Jodie Foster is one of the most beloved actresses of her generation, a two-time Oscar winner who got her start as a pre-teen and has continued giving strong performances for more than 50 years. But unlike so many actresses, Foster has shied away from the stage…and you can blame John Hinckley, Jr. for that.

But first, some context. Remember, Hinckley is the would-be assassin of then-President Ronald Reagan, firing six shots at Reagan in a limp-dicked attempt to woo Jodie Foster in 1981. Obviously the event – and the aftermath – scarred Foster, who has rarely commented on the incident. “He shot him in order to impress me, and he had written letters to me, so it was a big moment in my life. The world fell apart, there were Secret Service people everywhere, I had bodyguards, and I had to be taken to a safe house.”

During that time, Foster was giving stage work a shot at college, taking a role in a small production around that time. With the Hinckley story still fresh, she knew the show had to go on, only later finding out that one audience member was also a potential threat. “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*ck you, motherf*cker!’ 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 onto the ground while I was in the class.”

With that, Jodie Foster has avoided stage work altogether, instead sticking to screens both big and small, recently starring in the fourth season of True Detective. John Hinckley, Jr., meanwhile, has been fully free from any court restrictions since 2022 after having been institutionalized. Now, he creates music that he shares on his YouTube page.

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