Forced into the closet? Working at a rehab center? And replaced in one of the biggest
movies in years? Kelly McGillis is done with Hollywood — here's why.
Kelly McGillis was married to Fred Tillman, with whom she has two daughters. But the
marriage began to disintegrate due to McGillis' drug and alcohol misuse,
as well as her struggles with coming out. McGillis explained to Philadelphia Gay News:
"I met Fred, and I thought, Fred will protect me. Nobody will ever hurt me again. And that
only worked for so long because the fact is that I wasn't being true to who I was and what I am."
Due to his ex's personal issues, Tillman was awarded custody of the children and McGillis went
to rehab. Too unwell to act on screen, she took a long hiatus from the industry. During this period,
McGillis began working in the hospitality industry, having bought a restaurant in Florida.
After recovering from addiction, she devoted her life to her kids, realizing that they were more
important to her than preserving her acting career. McGillis told Entertainment Tonight:
"It didn't become a priority; what became the priority initially was raising my girls [...]"
For many years, Kelly McGillis was made to feel ashamed of her sexual orientation. As such,
she did everything she could to hide this aspect of her identity from the public.
But once she was in her 40s, McGillis decided to live her truth and proudly embrace her identity.
In 2009, she publicly came out as a lesbian. According to a story in People,
when a reporter asked her if she was interested in dating men or women, she simply replied,
"Definitely a woman."
In a 2009 interview with Access, she said that the pressure to stay in the closet as an
actor became too much to bear. For instance, she was constantly warned not to come out,
supposedly because doing so would hinder her future career prospects. But McGillis has no
regrets. As she revealed to the Advocate, she felt conflicted about being hailed as
a role model following her coming out. The actress told the outlet:
"I would like to be seen as a human being doing the best I can with what I've been given [...]"
Following her critically acclaimed role as a District Attorney in 1988's The Accused,
McGillis made a series of TV movies in contrast to her previously high-grossing fare. In 2000,
she appeared in the low-budget Australian film The Monkey's Mask, playing the love interest of
another woman. By that point, McGillis hadn't come out yet, but at the time she told The Guardian
that she didn't care if the film and its steamy sex scenes led to speculation about her sexuality.
She also appeared in Season 5 of The L Word in 2008, playing a closeted army colonel
in the U.S. military. The plot was timely since the "Don't ask, don't tell" policy,
which forbade military personnel from coming out as LGBT, wouldn't be repealed until three
years later. As noted by Huffpost, the role thrust McGillis back into the public eye.
She also returned to her first love, the theater. In 2010, she embarked on a U.K. tour of Terrence
McNally's play Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune. As she explained to The Oklahoman,
"That's my background [...] I find that the challenges and the skill level that
it takes to do a Shakespeare play or to do O'Neill is incredibly different,
and the discipline is different than acting in a movie, or for television."
"I, I love to work, and I think that's the primary force that drives me."
There are many actors who decided to leave Hollywood behind. For Kelly McGillis,
the trappings of stardom just weren't for her. Speaking with Philadelphia Gay News,
she said that she was compelled to leave due to her unwillingness to meet the restrictive
demands of Hollywood. In the past, McGillis altered her appearance to appease the industry's
beauty standards, but was unwilling to do that again. The actress told Philadelphia Gay News:
"I don't know if anybody will really hire me, because the bottom line is I'm no longer willing
to sacrifice who I am for what I do. I did that for a long, long time. I had a boob job because
I thought that's what I should do [...] I thought, 'This is such a friggin' lie.'"
Despite appearing in Top Gun, where she schmoozed with A-listers Tom Cruise and
Val Kilmer, McGillis hasn't maintained any high profile Hollywood friendships. She was,
however, devastated by the death of the film's director, Tony Scott, as she revealed to Yahoo!.
In the end, however, her movement away from appearing in conventional
show business roles is easy to understand. As she explained to Entertainment Tonight,
"It was just that other things became more important."
She also told the Advocate that there were few substantial roles available to
women in their 50s, which buttressed her decision to abandon Tinseltown.
Nevertheless, the actor is not lacking in gratitude for the opportunities her
fame afforded her in her heyday, as she told The Guardian in 2001.
In 2016, Kelly McGillis was the victim of a horrific home invasion. As the actress
revealed in a lengthy Facebook post, she returned home to find that a woman had broken into her
house with a young child in tow. The woman, McGillis explained, began yelling at her,
erroneously claiming that she had been stalking her on Twitter. For her part, McGillis was angry
that her neighbors didn't come to her rescue despite her cries for help, telling WLOS,
"I feel you have an obligation when I hear 'Help! Help! Help!' to either help them
first or call 911 if it is a dangerous situation. But to flat out ignore it..."
"It's horrible."
According to Fox News, the incident led to McGillis carrying a concealed weapon.
The woman who broke in, Laurence Marie Dorn, was charged with burglary, stalking,
assault, and battery. She was sentenced to 18 months probation after being found guilty.
McGillis expressed sympathy for the woman's daughter, who was present during the crime,
lamenting that she was a victim of circumstance. According to Philadelphia Gay News,
this sadly wasn't the first time McGillis was attacked in her home. Years earlier,
she and her girlfriend were sexually assaulted by an intruder, leading to the dissolution of the
couple's relationship. The trauma has remained with McGillis, who conceded to the outlet,
"I never got over that."
Following the attack, McGillis has been active in working for rape advocacy groups.
Top Gun: Maverick was one of the most anticipated — not to mention
highest-grossing — films of 2022. But Kelly McGillis' absence from the film is palpable.
While Tom Cruise was intent on bringing back Val Kilmer's Iceman for the long awaited
follow-up to the '80s flick, that same enthusiasm wasn't reserved for McGillis.
Back in 2014, she told the Independent that she was keen to appear in the sequel,
even if in a brief cameo appearance. Speaking with Entertainment Tonight five years later, however,
she said that she wasn't asked back for the sequel. Director Joseph Kosinski told Insider that
McGillis wasn't cast because he wanted to breathe new life into the flick as opposed to being stuck
in the past. She was replaced by Jennifer Connelly, who played one of Maverick's other
ex-girlfriends, and who's over a decade younger than McGillis and Cruise. McGillis believed her
omission to be an inherently sexist and ageist one. McGillis bluntly told Entertainment Tonight:
"I'm old and I'm fat and I look age-appropriate for what my age is,
and that is not what that whole scene is about. But... I'd much rather feel absolutely secure in
my skin and who and what I am at my age as opposed to placing a value on all that other stuff."
Giving back is of utmost importance to Kelly McGillis. As such, she has in recent years
devoted her life to working full time at a drug and alcohol rehabilitation clinic in South Jersey,
where she predominantly supports other women. The actor told The Oklahoman:
"I work a five-day, 40-hour week [...] It's just
an amazing gift to see people come in hopeless and to be given some hope."
The actor highlighted that it was a joy to give those who feel rejected within society a renewed
lust for life, a change that she explained not only aids the patients but their loved ones,
too. But it's not just the patients at the clinic who are given renewed desire to live;
McGillis' work has also given her a new lease of life. The actress told Smashing Interviews:
"Because I had my struggles with alcohol and drugs,
I can help other women who have had the same problems."
As a recovering addict, McGillis has highlighted the importance of helping
those most marginalized in society. In an interview with Philadelphia Gay News,
she opened up about her past addictions, noting that when she herself left rehab she felt alone
and thus had to facilitate her recovery without support. McGillis told the outlet:
"When I got out, I had nowhere to go, and I found myself at a halfway house [...] and I thought,
okay, I'm just going to stay here and learn how to not drink and not do drugs."
Don't expect Kelly McGillis to be soaking up the California sun and
hanging with A-listers anytime soon. She is far more interested in leading
a tranquil existence away from the spotlight. As noted by Advocate,
she has given up Hollywood for a quiet life in the small town of Collingswood, New Jersey.
Speaking with the Independent, McGillis admitted that her life would be easier in terms of career
prospects if she lived in a big city, but she is no longer willing to sacrifice her
personal happiness and peace for a few movie roles. According to Celebrity Net Worth,
McGillis has a net worth of $4 million. Although modest compared to many of her contemporaries,
the actor's moderate wealth and past success have enabled her to do as she pleases,
a luxury that she acknowledges is not afforded to most. McGillis told Entertainment Tonight:
"I'm really rooted in my home life [...] I feel really blessed that I don't have to
work [...] Not many people get that option later in life, so I feel very lucky."
It's been nearly 40 years since McGillis was thrust into the spotlight, but now
she's dimming the lights in favor of living her best life.