This country, for all the hype about "fifty being the new thirty", doesn't know a thing about aging gracefully. Now, I realize I am living in a city packed with beautiful young things all scrambling for the top, but even as I cruise the internet, reading various news stories or seeing photos from all over the map, I am shocked at the lack of value for anyone over 20. (Or should I say: anyone who LOOKS over 20...)
This morning, I woke to comments posted about the recent Kelly McGillis photo ops from Jerry Bruckheimer's party, in Hollywood. (Of course they reunited Tom Cruise with Kelly McGillis--this time, allowing the tall beauty to stand up straight and not crouch behind the little guy--her arms draped over his flight jacket.) Kelly looks regal. Her skin is flawless, her eyes are sparkling, her smile is enigmatic. Clearly she has matured--which is what is supposed to happen in our lives. Compare her to the still-grinning Cruise, who appears shrunken, (his smile a frozen caricature), his hair dyed, his body masked behind tailored clothes (matching a face which has been tailored by surgeons and God knows who else), and you suddenly realize what it will be like when androids live among us. Cruise still looks like his brain has remained with "a need for speed" or, given the chance, the most pressing issue on his mind is where the photographers have set up their lights. Perhaps that's all a "star" needs. Perhaps I'm being judgmental. (Cruise isn't running for Congress--yet.) But given the choice, I sure know who'd I'd like to sit down over dinner with. Or who might be able to carry a deep conversation.
The bigger issue, for me were the comments posted under the photograph. People feeling they needed to speak out negatively on how McGillis has "aged"--with not a single mention of the looks of the men in the picture. Yes, she has chosen not to go the plastic route; yes, she has chosen not to color her naturally gray hair...her body isn't that of the twenty something who raised men's (and women's) libidos back in the eighties...but she isn't twenty. She's a striking fifty-something, accomplished stage and screen actress, mother, activist and outspoken contemporary, American woman. She looks as if she's had a real life. She wears that life proudly.
Bruckheimer has graying hair. He has scruffly skin and wrinkles. I don't see his Tarzan figure swinging through any trees. His age spots and rough, five o'clock beard don't take off any of his years--yet no one seemed to comment on that. Meanwhile, Tom Cruise bares big teeth, while one can almost feel him tensing his buttocks, about to leap upon the nearest couch and scream "Katie!" (He hasn't changed since the Oprah interview that solidified how uncool the man really is, with an acting range of a two, on a scale of one to ten...maybe.) Blockbusting roles aside, it's Tom's connections that got him where he is and keep him looking as he does. (Nothing a few million can't accomplish.)But, as far as the people posting comments go, Tom is the role model we should follow. Hmmmm.
When Kelly McGillis took the stage in Pasadena, last summer, she dominated. Her reviews were terrific.Her interviews for the Los Angeles Times were humble, honest and open. She left people feeling that, here is a human being with soul. Someone worth knowing. An actor, not full of herself, just (still )full of her dreams. (Something we need in these days of strife.) Maybe it's because of all those years of stage work, back East, or her continuing study of her craft? Maybe it's being a single Mom who didn't allow papparazzi to rule her life--or the lives of her children? Maybe it's just being willing to be a natural woman. Whatever the recipe, even the hardest critics had to take note of her brilliance. She is an actor's actor. And she still has the right stuff.
Kelly McGillis looks like America; the real America; as it matures gracefully.(I hope the wise among us will make note of that.)Maybe even post our comments where she can see them. For those of you still needing your fix of sanitized youth, vapid eye-candy, or cartoon America, there are always clips of "Top Gun" on Youtube...
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