‘Top Gun’ Producers Worried About the Age Difference Between Tom Cruise and Kelly McGillis: ‘She Looks Like His Mother’
When Top Gun premiered in theaters in 1986, producers worried about one pivotal aspect of the film: the love story between the film’s leads, Tom Cruise and Kelly McGillis. They believed the actors wouldn’t be believable on camera as love interests because, as one producer stated, she “looks like his mother.”
‘Top Gun’ producers worried Kelly McGillis and Tom Cruise wouldn’t look compatible on-camera
In an essay written for Medium titled “The Forgotten Star of Top Gun,” producer David Paul Kirkpatrick discussed his reservations about the pairing of Kelly McGillis and Tom Cruise. Several undeniable differences between the actors appeared too vast to ignore.
Kirkpatrick wrote McGillis “was much too tall for Tom Cruise. She was 5’11”. He was 5’7″.”
He continued, “Besides, she was 27, and he was 24, and the difference was palpable. After I saw them together for a ‘chemistry meeting’ on the Paramount lot, I walked away conclusively uttering, ‘She looks like his mother.'”
The producers also reportedly would not consider screen testing Kelly and Tom to see how they “played” on screen, says Kirkpatrick. They believed that if the fiction of Kelly and Tom worked together on screen, nothing else the producers worried about mattered.
McGillis portrayed the role of Charlie, the bombshell love interest of Maverick. Cruise played the trouble fighter pilot.
Why didn’t Kelly McGillis return to star alongside Tom Cruise in ‘Top Gun: Maverick?’
In an interview with Entertainment Tonight, Kelly McGillis revealed why she was not asked to co-star with Tom Cruise in the Top Gun sequel Top Gun: Maverick. “I’m old, and I’m fat, and I look age-appropriate for what my age is. That is not what that whole scene is about,” she revealed.
“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,” she continued.
Taking McGillis’ place as Cruise’s love interest was Jennifer Connelly. She played Penny Benjamin, a character referenced in the first film and former love interest to Cruise’s Pete “Maverick” Mitchell.
Top Gun: Maverick became one of the biggest-grossing film sequels ever. It owned the 2022 film season and broke Titanic’s record to become Paramount’s highest-grossing movie domestically.
What is Kelly McGillis doing now?
Today, Kelly McGillis spends most of her life outside the Hollywood spotlight. She was diagnosed with alpha one antitrypsin disorder, a condition in which the body does not make enough of AAT, a protein that protects the lungs and liver from damage, in 2014.
“I am a home person. I’m really rooted in my home life. I can’t remember the last time I worked,” she said. “I feel blessed that I don’t have to work, you know? But I get the option to work, so I’m blessed in that way. Not many people get that option later in life, so I feel fortunate.”
“It was very challenging for me to have any sense of self or self-identity or real self-worth other than what I did for a living,” McGillis continued. “And it just — it didn’t become a priority; what became the priority initially was raising my girls and being the best sober parent I could be.”
“I think just my priorities in life changed,” she concluded. “It wasn’t like a major decision that I made to leave; it was just that other things became more important.”
“I love acting, I love what I do, I love doing theater, but I don’t know. My relationships with others became far more important than my relationship to fame.”
Kelly McGillis lives in North Carolina and spends time with her two children, Sonora and Kelsey Tillman. She has left her Hollywood life behind.
