Did Jodie Foster and Ronald Reagan communicate after his assassination attempt? Any letters, known phone calls, etc?

by statistical
ordinary_kittens

It doesn't appear to be the case. Jodie Foster was always protective of her privacy, and she was famously reluctant to talk about the assassination attempt. She became a successful actress at a young age, and she stated this influenced her to be much more private than her peers, because she had never had the luxury of privacy.

Also, Foster was drawn into the Reagan assassination for reasons that had nothing to do with her - it was her stalker, Hinckley, who had a delusional belief that assassinating a president would make Foster notice him and fall in love with him. Foster was in Europe at the time of the trial, but she had to give a videotaped deposition about her stalker's previous attempts to contact her. That testimony was not made available to the media, but unfortunately for Foster, other details, such as the threatening phone messages Hinckley left her, were released publicly, despite Foster's wishes. So the assassination attempt forced additional attention on Foster, a student who already was struggling with never knowing what it was like to not be famous.

One could assume that she might want to talk to the president for any other reason - certainly it's possible condolences were offered, or offered to James Brady's family (the bodyguard press secretary who was left disabled in the attack, dying 31 years later from his injuries) - but given her steadfast resolve over the years not to talk about what happened, and her desire to focus on her work without the pressure of being famous, talking to Reagan about the assassination attempt doesn't appear to be something she desired. As Foster's publicist said when Foster cancelled an interview where they refused to omit mention of Hinckley, "I don't have any comment on it and my guess is that she wouldn't."

As for Reagan, remember that Foster was a teenage girl at the time of the assassination attempt. Hinckley developed his delusional fantasies after watching her play a child prostitute in Taxi Driver. And Hinckley was not Foster's only stalker - her famous movie, and then famous association with the assassination attempt, drew additional stalkers. So, it's doubtful Reagan would try to approach her privately to discuss what happened given her young age, as well as her public statements about wanting to be left alone and not wanting to talk about Hinckley.

Sources:

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/jodie-foster-reluctant-star-07-12-1999/

http://www.nytimes.com/1982/05/01/us/tv-barred-from-tapes-of-jodie-foster-testimony.html

https://www.google.ca/amp/www.telegraph.co.uk/films/2016/05/27/jodie-foster-interview-i-developed-a-system-to-stay-alive/amp/

http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/news/jodie-foster-makes-it-work-19910321

http://www.nytimes.com/1991/10/05/style/chronicle-512691.html

https://www.google.ca/amp/s/www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/local/crime/james-bradys-death-ruled-homicide-by-dc-medical-examiner/2014/08/08/686de224-1f41-11e4-82f9-2cd6fa8da5c4_story.html