For the love of Jodie Foster: star demystification and national configuration
2008; Routledge; Volume: 18; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/10350330802002291
ISSN1470-1219
Autores Tópico(s)Music History and Culture
ResumoAbstract This essay examines Jodie Foster's public response to John W. Hinckley Jr's attempt to assassinate President Ronald Reagan as a moment when the discourses of stardom and nationalism collided with noteworthy friction. It argues that when Foster responded to Hinckley's attempted hit by signifying and referring to her own star production, she challenged the veneer of heterosexuality that had been cast around her and exposed the hitherto unseen connections between heteronormative love and the president, the ultimate embodiment of the nation-father. This, in turn, it shall also be argued, destabilized the national sexual imaginary that Reagan and Hinckley had established between the American public and the Hollywood film industry. Keywords: Jodie FosterJohn HinckleyRonald Reagannationalismstardom Acknowledgements Many thanks to Sean Redmond for being a great editor: he was enthusiastic about this essay from the onset. Thanks also to two anonymous readers and Michael Dillon for their astute feedback and for helping me think through some critical points. Lastly, I want to thank Aparajita Sagar and Siobhan Somerville who read and commented on much earlier versions of this essay: it is many of their insights that appear here. I would also like to extend my gratitude to Dilcia Johnson for assistance with the images. Notes 1. Hinckley's letter to Foster is published in a number of places. Immediately following the assassination attempt, The New York Times printed a copy of it in its entirety on 2 April 1981. 2. The phrase “hapless bystander” is actually taken from the 60 Minutes II interview that aired in December 1999. Foster used the phrase in an interview with Charlie Rose when he asked her to tell him what she could about the attempted assassination. See “Reluctant star” (1999) for specific citation information. 3. The term “American nightmare” is taken from the “contents” page of the 13 April 1981 issue of Newsweek. My quotation from Time Magazine is from the title of an article that appears on page 24 of the 13 April 1981 issue; the image to which I am referring appears on page 38 of the same issue. 4. This anecdote was reported in the 13 April 1981 issue of Newsweek. See Matthews (1981 Matthews, T. 1981. Reagan's close call. Newsweek Magazine, 13 April: 31–8. [Google Scholar]). 5. For more specifics on this point, see Jeffords’ (1994 Jeffords, S. 1994. Hard bodies: Hollywood masculinity in the Reagan era, New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. [Google Scholar]) Hard Bodies: Hollywood Masculinity in the Reagan Era. 6. See Michael Rogin's (1987 Rogin, M. 1987. Ronald Reagan, the movie: And other episodes in political demonology, Berkeley: University of California Press. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]) Ronald Reagan, The Movie and Susan Jeffords’ (1994 Jeffords, S. 1994. Hard bodies: Hollywood masculinity in the Reagan era, New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. [Google Scholar]) Hard Bodies: Hollywood Masculinity in the Reagan Era for more about Reagan's referencing of films and the way in which he used them to invoke presidential politics. 7. For more on this point, see Susan Jeffords’ (1994 Jeffords, S. 1994. Hard bodies: Hollywood masculinity in the Reagan era, New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. [Google Scholar]) Hard Bodies: Hollywood Masculinity in the Reagan Era. My thanks to an anonymous reader and Michael Dillon for helping clarify this point. 8. For more on the details of Hinckley's trial, see Lincoln Caplan's (1984 Caplan, L. 1984. The insanity defense and the trial of John W. Hinckley, Boston: David R. Godine. [Google Scholar]) The Insanity Defense and the Trial of John W. Hinckley, Jr. 9. See this citation for more on what makes Foster so attractive to Hinckley. 10. This quote is taken from a letter Hinckley sent to Evan Thomas, a Time Washington correspondent. The letter was a follow-up to an interview where Hinckley responded to 20 questions posed by the magazine. See Evan Thomas (1981 Thomas , E. 1981 . Is he crazy about her? Time Magazine , 12 October, 30 . [Google Scholar]). 11. This point was made in reference to Foster's career, which has kept her in front of the camera for much of her life. For example, by the time she was 30 years of age she had been in a movie for every year of her life. 12. I have written elsewhere about this point in regards to the media's interpretation of Foster's preference for Armani fashion. See “Trademark Armani: Jodie Foster as Fashion Icon”, forthcoming in Film and Television Stardom, Cambridge Scholars Publishing. 13. In Caplan's account of Foster's testimony at Hinckley's trial, he describes her as “plain and unexciting. Her girlish alto lacked verve and her long blond hair kept drifting across her face”. This is yet another instance where Foster is described as appearing non-feminine. See Caplan (1984 Caplan, L. 1984. The insanity defense and the trial of John W. Hinckley, Boston: David R. Godine. [Google Scholar], 42). 14. See Wald (1981 Wald , M. 1981 . Teen-age actress says notes sent by suspect did not hint violence . The New York Times , 31 March, A24 . [Google Scholar]) and Taubman (1981 Taubman , P. 1981 . Letters hint suspect acted out fantasy . The New York Times , 31 March, A19 . [Google Scholar]) for more on Foster's immediate response to Hinckley attempt to assassinate President Reagan. 15. In even asking this question, Foster shatters the notion of individuality, reminding readers that the star system is an industry that produces many stars. The question of why Foster and not Shields ultimately attempts to understand why one celebrity and not another. But Foster is not largely incomparable with other stars and it is important to note that to a certain extent she cannot be considered a unique star. She is, in fact, symptomatic of a system that produces all stars. For more on the star system, see Richard DeCordova's (1990 DeCordova, R. 1990. Picture personalities: The emergence of the star system in America, Urbana: University of Illinois Press. [Google Scholar]) introduction to Picture Personalities: The Emergence of the Star System in America. 16. For more on star confessions, see Redmond's (2006a Redmond, S. 2006a. “Intimate fame everywhere”. In Framing celebrity: New directions in celebrity culture, Edited by: Holmes, S. and Redmond, S. 27–43. New York: Routledge. [Google Scholar]) essay “Intimate Fame Everywhere” and Jo Littler's (2004) “Making Fame Ordinary: Intimacy, Reflexivity, and ‘Keeping it Real’”. 17. For more on the poignancy of this phrase and the different variations it took, and an excellent analysis of Hayworth's star image, see McLean's (2004 McLean, A. 2004. Being Rita Hayworth: Labor, identity, and Hollywood stardom, New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. [Google Scholar]) Being Rita Hayworth: Labor, Identity, and Hollywood Stardom. 18. For a different analysis of the breakdown of celebrity mystique, see Chris Rojek's (2001) Celebrity; specifically, his explication of auto-degradation and exo-degradation. 19. My thanks to the anonymous reader whose comments helped me think through this point. 20. Consider, for instance, that Foster almost did not get the lead in The Accused because the director was afraid the “Hinckley stuff” was still with her and would take away from the film. 21. Hinckley's entire speech can be found here as well.
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