More than 40 years after he shot President Ronald Reagan in a delusional attempt to impress Jodie Foster, John Hinckley Jr. has some unexpected words for the actress. Hinckley appears on the Mark Joseph Show podcast on Aug. 12 when the subject turns to Foster.
“I just wish Jodie Foster well, you know,” Hinckley said in an exclusive video obtained by Entertainment Weekly. “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: I wish Jodie well, and I hope she has a good life.”
The 1981 Assassination Attempt
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On March 30, 1981, Hinckley shot Reagan and three others outside the Hilton Hotel in Washington, D.C. The 25-year-old admitted that he did it to try to win Foster’s love, who was then 18. A big part of Hinckley’s insanity defense at trial concerned Taxi Driver, Martin Scorsese‘s critically acclaimed film starring a then-12-year-old Foster as a prostitute. A major plotline features Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro), who becomes obsessed with Betsy (Cybill Shepherd). After she rejects him, he becomes psychologically unhinged and makes plans to assassinate a politician who is running for President.
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Hinckley first became obsessed with Taxi Driver. He watched the film at least 15 times, read the book it was based on multiple times, and would listen to the soundtrack for hours. He began to identify strongly with Travis, dressing like him and taking on his likes and dislikes. Foster even admitted in her deposition that one of the letters she received from Hinckley was just like a letter her character, Iris, received from Travis in the film.
Expectations of Love
In his final letter to her, Hinckley suggested that his “historical deed” would finally earn Foster’s “respect and love” and she would want to be with him. He reiterated this to Joseph.
“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.”
While Foster rarely speaks about the incident, she’s been honest about how much it affected her life, even writing an essay in Esquire the following year titled, “Why Me?” She also admitted to People in 2024 that the traumatic events during that period are why she won’t perform in live theater.
The feverish obsession that once linked a real-life assassination attempt to a Hollywood film has completely dissolved. Decades later, the grand narrative Hinckley constructed around Taxi Driver ends without drama or closure, just an aging man offering polite, distant pleasantries to an actress who remains forever linked to a history she never asked to be part of.