Jesse Tyler Ferguson is remembering the time his pal Brooke Shields convinced him into making a surprise visit to her neighbor Bradley Cooper in the middle of the night.
During a recent episode of Ferguson’s Dinner’s On Me podcast, the Modern Family star revealed that he was hanging out with Shields at her New York City home one evening when she suddenly became curious about what Cooper was doing next door.
While Ferguson admitted that he wasn’t close with Cooper at the time of the late night visit, he explained to guest Patricia Clarkson that Shields and Cooper are “very close” both figuratively and literally – their homes actually share a wall.
Michael Tran/FilmMagic; Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic
Jesse Tyler Ferguson at the ‘Muppets Most Wanted’ premiere; Brooke Shields at the 2025 SAG Awards
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As a result, “[Cooper] would come over and they would have coffee in their kitchen every morning,” Ferguson said. “Anyway, she’s showing me her house and I’m in her kitchen and it’s like midnight. And Brooke is like, ‘I wonder if Bradley’s awake.’”
So, naturally, the actress chose to see for herself. “She decides to peek her head around the corner of her backyard,” Ferguson said. “And again, I do not know Bradley very well at this point. She goes, ‘oh yeah, he’s up. He’s watching TV.’ It’s midnight. She’s like, ‘Let’s go knock on his window.’”
Ferguson, however, was a little more apprehensive about just showing up on the Oscar-nominated actor’s doorstep at such a late hour. “I’m like, ‘I don’t know if this is a great idea,’” he recalled. “Like, ‘I know you’re super close with him, but like I don’t know if he’s gonna be thrilled to see me at his back window.’”
Shields got her way in the end — and, despite the entire idea sounding like the beginning of a horror film, everything turned out better than expected.
“Anyway, it happened. I somehow got convinced to go knock on Bradley Cooper’s back door at midnight and his dog starts going crazy,” Ferguson said. To which Clarkson cheekily replied, “And that’s not a metaphor!”
“No, no, exactly, it’s not a metaphor. It’s not a euphemism! I knocked on Bradley Cooper’s door at midnight,” Ferguson said. “Anyway, he couldn’t have been kinder. He seemed happy to see us. I was like, ‘I’m so sorry.’ He was like watching late night TV. I don’t know, he’s watching like a Saturday Night Live or something. Anyway, lovely human being.”
Shields and Cooper’s friendship goes far beyond casual neighbors. In November 2023, the model and actress told Glamour that Cooper was at her side and holding her hand when she woke up in an ambulance after suffering a grand mal seizure at a New York City restaurant.
“I didn’t have a sense of humor. I couldn’t really get any words out. But I thought to myself, This is what death must be like,’” she told the magazine. “You wake up and Bradley Cooper’s going, ‘I’m going to go to the hospital with you, Brooke,’ and he’s holding my hand. And I’m looking at my hand, I’m looking at Bradley Cooper’s hand in my hand, and I’m like, ‘This is odd and surreal.’”
She explained that Cooper came to her aid after a sommelier at the restaurant tried to reach out to her husband Chris Henchy, but instead got an assistant. That assistant then reached out to Cooper’s assistant, who notified the Maestro director of Shields’ collapse.
“His assistant called Bradley and said, ‘Brooke’s on the ground. Chris isn’t around. Go get her,'” she said. “And he came, and somebody called the ambulance. And then it was like, I walked in with Jesus.”
Listen to Ferguson recall his late night visit to Cooper’s home in the podcast above.
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