Joan Cusack explains why she ditched Hollywood after making first red carpet appearance in 11 years
Kit Roberts
Featured Image Credit: Jesse Grant/Getty Images for Disney
Joan Cusack has opened up about the reasons that she stepped back from Hollywood as she takes to the red carpet for her latest venture.
Cusack has starred in several big movies over her career, including Addams Family Values and School of Rock, as well as the TV adaptation of A Series of Unfortunate Events.
But the star has had a slight gap in recent years, with her last movie roles being back in 2019 with Klaus, Let it Snow, and Toy Story 4, and she appeared on Homecoming in 2020.
Now, after some seven years away from the big screen, Cusack is returning, once again reprising her role as Jessie in the fifth Toy Story movie from Pixar, which will see the gang challenged by a new arrival in the form of a frog-shaped tablet called Lilypad.
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In her first appearance on the red carpet in years, Cusack opened up to E! News at the high profile event in Los Angeles, explaining that she actually made the decision to step away from Hollywood for a time.
Speaking at the premiere, she said that a part of her decision to take a step back was to do with prioritizing family.
“I’ve got to say, I did at a certain point say wait a second, I really want to make a priority of being in Chicago where I live and raising my kids," she told the outlet. "This is what I’ve been doing for 10 years.”
Cusack has two sons, 28-year-old Dylan and 25-year-old Miles, with her husband Richard Burke.
Opening up about not appearing on the red carpet in some time, she said: “Being on the carpet is just kind of one part of Hollywood."
She added: “They don’t always have carpets for TV shows and all kinds of other things, so I just haven’t been in a movie this big in a long time."
Jessie is one of Cusack's longest-running roles. She first voiced the character back in 1999 for Toy Story 2, and has featured in every movie in the franchise since then, meaning that she has been playing the part for some 27 years.
Tom Hanks and Tim Allen are also reprising their roles as Woody and Buzz Lightyear for the latest sequel, and Greta Lee playing Lilypad.
For the fifth film, Jeff Bergman will take on the role of Mr Potatohead, replacing Don Rickles who passed away in 2017 - in 2019's Toy Story 4 the character's dialogue was made up of archive recordings of Rickles.
Taylor Swift has also contributed to the franchise's fifth outing, penning the song I Knew It, I Knew You to accompany the film's release.