With two Oscars under her belt, Jodie Foster seems to be capable of tackling any type of role. However, there’s one aspect of her acting career that she’s avoided because it triggers a period in her life that was rather traumatizing.
The 61-year-old actress has stayed away from theater roles because it’s too closely associated with her stalker, John Hinckley Jr. The first and last time she was on the stage occurred when Hinckley tried to assassinate then-President Ronald Reagan. “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,” she told Jodie Comer for Interview Magazine.
Foster went on to explain to Comer, who is 30 years younger, the circumstances surrounding the shocking event on March 30, 1981. “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,” she shared while noting that her life changed in an instant with bodyguards following her every move. Hinckley considered his assassination attempt to be “the greatest love offering in the history of the world” — which tells you how sick he was.
The Silence of the Lambs star didn’t stay out of public view, though. She decided that “the show must go on” because she had one more weekend left of her play. She didn’t give herself the space to process her trauma, and things didn’t go so smoothly on her closing weekend either. She had a second stalker who showed up on both nights of her play, and it creeped her out. “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,” she revealed.
It makes complete sense as to why Foster has avoided doing a Broadway show at this stage of her career. “I’ve never admitted that maybe that has something to do with how I never wanted to do a play again,” she concluded. That’s the type of event no one ever wants to relive.
Before you go, click here to see all the most terrifying celebrity stalker stories through the years.
