Local connection to ‘Top Gun’? Did you know star lives here?

"Top Gun: Maverick" soared in the box office, setting a new all-time record for the biggest opening over the Memorial Day weekend.

The sequel to the 1986 blockbuster starring Tom Cruise raked in $160.5 million domestically over the four-day weekend, surpassing "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End" for the top Memorial Day weekend record, according to Box Office Mojo.

But Hendersonville resident Kelly McGillis, a familiar face from the original "Top Gun" is not in the sequel.

McGillis played Cruise’s love interest, Charlie Blackwood, in the ‘80s action movie. Director Joseph Kosinski told Insider he never considered bringing McGillis back for the sequel, stating he “didn't want every storyline to always be looking backwards."

In 2019, Entertainment Weekly asked McGillis if anyone reached out to her about being in the new 'Top Gun.'

“Oh my god no. They did not, nor do I think they would ever,” McGillis told the magazine. “I mean, I’m old and I’m fat, and I look age-appropriate for what my age is, and that is not what that whole scene is about."

When McGillis purchased her Hendersonville home in 2012, it was not her first time near Buncombe County. Director Kevin Costner brought McGillis and co-star Kurt Russell to Barnardsville in 1989 to film “Winter People.”

Four years after she became a resident of Hendersonville, McGillis was attacked in her home. The former actress was coming home around 9 p.m. June 17, 2016, after attending a lecture by theologian Robin Meyers when she noticed the downstairs light was on. She didn’t recall leaving the light on, McGillis wrote in a Facebook post recounting the incident the next day. But thinking she might’ve forgotten to flip the switch, McGillis walked around her property, collecting her bird feeders.

When she went to enter her home, she found an unlocked door and two unfamiliar items inside the entryway: a pair of girls' pink sandals and a larger pair of black sandals. She started calling out “hello,” thinking one of her daughters might be there.

Suddenly, a female stranger ran down the hallway yelling at McGillis, according to her post. McGillis ran back out the door. The stranger followed and “began punching and scratching” her, McGillis wrote in her post. After tussling with the stranger over her phone and keys, losing her cell in the process, McGillis was able to get in her car and flag down another driver to call 911.

After the incident, Laurence Marie Dorn was arrested on charges of second-degree burglary, interference with emergency communication, assault and battery, misdemeanor larceny and misdemeanor stalking, according to Henderson County Sheriff's Office arrest reports. In the trial that ensued, Dorn was found guilty of misdemeanor breaking and entering in 2017. She was placed on supervised probation for 18 months and allowed to return home to Clinton, Illinios.

Ryley Ober is a news intern with the Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA Today Network. Email her at ROber@gannett.com and follow her on Twitter @ryleyober

This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Hendersonville woman played in 80s 'Top Gun' as Cruise's love interest