Joan Cusack makes a rush of words sound like someone trying to keep panic under control. We value the comic speed, but her Jessie shows how moving she can be when she is given time to slow down.
Fi1m perspective
Joan Cusack's characters often talk as though stopping would make things worse. A worry becomes a rush of words, then a tirade, and the speed is funny before we have considered what has set it off. She is good at making anxious people endearing without smoothing away their oddness. We rate her most highly when a film lets us take their worries seriously.
The supporting comedies of the 1980s and 1990s established the pattern, including Cyn in Working Girl (1988) and Debbie Jellinsky in Addams Family Values (1993). Her verbal and physical comedy makes her useful in an ensemble, sometimes too useful. Repeated casting as the eccentric friend or family member risks asking for the same quick effect each time. We would rather see a part develop than spend a film waiting for the next outburst.
As Marcella in George Armitage's Grosse Pointe Blank (1997), she is again in support, playing the assistant to John Cusack's professional killer. The film's early comedy is sharp, but the joke of a hitman worrying about his life grows wearing. We find the romance more persuasive than the self-questioning, which the script never makes searching enough. We would not recommend it simply because she is in it.
Voicing Jessie from Toy Story 2 (1999) onwards gave her a character to develop over several films. In Toy Story 5 (2026), director Andrew Stanton and co-writer Kenna Harris put Jessie at the centre, allowing Cusack to ease off the familiar gallop. With a child drifting towards a screen, her panic is persuasive and her stubbornness better still. We were moved by the restraint in her voice, with Newman's strings doing little to push us.
The film is decent rather than essential, raising questions about children and screens that it will not properly pursue. Stanton also hurries away from a quiet moment Cusack has earned, a frustrating failure to trust her. These are faults in the film, not reasons to discount the performance. Watch the fifth film for Cusack, rather than for answers about children and screens.
Biography
Joan Cusack is an American actress. Born on 11 October 1962 in New York City, she was a cast member on the sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live from 1985 to 1986.
Cusack received Academy Award nominations for Best Supporting Actress for Working Girl (1988) and In & Out (1997). She is known for voicing Jessie the cowgirl in the Toy Story franchise, beginning with Toy Story 2 (1999) and continuing through Toy Story 3 (2010), Toy Story 4 (2019) and Toy Story 5 (2026). Other film roles include Rosalie Mullins in The School of Rock (2003). On television she played Sheila Jackson in Shameless (2011–2015), for which she received five Primetime Emmy Award nominations and won once in 2015.
She is the sister of actors John Cusack and Ann Cusack.
