Actress Joan Cusack Opens Up About Avoiding Hollywood and Red Carpets: ‘It’s Just Not What I Do’

Joan Cusack is back in the spotlight after spending much of the last decade away from it — and it sounds like she’d prefer to keep it that way.

The actress, who reprises her role as cowgirl Jessie in Toy Story 5, is opening up about her family life in Chicago, Illinois.

Speaking to People for a story published on Thursday, June 25, Cusack, 63, revealed she chose to stay in Chicago even while working on projects she’s now best known for, including My Bodyguard, Broadcast News, Sixteen Candles, Working Girl and more.

“In my life, I haven’t really done that many of those things,” Cusack said of red carpet events.

Cusack broke from her usual routine on May 28, when she attended the premiere in London for Toy Story 5. She then joined the movie’s Los Angeles premiere on June 9 alongside her husband, Richard Burke, and their two sons, Dylan, 29, and Miles, 26.

“I think I turned the corner with my husband and was like, ‘Whoa. What’s going on here?’ And then those guns popped the confetti out and I was like, ‘Whoa. What’s happening?'” she recalled.

Cusack revealed she’s “never lived anywhere else” besides Chicago.

“I’ve been in Chicago raising my kids, which there’s nothing more important to me than that,” she revealed. “And it’s been kind of crazy to be part of it, a red carpet thing. It’s just not what I do. I don’t even dress up that much.”

Cusack recalled her past visits to Los Angeles, where she found herself unimpressed with both the people and the weather.

“I think a couple times I tried to go out to L.A., and I’d be in a coffee shop and the waitress would be like, ‘Oh my God, I just got a part doing blah-blah-blah.’ ” She laughs. “Everyone’s so beautiful. It’s too sunny. I don’t even like the sun, so I couldn’t do it.”

She also admitted balancing motherhood and her career wasn’t always easy.

“When [the boys] were younger, there was always that [struggle of] . . . ‘I should be home.’ And then I’d be home and I’d be like, ‘I should be at work,'” she said.

Aside from reprising her role as Jessie, Cusack spends her time in Chicago as a gift shop owner. “I’ve never made any money, but it’s a great hobby,” she said of Judy Maxwell Home, named after her favorite Barbra Streisand character from What’s Up, Doc?

Toy Story 5 marks one of her highest-profile film projects since Toy Story 4 was released in 2019.