Astrophysicist
and
civilian
Top
Gun
instructor
Charlie
Blackwood
took
Maverick’s
breath
away
and
theirs
was
a
cinematic
love
story
for
the
ages…or
at
least
the
1980s,
since
McGillis
said
she
was
not
asked
to
be
in
the
sequel.
And
she
almost
didn’t
make
it
into
the
first
film,
either.
“I
didn’t
want
to
do
it,” she recalled
to The
Guardian
in
2001. “But
because
I’d
done
Witness,
I
owed
Paramount
another
film,
and
my
agent
said, ‘You
have
to
do
this.’
I
took
one
look
at
it
and
said, ‘This
is
like
a
Western
in
the
sky—I
don’t
wanna
do
this.’
It
wasn’t
about
acting,
it
was
about
being
a
cartoon
character.
You
know
what
I
mean?
I
could
have
done
it
blindfolded.
I
was
grateful
for
the
fact
that
it
gave
me
opportunities
I
wouldn’t
otherwise
have
had.
But
I
showed
up
for
work,
did
my
bit,
hung
out
with
a
bunch
of
boys,
played
baseball,
and
went
home.
It
was
like
being
at
camp.
Why
they
hired
me
I’ll
never
know.”
McGillis
next
portrayed
a
prosecutor seeking
justice
for
a
rape
victim
played
by
eventual
Oscar
winner Jodie
Foster in The
Accused. She
kept
acting
in the
likes
of The
Babe, North and
many
smaller
films
and
TV
movies,
but
she
also
opened
a
restaurant
in
Florida with
her
yacht
mogul
second
husband,
Fred
Tillman, in
the
1990s
and
put
acting
on
the
back
burner.
She has
two
daughters with
Tillman, whom
she
divorced in
2002.
She
came out as
gay
in
2009
and
had
a
civil
union
ceremony
with
Melanie
Leis
in
2010,
but
they
broke
up
the
following
year.
“I
think
just
my
priorities
in
life
changed,”
McGillis told
Entertainment
Tonight in
2019
from
home
in
North
Carolina. “It
wasn’t
like
a
major
decision
that
I
made
to
leave
[acting],
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.
To
me,
my
relationships
to
other
people
became
far
more
important
than
my
relationship
to
fame.”
