Why Joan Cusack Left Hollywood: People Are Too Beautiful and It’s Too Sunny

For the first time since 2015, Joan Cusack returned to Hollywood to walk a red carpet, and we missed you, girl. The cultural icon *for a specific type of person* agreed to make a brief appearance in the spotlight for the fifth installment of Toy Story, in which Cusack’s character, Jessie, the toy cowgirl, will face off against an iPad voiced by Greta Lee. 

While Cusack did not attend the premiere of Toy Story 4, she decided to show up and show out this time due to Jessie’s leading role in the a-plot. Plus, Taylor Swift lowkey wrote a song about her. After the film’s theatrical release last Friday, Cusack spoke to People about where the hell she’s been all these years, and explained that she doesn’t care for Hollywood. Or LA. Or the industry. Or the sun.

“Everyone’s so beautiful. It’s too sunny. I don’t even like the sun, so I couldn’t do it,” she said. God love her.

“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.'” Instead, Cusack prefers a life outside of the sunlight and devoid of warmth in Chicago, where she can raise her family and run her Barbara Streisand-themed tchotchke shop.

“I’ve been in Chicago raising my kids, which there’s nothing more important to me than that,” she told the outlet. “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.” While raising her kids in Chicago, she would pick up some local acting work, but even her role as an agoraphobic mother on Shameless didn’t even require her to leave the house. I think she’s unlocked the key to happiness.

“I feel so honored to have worked in this industry for a long time,” she told Variety at the NYC premiere, “but it’s also great to live your life, and raise your kids, and be in Chicago, and be a normal person.” Ms. Cusack does not play about the Windy City! Well, welcome back, Joan, even if it’s just for a short time before returning to the quaint gift shop life. 

Keep scrolling for more great stories.