On Thursday in North Carolina, Kelly McGillis made a rare appearance in the media.
In flip-flops, an oversized blouse, and loose leggings, the former actress was observed leaving a church in Hendersonville.
In addition, the 62-year-old actress didn’t resemble herself at all in famous films like Witness from 1985 and Top Gun from 1986, where she flaunted her famed physique and attractive looks.
The cast enlarged the Golden Globe winner’s image, suggesting that McGillis’ new, broader form might be the product of aging.
The actress from Winter People, who had practically left Hollywood for a quiet country life, yet appeared happy and healthy.
McGillis made her acting debut in the comedy-drama Reuben, Reuben after graduating from the prestigious Juilliard School in 1983.
Her major break came two years later when she costarred with Harrison Ford as an Amish widow in Peter Weir’s suspenseful drama Witness.
She became well-known in the year that followed Top Gun.
She portrayed Charlotte “Charlie” Blackwood, a professor and astronomer who falls in love with Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, played by Tom Cruise.
Despite a $15 million production cost, the movie made $356 million at the box office.
In the 1988 film The Accused, starring Jodie Foster and for which Foster received the Best Actress Oscar, McGillis acted as the defense counsel for a rape victim.
Given that she had gone through a similar situation to Foster’s character, McGillis felt obligated to relate her account of being raped by two strangers when the movie first came out.
I was unable to eat or sleep for the first two weeks after the tragedy. In 1988, McGillis acknowledged twitching unceasingly to People. I was unable to restrain my erratic breathing.
“After the project was over, it seemed like a monster had been exorcised,” the author said. “But I still had trouble presenting my tale in public because I was terrified.
After The Accused, McGillis struggled to get work in television movies and appeared in critically criticized films like North.
Her drug abuse and hidden homosexuality had to be addressed at some point, which had a bad effect on her personal life as well.
But after relocating to Pennsylvania in 2002, she and her two daughters found that blending in was enjoyable.
Following performances in the vampire film Stake Land and the Showtime drama The L-Word, McGillis now performs on occasion.
Viewers of the first Top Gun are eagerly awaiting the release of the Top Gun: Maverick sequel in 2020.
Alongside Val Kilmer, Jon Hamm, Jennifer Connelly, and Miles Teller, Cruise reprises his role as the hotshot pilot in this sequel.