Reporting

John Hinckley Jr Sends Message to Jodie Foster in Rare Interview

When John Hinckley Jr. shot then-President Ronald Reagan in 1981, it was to send a message to actress Jodie Foster. Now, fast forward 45 years, Hinkley send another more benign message to Foster. “I just wish Jodie…

Sandra RhodesAug 12, 20263 min read

Assassination Attempt Politics Ronald Reagan U.S. News

When John Hinckley Jr. shot then-President Ronald Reagan in 1981, it was to send a message to actress Jodie Foster.

Now, fast forward 45 years, Hinkley send another more benign message to Foster.

“I just wish Jodie Foster well, you know,” Hinckley told the “Mark Joseph Show” in Entertainment Weekly’s exclusive preview of an interview that premieres Wednesday. “I don’t really see her movies, but I wish her well, and I know she’s doing quite well. And that’s all I can say is just, I wish Jodie well, and I hope she has a good life.”

Hinckley shot Reagan after the president gave a speech for 5,000 members of the AFL-CIO on March 30, 1981, outside the Hilton Hotel in Washington, D.C. He committed the crime in an effort to garner Foster’s attention.

Reagan was struck under his arm by a bullet that bounced off his limousine.

Three other people — Press Secretary James Brady, police officer Thomas Delahanty, and Secret Service agent Timothy McCarthy, were also wounded.

Hinckley, who was 25 at the time, said he wanted to impress Foster, 18 years old and already a veteran actress, at the time.

The would-be assassin pointed to Foster’s 1976 movie “Taxi Driver” as one of particular interest.

She played a child prostitute opposite Robert De Niro’s Travis Bickle, who attempts to murder a politician.

Hinckley was found not guilty by reason of insanity in 1982. He spent more than 30 years in a psychiatric facility and was released in 2022.

Hinckley was interviewed by Mark Joseph, the producer of the movie “Reagan,” which originally came out in 2024. It starred Dennis Quaid as Reagan, as well as Penelope Ann Miller and Jon Voight. A director’s cut of the film will arrive in theaters Sept. 25.

Joseph asked Hinckley about what his favored outcome would have been 45 years 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 said. “But I was believing those things at the time, so the best outcome would have been a union with Jodie Foster.”

Joseph pointed out Mark David Chapman, who fatally shot John Lennon in 1980, had gone to jail. Surely he knew that time behind bars was a possibility.

But Hinkley was not deterred.

“I thought she would, you know, after things settled down, join me wherever I was,” Hinckley said. “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.”