Despite coming out 34 years after its predecessor, Top Gun: Maverick is still bringing back key members of the original’s cast. Tom Cruise is of course back as Maverick, as is Val Kilmer as Iceman. But one major character who is conspicuously absent from the cast list is Kelly McGillis’ Charlie. And McGillis thinks she knows why that is.
McGillis, 62, recently told Entertainment Tonight that, despite being Cruise’s love interest in the first film, she was never even approached about returning for the second. According to her, the reason why she wasn’t is because she no longer fits the mold of what a love interest should look like in a blockbuster Hollywood movie. “I’m old, and I’m fat, and I look age-appropriate for what my age is,” McGillis told the outlet. “And that is not what that whole scene is about.”
McGillis’ effective replacement in the film as Cruise’s new love interest is actress Jennifer Connelly, who at 48, is 14 years McGillis’ junior and nine years younger than the 57-year-old Cruise. Still, McGillis doesn’t harbor any ill will toward Connelly, telling ET that she is “glad for her.” She also doesn’t appear to be too upset about the film itself either, and frankly, she’s doesn’t really seem to have any feelings toward it at all. “I’m not racing to the theater and I’m not racing away from the theater,” McGillis said of her desire to see the film.
McGillis, who also starred in 1985’s Witness and 1988’s The Accused, last appeared on screen in the 2018 indie thriller Maternal Secrets. Top Gun: Maverick arrives in theaters on June 26, 2020.
