Kelly McGillis

Posted on by Tony CrawleyCategories:Actors

 

  1. Michelle Pfeiffer, Scarface, 1982.       Seen for the glacial Elvira. As were Rosanna Arquette, Kim Basinger, Colleen Camp, Glenn Close, Geena Davis, Carrie Fisher, Jodie Foster, Melanie Griffith, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Kay Lenz, Kristy McNichol, Deborah Raffin, Brooke Shields, Sharon Stone, Kathleen Turner. McGillis actually had to return to waiting tables after a lead rôle in her first movie, Reuben Reuben, 1983.
  2. Tawny Kitaen, Bachelor Party, 1983.      A madcap comedy that was as dramatic, behind the camera, as the heavier 1956 film of the same name. After one week, head Fox Joe Wizan sacked the leads, Paul Reiser and Kelly McGillis, for bad (or no) chemistry. He also suggested that Kelly had no sex-appeal. She proved the contrary in Witness, Top Gun, and as Mrs Robinson in Broadway’s The Graduate. Kelly, an Oscar nominee (for Reuben, Reuben), was never the problem. Reiser was… The stand-up was not yet ready for, well, scripts – as he would be, superbly, during TV’s Mad About You, 1992-1999. The know-all Wizan also rejected… Julia Louis-Dreyfus!
  3. Linda Hamilton, The Terminator, 1983.       In all, 55 actresses were considered, seen or tested for Sarah Connor (aged 18; Linda was 27) opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger. Auteur James Cameron created Sarah for Bridget Fonda. She passed; so did Tatum O’Neal. He decided to go older… and Glenn Close won – her schedule didn’t agree. OK, Kate Capshaw! No, she was tied to Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom – and Kathleen Turner was Romancing The Stone. Debra Winger won her audition, said yes… then no.   The other 48 ladies were The ’80s Group: McGillis, Rosanna Arquette, Kim Basinger, Christy Brinkley, Colleen Camp, Jamie Lee Curtis, Geena Davis, Judy Davis, Mia Farrow, Carrie Fisher, Jodie Foster, Teri Garr, Jennifer Grey, Melanie Griffith, Darryl Hannah, Barbara Hershey, Anjelica Huston, Amy Irving, Diane Keaton, Margot Kidder, Diane Lane, Jessica Lange, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Kay Lenz, Heather Locklear, Lori Loughlin, Kristy McNichol, Michelle Pfeiffer, Deborah Raffin, Meg Ryan, Susan Sarandon, Ally Sheedy, Cybill Shepherd, Brooke Shields, Sissy Spacek, Sharon Stone, Lea Thompson, Sigourney Weaver… one aerobics queen, Bess TV (she became Sarah’s room-mate, Ginger Ventura), two singers (Madonna, Liza Minnelli), two Brits (Miranda Richardson, Jane Seymour), five essentially funny girls, Goldie Hawn, Rhea Perlman (Mrs Danny De Vito), Gilda Radner, Mary Tyler Moore… plus the new MTM, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, from Saturday Night Live. Most were in contention again a few years later for Fatal Attraction (won by Close) and The Accused (going to Foster and McGillis). Ten years later (after T2), Linda gave birth to Cameron’s daughter and Josephine’s parents wed in 1997… for two years.
  4. Madonna, Desperately Seeking Susan, 1985.   The Susan desperately seeking a leading lady was Susan Seidleman.  She bypassed Kelly McGillis, et al, for the unknown singer with a “an incredible self-assuredness that said: Look at me.”
  5. Kim Greist, Brazil, 1985.  Women are Terry Gilliam’s weakest casting points…Ellen Barkin was his favourite for Jill, yet hefell for an unknown riddled with so many problems. “Kim just wasn’t getting it.”  She gave him so much trouble, during one love-scene with Jonathan Pryce that Gilliam strode off the set.  “Kim, do the scene yourself and let me  know when you’ve  got it done. I’m off.” He kept having to shorten her role and even resorted to her wearing a bandage for “more personality.” Not necessary if he’d chosen from his eight other interviewees:McGillis, Rosanna Arquette, Rae Dawn Chong, Jamie Lee Curtis, Rebecca De Mornay, Madonna, Michelle Pfeiffer, Kathleen Turner.
  6. Glenn Close, Fatal Attraction, 1986.
  7. Elisabeth Shue, Adventures in Babysitting, 1987.       Back in the 60s, teenage babysitter Chris Parker was set for Jane Fonda. By the 80s, her logical heir, her niece Bridget, was just not interested. Julia Louis-Dreyfus was signed, followed by Jodie Foster, then it became a battle between Kathleen Turner (the fourth #1 choice), McGillis (spurned by director Christopher Columbus !), Justine Bateman, Valerie Bertinelli, Judy Davis, Jodie Foster, Melanie Griffith, Andie MacDowell, Tatum O’Neal (who simply fled), Michelle Pfeiffer (she preferred The Witches of Eastwick.. until she made it!), Brooke Shields and Sharon Stone.
  8. Michelle Pfeiffer, Dangerous Liaisons,hatdau 1987.      Poor Kelly lost Madame Tourvel for a second time. She had auditioned for the Broadway play when Americans took over the run from the original London stars. Then, the film was taken from her when – apparently – the critic Pauline Kael persuaded UK director Stephen Frears to drop Kelly for Michelle. All news to me… and I was working every week on the French set. Every week a different chateau! 
  9. Susan Sarandon, Bull Durham, 1987.   Ron Shelton had one helluva job trying to win backing for his directing debut. “Baseball movies don’t sell.”  His producer Thom Mount was part-owner of the real Durham Bulls squad. He recognised what Roger Ebert would call “a treasure because it knows so much about baseball and so little about love.” Kim Basinger was Shelton’s first choice for Annie (an Annie is s baseball groupie). “There’s never been a ballplayer slept with me who didn’t have the best year of his career.”  He tested Carrie Fisher, Mary Steenburgen, Pamela Stephenson, Debra Winger… considered Kate Capshaw, Geena Davis (who made the female ball movie, A League of Their Own), Michelle Pfeiffer (too young) and Isabella Rossellini…  felt  Kay Lenz and Michelle Pfeiffer were too young… while Glenn Close was having Dangerous Liaisons in France, Melanie Griffith was a busy Working Girl and Kelly McGillis preferred The Accused. He also thought of Cybil Shepherd and Bruce Willis as The Couple but Moonlighting got in the way. And that’s how the splendid Susan Sarandon met Tim Robbins; they lived together for 21 years.
  10. Jodie Foster, The Accused, 1988. 
    An awful thing to say. Except it is true. Jodie Foster would never have won her (first) Oscar for this trenchant drama – if actress Kelly McGillis had not been raped in 1982… At first, the role of the rape victim Sarah Tobias was written for Andie MacDowell. She passed. The Paramount suits then saw 34 other young actresses for the (real life) victim. Or, for their own rape bait fantasies – including 16-year-old Alyssa Milano! Foster was refused a test because she was “not sexy enough”! And, anyway, the studio had decided upon McGillis, a high flyer in Paramount’s Witness and Top Gun. And, naturally, she refused point-blank! She knew what it was to be raped. Kelly had no wish to revisit the horror and pain of her own assault when she and her roommate were attacked six years before. The suits were annoyed. They needed her. She was hot at the box-office, their box-office. They had made her a star!! Eventually, McGillis agreed to play Sarah’s defence attorney – on condition that unsexy Jodie played Sarah! The suits caved, tested Foster and the rest is Oscar history… So is the huge list of talent also seen for Sarah.   Starting with the Fatal Attraction also-rans: Rosanna Arquette, Ellen Barkin, Kim Basinger, Jennifer Beals, Jennifer Grey, Melanie Griffith, Linda Hamilton, Darryl Hannah, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Diane Keaton, Demi Moore, Kelly Preston, Meg Ryan, Jane Seymour, Sharon Stone, Meryl Streep, Debra Winger.   And moving on to the younger, Justine Bateman, Valerie Bertinelli, Phoebe Cates, Jennifer Connelly, Judy Davis, Kristin Davis, Bridget Fonda, Annabeth Gish, Mariel Hemingway, Virginia Madsen, Brigitte Nielsen, Tatum O’Neal, Molly Ringwald, Mia Sara, Ally Sheedy, Brooke Shields, Uma Thurman. Oh, and Julia Louis-Dreyfuss, said the suits, was “too nice.” Rape victims shouldn’t be nice? Oh, Hollywood!

  11. Meg Tilly, The Two Jakes, 1989.
  12. Nicole Kidman, Days of Thunder, 1989.   When Robin Wright proved unavailable for Dr Claire Lewicki,a dozen actresses were seen, from McGillisto Madonna. Having seen Dead Calm, Tom Cruise voted for Kidman – and then wed her: 1990-2001.
  13. Julia Roberts, Pretty Woman, 1989.
  14. Amanda Donohoe, The Rainbow, 1989.     UK director Ken Russell’s US backers wanted US names for the Women In Love prequel. He got same answers from them all. The role was too small. Or, like, anyway, too nude.
  15. Catherine O’Hara, Home Alone, 1990.  For the zero roles of Macauley Culkin’s forgetful parents (in a film written for and duly stolen by him), an astonishing 66 stars were considered – including 32 later seen for the hot lovers in Basic Instinct:Kim Basinger, Stockard Channing, Glenn Close, Kevin Costner, Jamie Lee Curtis, Michael Douglas, Carrie Fisher, Harrison Ford, Mel Gibson, Jodie Foster, Linda Hamilton, Daryl Hannah, Marilu Henner, Anjelica Huston, Helen Hunt, Holly Hunter, Diane Keaton, Jessica Lange, Christopher Lloyd, Jack Nicholson, Sean Penn, Michelle Pfeiffer, Annie Potts, Kelly Preston, Dennis Quaid, Meg Ryan, Martin Sheen, Sylvester Stallone, Sharon Stone, John Travolta.   Other near Moms were Kirstie Alley, Lynda Carter, Kim Cattrall, Geena Davis, Laura Dern, Jennifer Grey, Gates McFadden, Kelly McGillis, Bette Midler, Ally Sheedy, Mary Steenburgen, Debra Winger… and the inevitable unknown: Maureen McCormick, part of The Brady Bunch  for seven 1981 chapters.
  16. Ellen Barkin, Switch, 1990.    Tested by writer-director Blake Edwards for the gender-bending male chauvinist who goes to sleep and wakes up as a woman…  She proved far too feminine.  Pregnant.
  17. Susan Sarandon, Thelma & Louise, 1990.
  18. Sharon Stone, Basic Instinct, 1991.
  19. Laura Dern, Jurassic Park, 1992.   
  20. Jennifer Connelly, Top Gun: Maverick, 2018.   Many of the 1986 cast were called back for the dafT idea of a 32-years-later sequel  – except Tom Cruise’s original love interest. “I’m old and I’m fat,” she told Entertainment Tonight in 2019,  ”and I look age-appropriate for what my age is [61] , and that is not what that whole scene is about.  But… I’d much rather feel absolutely secure in my skin and who and what I am at my age, as opposed to placing a value on all that other stuff.” Due to the Covid 19 pandemic, the release was delayed until 2021.

 

 

 

 

 

 Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls:  20