Days after her first college play, Jodie Foster revealed she never wanted to perform in a play again following her stalker John Hinckley Jr.’s shooting of President Ronald Reagan.
Jodie Foster disclosed how the attempt on President Ronald Reagan’s life, more than 40 years after John Hinckley Jr.’s assassination, prevented her from ever performing in another play. COMMERCIAL At his trial, Hinckley Jr. said that he became fixated on Foster, 61, after witnessing her in the iconic 1976 film Taxi Driver, when she played a teenage prostitute.
Admitting that the attempt on his life was “the greatest love offering in the history of the world,” he also said it was done to impress Foster. The actress discussed how the assassination attempt ultimately ruined her career in theater in an interview with another well-known Jodie, Jodie Comer, for Interview Magazine. Foster said, “I’m finally able to admit that the one theater project I did in college involved so much trauma. To put it briefly, the play took place over two weekends, of which I performed the first, and between the first and the second weekend, John Hinckley shot the president.”
Jodie Foster described how the attempt on President Ronald Reagan’s life, more than 40 years after John Hinckley Jr.’s assassination, prevented her from ever performing in another play.
I can now finally acknowledge that the one theater project I completed in college involved a great deal of trauma. To put it briefly, the play took place over two weekends, of which I performed the first, and between the first and the second weekend, John Hinckley assassinated the president, Foster said.
‘It was a great occasion. It happened a long time ago. You probably don’t know, but he shot him to impress me, and he had sent letters to me, so it was a pivotal event in my life,” Foster added. ‘The world came apart, there were Secret Service agents everywhere, I had bodyguards, and I needed to be taken to a safe house,’ she explained. ‘I was in the middle of the two weekends of this performance, and I had the stupid idea that “the show must go on.” So I was like, “I have to do that second weekend,” she added. She stated that on the second weekend, there was a really frightening incident that eventually shocked her enough to swear more theater for life.
Yeah, I had just turned 18. There were people and cameras everywhere, and there was a guy in the front row, and I noted that it was his second night there, so I decided to say, “F**k you, motherf***er!” throughout the play. I just decided that I was going to use this guy,” she explained. ‘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 explained.
She went on to say, ‘It was a horrific time, and I’ve never recognized that it might have had something to do with why I never wanted to perform another play.’ Foster confessed she eventually ‘talked myself into loving theater and attending to theater, but somehow felt like I couldn’t make the commitment to ever do it again.’
