That one scene began my obsession with pencil skirts. It helped me embrace my wavy, colicky, unkempt, wannabe-Kelly McGillis bob. It cause me to crank up Berlin's "Take My Breath Away" over and over and desperately over. And it made me long for a rendez-vous of my own in a four-post bed, preferably with a uniformed Tom Cruise, thank you. That doesn't even cover the volleyball and locker room scenes. Sigh.
As much as it did for a drama geek teenager like me, I know it did as much or more for a league of Gen Xer boys just barrelling awkward toward manhood (or at least chest hair). I don't think I've ever had a conversation about the 80s with a man who hasn't said at some point (with a shiver), "Ooooh, Kelly McGiiiiiillis."
And boys -- I mean, men -- I heard you.
It's just that now, 23 years later, it seems that one scene has changed just a bit. It seems your Kelly McGillis (probably as much as my then-Tom Cruise, ahem) is not coming around for you, gentlemen. In fact, it seems Kelly McGillis is coming out of the closet.
In an interview on the Internet show Girl Rock!, Kelly McGillis said she's single and looking for a female for her next love scene.
"Definitely a woman. I'm done with the man thing. You need to move on in life," she said.
Now 51, she has been married and divorced twice and is the mother of two daughters. She said she's been in "an ongoing process" of coming out since she was 12.
I personally love that Kelly McGillis is openly embracing her identity, including being a naturally beautiful woman who wants to age gracefully. She would like to get back into acting but she "just won't" dye her gray hair. Even though her teenage daughter says her mother needs to dye her hair and get a boob job, Kelly McGillis isn't giving in in order to get roles. (Watch full interview here.)
It might make her even more of an anomaly in Hollywood, but I loved her for saying in the interview, "I think if you want to [get plastic surgery], that's fine. But I will tell you this -- I would really like to attempt to celebrate myself becoming older and honoring that. You know I did all of that stuff for quite some time and I have to say my experience with it was that it was a betrayal of who I am and I didn't like myself very much then."
Good for you, gray and gay, Kelly McGillis! I give you a lot of credit for being exactly who you are. Even if that's no longer the Air Force officer in bed with a boy -- I mean, man.
Now you get all 1986: Who was your Top Gun crush?
