Joan Cusack

The Chicago Lab and the New York Stumble

Joan Cusack was born in New York in 1962, but her DNA belongs to Chicago. Her father was an actor, and so were her four brothers. That creative family tradition led her to the Piven Theatre Workshop when she was barely a child. There she learned that comedy isn't about telling jokes but about controlling the rhythm of discomfort.

In 1985, she joined the cast of Saturday Night Live. It was an odd period, because the show was searching for its identity and she didn't fit the mold of a pure impressionist. She lasted one season. Still, that exposure helped her realize her place was on the edges of the main frame.

She was never the girl in the movie.

She took supporting roles in films such as Class and Sixteen Candles. On those 1980s sets, she began to refine the jittery, electric style that sets her apart from any other actress of her generation. She wasn't interested in conventional beauty but in the truth of the awkward character.

The High School That Stole the Air

In 1988, she starred in Working Girl, which changed her standing in the industry. Her performance as Cyn earned her first Oscar nomination. She made a supporting character outshine the leads thanks to an impossibly teased hairdo and a look dripping with working-class sarcasm.

But 90s cinema did not always know what to do with her. At times she was typecast as the quirky best friend. She responded with physical performances that bordered on surrealism. In 1997, she starred in In & Out. Her wedding dance scene in the rain is a masterclass in technical comedy that few actors would dare to attempt.

She earned her second Oscar nomination for that work.

And Chicago was always her refuge. She chose to raise her children outside Los Angeles because she preferred the normalcy of the Midwest. That distance from Hollywood allowed her to pick projects without the pressure of maintaining a global star image.

A Refuge in Cable and Animation

Television gave her the space that film denied her as she grew older. In 2011, she took on the role of Sheila Jackson in the series Shameless. It was a complex character who suffered from agoraphobia and extreme sexual fetishes. She won the Emmy in 2015 after five consecutive years of nominations for the same role.

Her voice also became a financial asset. Since 1999, she has lent her voice to Jessie in the Toy Story franchise. It's a purely technical job in which her energy makes up for her lack of on-screen presence. In 2019, she appeared in Let It Snow for a streaming platform.

In 2020, she shot her scenes for the series Homecoming, playing Francine Bunda. It was one of her driest, most restrained performances to date. She runs a gift shop called Judy Maxwell Home in the Old Town neighborhood of Chicago.

In 1996, she married lawyer Richard Burke and made Illinois her permanent home.