Riding Back Into the Spotlight

THE TWO-TIME OSCAR NOMINEE STEPPED AWAY FROM HOLLYWOOD TO RAISE HER SONS IN CHICAGO. NOW SHE’S RETURNING TO THE RED CARPET FOR THE FIRST TIME IN NEARLY 11 YEARS WITH TOY STORY 5

- NIGEL SMITH

Joan Cusack has delivered an impressive number of “yeehaws” since her animated cowgirl Jessie first galloped onto screens in 1999’s Toy Story 2. At one point “I was like, ‘Oh my God. Don’t you have enough “yeehaws” in the bank somewhere? Why do I have to keep saying yeehaw?’” says Cusack, 63, with a laugh. “And then something happened, and I came to love saying it.”

Audiences love it too. More than 25 years later Cusack’s fearless Pixar character has unexpectedly become one of the defining roles of her career, thanks to

how the actress’s expressive voice and unmistakable Chicago accent have shaped Jessie’s heart and humor. That voice has been one of Cusack’s signatures, from her Oscar-nominated turn in 1988’s Working Girl (“Can I get you anything, Mr. Trainer? Coffee, tea, me?” her big-haired secretary Cyn asked Harrison Ford) to hit movies like 1993’s Addams Family Values and 1997’s In & Out, which earned her a second Oscar nod.

Jessie confronts a world filled with screens in Toy Story 5.

The acclaimed character actress was born in New York City and raised in Chicago by an ad-executive-turned-actor dad and homemaker mom alongside her four siblings, including John Cusack. A teenager when she got her first role, in 1980’s My Bodyguard (“I couldn’t believe I was in a movie!”), she appeared alongside John in 1984’s Sixteen Candles and stole scenes in 1987’s