Long before he became a household name, Bradley Cooper landed his first acting role in Sex and the City . This should have been cause for celebration, but as he recalled at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival on February 8, he was "scared." The future Oscar nominee didn't present his skills truthfully during his audition, knowing his lies would be exposed.
false start
When Cooper auditioned for Sex and the City , he didn't actually expect what to expect. "At the time, I didn't even realize you could get the job," he said on Deadline. So he apparently thinks he can drive a sports car, but he can't actually drive a stick shift.
"I remember when I got the call to do this, I was scared," Cooper said. "'What do you mean I have to do this?'"
As "Sex and the City" writer-director Michael Patrick King previously shared on the "Max's Just So... Writers Room" podcast in June 2023, Cooper's truth came out while on set. "They sent [him] to model driving school," Cooper said at the festival, according to Deadline . "I still screwed up, so they let someone else drive and I just had to...pretend we were stopped," he added.
bypass lies
King recalled in the podcast that it all happened at 4 a.m. on Friday outside 14th Street in Manhattan. Cooper guest-starred in Season 2, Episode 4, "They Shoot the Singles, Don't They?" He played Jack, Carrie's (Sarah Jessica Parker) potential partner after a magazine shoot ended question. They met while she was dealing with the unfortunate "Single and Fabulous?" New York magazine cover with her smitten Karmann Ghia. On set, King quickly discovered that Cooper couldn't drive them anywhere.
"I said, 'Bradley, this is where you drive, take off.' He said, 'I can't drive a stick,'" King said.
Eventually, they "changed" their original plan: Carrie would "climb out of Kamangia and walk home on her own," King added. This marked Cooper's television debut.
The Rise of Bradley Cooper
After "Sex and the City ," Cooper's acting career accelerated faster than he could drive on the show. However, it still took him some time to establish himself as a leader. He gained momentum in the early 2000s with films such as Wet Hot American Summer and You're Welcome, as well as the TV show Double Spy. Later, his image became famous in 2009's "The Hangover" and its sequel. From there, he began taking on more "serious" roles, and he has since been nominated for 12 Academy Awards.
Cooper has come a long way since his audition for Lies, and now he will forever be one of Sex and the City 's most famous guest stars.
