'Sex and the City' Stars Reveal the White Lie Bradley Cooper Told to Book Role Opposite Sarah Jessica Parker

For his first-ever on-screen role on a 1999 episode of Sex and the City, Bradley Cooper reportedly told a little white lie to book his debut gig. 

While reminiscing about the show’s guest stars on Max’s And Just Like That...The Writers Room podcast, Sex and the City director and writer Michael Patrick King revealed how Cooper, 48, landed the part.

“Bradley Cooper — first job — said he could drive a stick to get the job because the character drove a Karmann Ghia,” King, 68, said, referring to the Volkswagen. “4:00 in the morning, another Friday outside 14th Street and I said, ‘Bradley, this is where you drive, you take off.’ And he goes, ‘I can’t drive a stick.’ "

So King flipped the script. “And so we fixed, changed, pivoted,” he said. “Sarah Jessica’s character Carrie crawls out of the Karmann Ghia and walks herself home.”

The actor played Jake, opposite Sarah Jessica Parker’s character Carrie Bradshaw in a season 2 episode titled "They Shoot Single People, Don't They?” in which his character meets Bradshaw after her unflattering magazine shoot.

During the podcast, Parker shared what she found to be “the hardest” part about welcoming guest stars on SATC.

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

“There’s so many people that have come onto our show — some for five hours, some for five days, some for two days,” the two-time Emmy Award winner said. “There is to me nothing harder than stepping onto a moving train where everybody knows literally all the ball bearings of the machinery ... and they’re joking and talking and reading before and talking and laughing, someone calls action we’re like … it’s the level of comfort."

Sex and the City, the HBO series that followed four fabulous friends navigating dating in one iconic city for six seasons, will celebrate its 25th anniversary this month.

The show’s sequel series, And Just Like That..., will premiere its second season Thursday on Max.