Bradley Cooper Jokes That He Didn’t Know You Could Actually Land a Job When He Got ‘Sex and the City’ Gig
Bradley Cooper had an often-forgotten role in Sex and the City. While Cooper is known as a movie star now, when he was cast in the iconic HBO series, he was an unknown. The Maestro star has spoken about his time on the set multiple times over the years. For example, Cooper revealed he was terrified on set because he lied about his ability to drive a manual car.
In a recent appearance, Cooper explained that he had a good reason for lying. He once quipped that he assumed he would never land a role opposite Sarah Jessica Parker’s Carrie Bradshaw.
Who did Bradley Cooper play in ‘Sex and the City’
Bradley Cooper appeared in a single episode of Sex and the City‘s second season. In the episode “They Shoot Single People, Don’t They?” Carrie Bradshaw is despondent after she appears on a magazine cover looking downtrodden and haggard. Carrie argued that she agreed to appear on the magazine cover when she thought the cover story was “Single and Fabulous” with an exclamation point instead of “Single and Fabulous” with a question mark.
The “hostile punctuation” haunted her when she met Jake in a bar. Desperate to feel good about herself, Carrie accepts his advances, but she can’t outrun the magazine cover. Cooper portrayed Jake. His character never reappeared.
Bradley Cooper lied at his ‘Sex and the City’ audition because he didn’t think he’d ever land a role
According to People, Bradley Cooper appeared at the Santa Barbara Film Festival earlier this month. He discussed his brief stint on Sex and the City. During a Q&A, Cooper told the crowd that he lied about being able to drive a stick shift when he auditioned for the role. He joked that he lied because, at the time, he didn’t think people landed roles through auditions. Instead, he said, he operated as if he was a doorman who was simply lucky to audition for parts.
Things got serious for Cooper when he did land the role, a first for the actor. He came clean about being unable to drive a manual. While he was given a crash course in driving a stick shift, he still couldn’t get the job done. The production team worked around it. Instead of Cooper driving the car, a stand-in peeled away from the curb with Sarah Jessica Parker in the passenger seat.
The show was the jumping-off point for several other stars
Cooper has been outspoken about his brief stint on Sex and the City, but he’s far from the only star who got a taste of TV production on the iconic series. Before 2 Broke Girls, Kat Dennings played Jenny Briar, a teen Samantha Jones called the “Brat Mitzvah beast.” Dennings appeared in one episode.
John Slattery, Justin Theroux, and Bobby Cannavale all had parts in Sex and the City before they became household names, too.
Slattery appeared in a two-episode arc during the show’s third season. He portrayed politician Bill Kelley. Justin Theroux played two different roles in the show, both times as potential love interests for Carrie Bradshaw. Cannavale appeared as Adam Ball. Cannvale hooked up with Samantha Jones until she revealed he had “funky spunk.”
