“And then the time came for him to pull out, and he was like, ‘I don’t know how to drive a stick.’”
Check out Cynthia Nixon on Watch What Happens Live below:
Speaking to Backstage in 2012, Bradley himself fessed up to the fib, saying that although he’d brushed up on his skills at a New York driving school shortly before filming the episode, he still had a tough time on the road.
“I thought it went well when I learned on a Volkswagen, but then I was driving a 1962 Porsche convertible where the clutch was as if I was driving a bus,” he said. “And I had Sarah Jessica Parker in the passenger seat.”
With a bit of extra practice and some assistance from a stand-in, Bradley was able to complete the scene ― and the experience helped cement his passion for acting.
“I felt the same way I did when I first went onstage and performed,” he said. “I went, ‘I feel at home here’.
“It was 2:30 in the morning, they blocked off 14th Street in Manhattan, and there were, like, a hundred people screaming for Sarah Jessica. I was like, ‘This is the imaginary world that I love watching in theatres.’ I loved it.”
Bradley, of course, was just one of many Sex And The City guest stars who went on to achieve major success in television and on the big screen.
Long before he was Roger Sterling on Mad Men, John Slattery had a multi-episode arc in the show’s third season as a Manhattan politician with a penchant for golden showers.
Similarly, actors Murray Bartlett and Jennifer Coolidge ― both of whom have since won Emmys for HBO’s The White Lotus ― popped up in memorable roles in seasons four and six, respectively.