Toy Story 5’s Joan Cusack Shares Why She Stepped Away From Hollywood

Seeing Joan Cusack tonight, Toy Story fans remembered they knew her.

The actress who voiced Jessie in Toy Story took a break from acting, but she’s returning for a new Pixar movie and is now explaining why she left Hollywood in the first place.

John Cusack explained at the Los Angeles premiere of his new film that while premieres often involve a red carpet, not all projects do. He added that it’s been a while since he’s been in a film with such a large scale and public profile.

The School of Rock actress, who has two sons – 28-year-old Dylan and 25-year-old Miles – with her husband, Richard Burke, confessed that she deliberately kept her personal life private.

“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 explained. “This is what I’ve been doing for 10 years.”

Her eldest son proudly shared how excited he was that his mother would be featured receiving flowers in the new Disney movie, set to release on June 19th.

“It’s her night and it’s her story,” he said. “It sounds like an amazing story to tell.”

Cusack was amazed by the turnout at the premiere, which included fellow voice actors Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, and Conan O’Brien, as well as Taylor Swift, who wrote an original song called “I Knew It, I Knew You” for the movie.

As she put it, “It means so many more people will come see the movie so yay.”

The actress, known for her role on Shameless, has also been getting a lot of attention while promoting the newest Toy Story movie.

Last month, she made her first red carpet appearance in 11 years for the film’s U.K. premiere—and has teased that her character has the biggest arc in the upcoming film.

John Cusack described the film as ‘Jessie’s story,’ calling it ‘glorious’ in an interview with Virgin Radio UK on May 28th.

For more stars who stepped out at the Toy Story 5 premiere, keep reading…

—Reporting by Amanda Champagne-Meadows