Jodie Foster at the Hammer Museum’s Gala in the Garden held at The Hammer Museum on May 4 in Los Angeles, California. Photo / Gilbert Flores/Variety via Getty Images

Jodie Foster has revealed the sad reason she hasn’t appeared on stage in over 40 years.

While the actress is known for her on-screen performances, such as The Silence of the Lambs and The Accused, she briefly appeared on stage while attending Yale University. However, one particularly “traumatic” moment that occurred more than 40 years ago has meant she hasn’t been on stage since.

The True Detective: Night Country star recently opened up about the moment she was horrified to learn John Hinckley Jr had attempted to assassinate then-President Ronald Reagan in a bid to impress her.

Actress Jodie Foster is shown among other incoming Yale students during a welcoming address by Yale President Bartlett Giametti. According to sources, she had received three notes at her apartment from accused presidential attacker John W. Hinckley Jr during the school year. April 1, 1981. Photo / Getty Images

While the shooter was eventually acquitted on mental health grounds and committed to a hospital, the truth caused Foster’s world to “fall apart”.

Speaking to Jodie Comer for Interview magazine, she said: “I’m finally able to admit that the one bit of theatre 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 … 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.

John Hinckley Jr mugshot in on March 30, 1981 and a letter he sent actress Jodi Foster. Photo / Getty Images
“The world fell apart, there were Secret Service people everywhere, I had bodyguards, and I had to be taken to a safe house, and 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’. I’d just turned 18.”

Jodie opted to vent her frustrations by “using” one member of the audience – but discovered afterwards he had brought a gun to the show.

She continued: “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*** you, motherf*****!’

“I just decided that I was going to use this guy.

“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 on to the ground while I was in the class, which was really embarrassing, because there were only 10 people there.

Despite the traumatic event, Jodie Foster has had a huge career in front of the camera. Photo / AP

“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.

“It was all part of that. I talked myself into loving theatre and going to theatre, but somehow feeling like I couldn’t make that commitment to ever do it again.”

But the 61-year-old star won’t rule out getting on stage again one day.

She quipped: “I’ll be the first 80-year-old person to go on stage with my walker, perhaps.”