John Hinckley Jr., who shot President Ronald Reagan in 1981 in an attempt to impress Jodie Foster, has a new message for the actress nearly 45 years later.
“I just wish Jodie Foster well, you know. I don’t really see her movies, but I wish her well, and I know she’s doing quite well,” Hinckley, 71, shared in Entertainment Weekly’s sneak peek of the Wednesday, August 12, episode of the “Mark Joseph Show” podcast. “And that’s all I can say is just, I wish Jodie well, and I hope she has a good life.”
Hinckley made headlines when he shot Reagan outside the Hilton Hotel in Washington, D.C., in March 1981.
Reagan was hit by a bullet that bounced off his limousine and struck him under his arm. He was able to survive his injuries, later dying in 2004 at the age of 93.
Hinckley, who was 25 at the time of the shooting, said he carried out the assassination attempt to impress Foster after she grabbed his attention in Taxi Driver.
He was found not guilty by reason of insanity in 1982 and spent more than 30 years in a psychiatric facility. He was released in 2022.
During his rare interview, Hinckley was asked by podcast host Mark Joseph what his favored outcome would have been more than four decades ago.
“I wanted to have a union with Jodie Foster and live the rest of my life with her and all these things that, of course, were delusional,” Hinckley responded. “But I was believing those things at the time, so the best outcome would have been a union with Jodie Foster.”
He continued, “I thought she would, you know, after things settled down, join me wherever I was. I wasn’t sure if I was gonna be in jail or the hospital or what after things settled down. I had this notion that she was gonna join me wherever I was.”
Foster has rarely commented on the incident. In a June 2024 conversation for Interview magazine, however, the Oscar winner said Hinckley’s actions may prevent her from doing live theater again.
“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,” she said. “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. … He shot him in order to impress me, and he had written letters to me, so it was a big moment in my life.”
Foster continued, “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.”
