“Traumatic” gun incident led to her exit from live theater

Jodie Foster61, recently recounted a horrific experience she had during her college years shortly after John Hinckley, Jr.Assassination attempt on the then president Ronald Reagan.

As many may remember, March 30, 1981 was the day that Hinckley, then 25, shot Reagan in Washington, DC, allegedly to impress Jodie Foster, who was an 18-year-old actress at the time. Hinckley was later acquitted on the grounds of mental illness and committed to a hospital.

After the attack, Jodie Foster said she had a “traumatic” experience at a play at her college when a man brought a gun into the theater.

In conversation with actress Jodie Comer for interviewIn the magazine, Jodie Foster spoke about the incident that scarred her for life.

“I can finally admit that the one play I did when I was in college was so traumatic,” Foster, who attended Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, told the newspaper. “Well, the short of it is that the play was on two weekends, and I was in it the first weekend, and between the first and second weekend, John Hinckley shot the president.”

The actress explained that although it was “a long time ago,” it was “a big moment in her life.” “You probably don’t even know it, but he shot him to impress me and he wrote me letters, so it was a big moment in my life,” she added.

As one might expect, the incident was extremely traumatic for Jodie Foster and changed her life forever.

“The world was falling apart, there were secret service people everywhere, I had bodyguards and I had to be taken to a safe house,” she told the magazine. “And I was in the middle of those two weekends of this play and I had this stupid idea, ‘the show must go on.’ So I thought, ‘I have to do the second weekend.'”

During one of Foster’s performances, she noticed a “guy in the front row” who had also been there the night before. “I decided to spend the whole play screaming, ‘Fuck you, motherfucker!’ I just decided to use that guy.”

“And then the next day it was revealed that this particular guy had a gun, brought it to the show and then went on the run,” she said.

This moment left such a strong impression on the now 61-year-old that she may never perform live in the theater again.

As expected, the “Maverick” actress was in danger as the suspect was still on the run. One day, when she was in class, a “bodyguard came and threw me to the ground in class, which was really embarrassing because there were only 10 people there.”

“It was a traumatic moment and I never admitted that maybe that had something to do with me never wanting to be in a play again,” Foster added. “That was all part of it. I told myself that I loved the theater and I loved going to the theater, but somehow I felt like I couldn’t commit to ever doing it again.”

On Friday, April 19, Jodie Foster left her mark during the 15th annual event at the TCL Chinese Theater on Hollywood Boulevard.

“The truth is that Jodie Foster deserves a hand and footprint ceremony for her work in 1976 alone – films she made when she was 13 years old – ‘Taxi Driver,’ ‘Bugsy Malone,’ ‘Freaky Friday’ and ‘The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane.’ You could already see her versatility,” TCM host Ben Mankiewicz said in a statement. The Hollywood Reporter.

“Almost 50 years later, we have an answer to the question, ‘What is a Jodie Foster character?’ The answer is: There is nothing she can’t play,” he added. “If you want proof of that, just look at the two films she won Oscars for – a stern but tenacious FBI agent in ‘The Silence of the Lambs’ and a confident free spirit who summons the strength to seek justice in ‘The Accused.'”

“To make it even more impressive, she is also an accomplished filmmaker and has directed for television and film, including a film I watch every Thanksgiving: 1995’s ‘Home for the Holidays.'”

The Oscar winner said the ceremony was an unexpected surprise.

“I had no idea,” she said PEOPLE Magazine. “I thought it was just for me because it meant something to me as a kid, but I didn’t realize it was such a big deal, and all my friends were like, ‘Wait, what? What’s going on?’ So it’s kind of awesome.”

The 11th Hand and Footprint Ceremony was held in her honor during this event.