More than four decades after John Hinckley Jr. tried to assassinate President Ronald Reagan, Jodie Foster revealed how that event resulted in her never doing another play ever again.
Hinckley Jr. admitted at his trial that he was obsessed with Foster, 61, after seeing her playing a teenage prostitute in the 1976 classic Taxi Driver.
He also admitted that the assassination attempt was carried out in hopes of impressing Foster, stating it was, ‘the greatest love offering in the history of the world.’
The actress opened up in an interview with another famous Jodie – Jodie Comer – for Interview Magazine – where she talked about how the assassination attempt ultimately ended her career in theater.
‘I’m finally able to admit that the one bit of theater I did when I was in college, there was so much trauma involved in it—well, just quickly, the play happened in two weekends, and I did the first weekend, and in between the first weekend and the second weekend, John Hinckley shot the president,’ Foster began.
Hinckley Jr. admitted at his trial that he was obsessed with Foster, 61, after seeing her playing a teenage prostitute in the 1976 classic Taxi Driver
‘I’m finally able to admit that the one bit of theater I did when I was in college, there was so much trauma involved in it—well, just quickly, the play happened in two weekends, and I did the first weekend, and in between the first weekend and the second weekend, John Hinckley shot the president,’ Foster began
‘It was a huge moment. It was a long time ago. You probably don’t even know, but he shot him in order to impress me, and he had written letters to me, so it was a big moment in my life,’ Foster added.
‘I was in the middle of these two weekends of this play, and I had the dumb idea of “the show must go on.” So I was like, “I have to do that second weekend,”‘ she said.
She added that during that second weekend, there was a rather scary incident that ultimately traumatized her enough to swear off theater for life.
‘Yeah, I’d just turned 18. There were people everywhere, cameras everywhere, and there was a guy in the front row, and I had noticed that it was the second night that he’d been there, and I decided to, the whole play, yell, “F**k you, motherf***er!” I just decided that I was going to use this guy,’ she said.
‘And then the next day, it was revealed that this particular guy had a gun, and he had brought it to the performance, and then he was on the run, and I was in a class, and the bodyguard guy came and threw me onto the ground while I was in the class, which was really embarrassing, because there were only 10 people there,’ Foster said.
She added, ‘It was a traumatic moment, and I’ve never admitted that maybe that has something to do with how I never wanted to do a play again.’
Foster admitted she ultimately, ‘talked myself into loving theater and going to theater, but somehow feeling like I couldn’t make that commitment to ever do it again.’
‘It was a huge moment. It was a long time ago. You probably don’t even know, but he shot him in order to impress me, and he had written letters to me, so it was a big moment in my life,’ Foster added
‘The world fell apart, there were Secret Service people everywhere, I had bodyguards, and I had to be taken to a safe house,’ she detailed
‘Yeah, I’d just turned 18. There were people everywhere, cameras everywhere, and there was a guy in the front row, and I had noticed that it was the second night that he’d been there, and I decided to, the whole play, yell, “F**k you, motherf***er!” I just decided that I was going to use this guy,’ she said
He was given an unconditional release in June 2022 and expressed remorse for his actions in a CBS interview where he apologized to the Reagan family, the family of John Brady (who was paralyzed in the shooting) and Foster herself
Comer – who has starred in plays on both London’s West End and on Broadway – asked if she could ‘sway’ Foster to going up on stage.
Foster joked, ‘I’ll be the first 80-year-old person to go onstage with my walker, perhaps.’
Hinckley was found not guilty by reason of insanity in 1982, which changed the way the insanity defense was used, leading to the Insanity Defense Reform Act of 1984.
Hinckley was confined at St. Elizabeths Hospital in Washington D.C. after the trial, where he remained until 2016, where he was released with many stipulations.
He was given an unconditional release in June 2022 and expressed remorse for his actions in a CBS interview where he apologized to the Reagan family, the family of John Brady (who was paralyzed in the shooting) and Foster herself.
