The Forgotten Star of Top Gun

Kelly McGillis chose parenthood over stardom

Kelly McGillis was much too tall for Tom Cruise. She was 5'11". He was 5'7". Besides, she was 27 and he was 24 and the difference was palpable. After I saw them together for a “chemistry meeting” on the Paramount lot, I walked away conclusively uttering, “She looks like his mother.”

Top Gun was a Paramount production in 1984, long before Tom Holland at 5’8 and Zendaya at 5’10” walked blithely down the red carpet for Spiderman No Way Home, breaking “stupid’ (according to Tom Holland) stereotypes of height between guys and gals.

It was fine when Kelly McGillis starred opposite Harrison Ford in Witness (her first movie for Paramount) but Harrison was 6’1”.

Demi Moore was in rehab and the insurance company deemed her (at that time) “uninsurable”. Later, Cruise and Moore were magnetic in the 1992 production of A Few Good Men.

In the old days at Paramount, we made three picture deals with unestablished actors. We guaranteed the first picture but had options for them for two more. If they became a star off a Paramount movie, we had the advantage of two more negotiated deals at a fair price (at least from the studio’s perspective). It was standard practice for Paramount and that’s how it started with Eddie Murphy in 48 Hours…