Kelly McGillis became a cinema icon in the 1980s thanks to the film Top Gun: Ases Indomáveis, released in 1986 and shown today (6) on Globo’s Saturday Session. In the following years, the actress disappeared from the spotlight, made controversial statements about her personal life and was banned from continuing the film in 2022.
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In the original feature film, Kelly McGillis played Charlie, a flight instructor who becomes involved in a sordid relationship with the main character Maverick (Tom Cruise). The couple’s theme, Take My Breath Away, was an era by the band Berlin. See the clip with scenes from the film at the end of this text.
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In the sequel, Top Gun: Maverick, which hit theaters 36 years later, Tom Cruise gained another romantic partner, a role that fell to Jennifer Connelly. She played Penny, a character only mentioned in Good Will Hunting who rose to prominence in the second film.
At the time, Kelly McGillis revealed that she was not invited to be part of the new story, unlike other actors in the original 1988. The reason, according to the actress, was that her appearance was far from the Hollywood standards of “eternal youth”. . She was 64 years old and is now 66 years old.
“They didn’t contact me, and I didn’t think they would. I’m old, I’m fat, and I’m fit for my age. That’s not the kind of thing they value. Honestly, I’d rather be safe and comfortable in my body, who I am and who I am at my age, than value those other things.”
Kelly McGillis in an interview with Entertainment Tonight in 2019
The sequel’s director, Joseph Kosinski, told Insider that there was no room to bring back the actor and certain other faces from the previous film: “I didn’t want all the stories to be constantly looking back .It was important to introduce some new characters”.
What happened to Kelly McGillis after Top Gun?
After the great success she had in Top Gun: Good Will Hunting, Kelly McGillis pursued a career in acting, but then left to move away from the cinema in recent years. In interviews, she said she suffered from drug addiction, homophobia and also revealed that she was a rape victim.
In Acusados(1988), she was invited to play the victim of a gang rape. She turned down the role, which went to Jodie Foster, who won an Oscar for her performance. McGillis, who ended up playing the girl’s lawyer, justified his choice at the time.
In 1982, she and a woman she lived with were surprised by two men who broke into the house and sexually assaulted them. McGillis also revealed that she was a victim of other forms of abuse, including during her career as an actress in Hollywood.
The star’s sexuality was also widely scrutinized by the media, and the pressure caused her to turn to alcohol and drugs. Names like Jodie Foster and Whitney Houston (1963-2012) were highlighted as celebrity affairs. In 2009, she came out as homosexual.
Away from the media, Kelly McGillis did community work with drug addicts and prisoners. Her last work as an actress was in the series Dirty John, in 2020. She lives in a cabin high on a mountain in North Carolina.
