Kelly McGillis: Horror Film Star Lives Through Horrific Moment Of Her Own With Break-In

Kelly McGillis, who starred in the 2011 horror film The Innkeepers and was Tom Cruise’s love interest in Top Gun, recently shared a terrifying incident on social media which led to the arrest of a woman who allegedly broke into the actress’s house.

McGillis says that she came home and had her arms full of items to carry inside when she sensed that something wasn’t right. A moment later, a strange woman came running down the hallway and attacked her.

“I was trying to get rid of the stuff in my hand to better assess what was going on when a stranger, a woman, came barreling down the hallway and began yelling at me. I asked her who she is and why she was in my house and she said ‘you know why you’ve been stalking me in Twitter.’ Not true… She ran out after me and began punching and scratching me, trying to grab the phone out of my hand. I began screaming as loud as I could hoping someone somewhere might hear me,” McGillis wrote on social media.

Luckily, Kelly was able to flag down a passing motorist and screamed for them to call 911. The harrowing situation can be heard unfolding on the call, but Kelly says that aside from a few scratches and bruises, she’s alright. The incident did lead her to obtain a permit to carry a concealed weapon, however, a decision she says was not made lightly. This isn’t the first time McGillis has endured an attack. At the age of 12, she was gang-raped. Later, in college, she was held up at gunpoint and attacked on the subway system. Then, in 1982, two men broke into her apartment while she was in the shower and forced themselves on her in a brutal rape that she was sure would end in her murder.

“The first few weeks after the incident I couldn’t eat or sleep. I twitched incessantly. I would gasp suddenly without being able to control it.”

The attacks led her to alcohol in order to cope, and she says she struggled over the years with trust issues and allowing people into her life.

“Finally in 1984 I went into therapy for a year because I was tired of beating myself up for something I didn’t do, and I realized I would have no future if I didn’t stop,” McGillis said.

The actress says she has no idea who the woman is who attacked her at her North Carolina home, but that the woman did have a child with her, who has since been taken into protective custody; the woman was arrested.

“Mental illness takes many hostages. I don’t know her name… but I would like to ask that you pray for her and her mother,” McGillis wrote on social media.

Fans took to Facebook to either praise or condemn Kelly for her decision to carry a gun, but she says that after so many incidents of violence in her life, she doesn’t want to be a victim anymore. Symptoms of PTSD have left her in a fragile emotional state, and the thought of being alone “terrifies” her. The answer, she says, is to find something that makes her feel safe.

“After each one of these attacks I moved thinking I could find a safe place… the incident Friday night has now pushed me over the edge. It has been my tipping point. No I am not a victim. I am a survivor. All I have ever wanted is to feel safe. Safe in my own home… I can’t think. I can’t eat. And I am terrified to be alone… That’s why I am going to start carrying a gun.”

[Photo by Arthur Mola/Stringer/Getty Images]