Kelly McGillis, the 51-year-old, who played Tom Cruise's sultry flight instructor in the '80s megahit movie
Top Gun, made her first national TV appearance last night on
Access Hollywood since
coming out on
SheWired's
Girl Rock! vlog a month ago.
Last February, McGillis was relaxing in Florida and preparing to go on a cruise when
SheWired vlogger Jennifer Corday asked the simple question that made headlines around the world: "As a single woman, are you looking to date a man or a woman?"
"It was like a moment of truth," said the actress.
McGillis's "truth" was a long time coming, and the answer was simple: "Definitely a woman."
The actress, who has appeared in episodes of Showtime's lesbian drama,
The L Word, as a closeted Army Colonel trying a Don't Ask Don't Tell case, confessed she was surprised people made a big deal about her revelation.
"I got on a cruise... I thought the whole thing had just disappeared [after the interview], and then I got a phone call: 'Oh my God, Kelly, you can't believe it, it's everywhere.' "
In this new interview with
Access Hollywood, McGillis, a long-rumored lesbian who has been married twice and has two children explained why she opened up.
"For a long time I hid," McGillis revealed. "I hid from myself, most importantly, and that came at a huge price... I don't wanna pay that price today. I can't be who all these other people in the world expect me to be."
After moving out of Hollywood and dropping out of the spotlight almost at the height of her popularity,
Top Gun and
The Accused star is making a stage come back in the Pasadena Playhouse theatrical production of
The Little Foxes. Starring as Regina Giddens in the play alongside Julia Duffy and Marc Singer,
The Little Foxes is McGillis's return to acting after spending eight years as virtually a full-time mom to her two children, and she says it's been a challenge.
"I don't know how that all happened, but my agent asked me if I would be interested in doing
The Little Foxes," she said. "I read it and I said, 'Yeah, sure, I would really like to do it, actually.'
The Little Foxes, a revival of Lillian Hellman's 1939 play, opens tonight and will run through June 28 at the Pasadena Playhouse.
As for her personal life, the now more confident, openly out actress admitted she was not really looking to be romantically involved with anyone right now.
"I am single, and I'm really happy to be so. I was with somebody for eight years, and I just want to be single ... I have such cool friends, and such a cool life," said McGillis. "I don't know what God's plan is for me at all, I just know I'm so happy to be here and happy to be working."
