Though Kelly McGillis was not a part of Top Gun: Maverick, her acting career has proven long and well-regarded. Here’s what she’s done since Top Gun.
With the recent release of Top Gun: Maverick bringing back only two of its original stars, Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer, the question remains what happened to its original stars, including Kelly McGillis. McGillis famously played Maverick’s original love interest, Charlie Blackwood, a civilian Navy flight trainer. Top Gun: Maverick took a chance bringing Penny Benjamin (Jennifer Connelly) into the story, a mysterious love interest who was only briefly alluded to in the original 1986 Top Gun, thus acknowledging Maverick’s breakup with Charlie.
During interviews in 2019, as Top Gun: Maverick was being filmed, Kelly McGillis noted she was neither informed of nor invited to star in Top Gun: Maverick, based on her perception that she was “old, fat, and I look age-appropriate for my age.” Feeling shut out, McGillis explained she would not be recast because she refused to get plastic surgery or dye her now-gray hair back to blonde.
