A tall, auburn-haired character actress of stage and screen, known for her comedic support in features, Joan Cusack made her feature debut in "My Bodyguard" (1980) and went on to appear sporadically in films while attending the University of Wisconsin at Madison. After college she joined the cast of NBC's "Saturday Night Live" for the notable 1985-86 season, in which original producer Lorne Michaels made his much heralded return. Cusack, like many of the female players over the course of that show's run, was underused and she departed after one season. She fared somewhat better turning in a scene-steeling supporting performance as the sprinting, harried production assistant in "Broadcast News" (1987) who utters the memorable line to her boss (Holly Hunter): "Except for socially, you're my role model".
Cusack offered two very different "Noo Yawk" characterizations in two 1988 features. Jonathan Demme's "Married to the Mob" featured her as a Long Island Mafia wife, one of a group who gang up on Michelle Pfeiffer in a memorable scene set in a grocery store. Cusack gave an Oscar-nominated performance in Mike Nichols' "Working Girl", as a big-haired Staten Island secretary who can't fathom why an executive (Sigourney Weaver) paid thousands of dollars for a dress when "it's not even leatha". She continued to build her reputation with an atypical dramatic portrayal of a mature seductress in "Men Don't Leave" (1990). Pigeonholed as a comic sidekick or supporting player, Cusack continued to impress with roles in "Hero" and "Toys" (both 1992) and particularly in "Addams Family Values" (1993) as a voluptuous blonde nanny who is less benign than she seems.
After a fine turn as a secretary to a youthful hit man (her brother John Cusack) in "Grosse Point Blank" (1997)they both had early roles in the John Hughes comedy "Sixteen Candles" (1984) and she previously played John's on-screen sister in Cameron Crowe's glowing romantic comedy "Say Anything" (1989)--Cusack graduated to leading lady in Frank Oz's "In & Out" (also 1997). Scripted by Paul Rudnick (who did similar duties on "Addams Family Values"), "In & Out" provided the actress with a rich role as the trusting fiancée of a fellow teacher who is exposed as gay by a former student at the Academy Awards. In a role that could have devolved into a cartoon, Cusack imbued the character, a thirtyish, formerly overweight and still insecure woman, with equal amounts of warmth and empathy.
From there, Cusack ventured into more straightforward dramatic territory, appearing as Tim Robbins' wife in the paranoiac thriller "Arlington Road" (1999) and working with Robbins the director in "The Cradle Will Rock" (1999) as a clerk whom the anti-Communist ventriloquist Bill Murray attempts to seduce while coaching to inform on her left-leaning superiors (the film also featured her brother John, though they did not appear in scenes together). But Cusack also kept her comedic chops sharp, playing Julia Roberts' best friend Peggy, a hair stylist who reads omens in the flights of geese, in director Garry Marshall's "Runaway Bride" (1999) and receiving kudos for her voice performance as the lonely cowgirl puppet Jesse in Disney/Pixar's winning CGI-animated sequel "Toy Story 2" (1999). The actress rejoined her brother John again in "High Fidelity" (2000) with a brief but nicely etched role as Liz, the best friend of romantically challenged record shop owner Rob's (John) ex, who's sympathetic to his plight but sick of his emotional lollygagging; and she followed up with a character turn as a hard-boiled talent agent in the meandering comedy "Where the Heart Is" (2000).
After several character turns, Cusack accepted a project that would position her firmly as the leading lady as the star of her own ABC sit-com executive produced by James L. Brooks, "What About Joan?" (2001). The show, at the star's behest, was shot entirely in her native Chicago, which led to some behind-the-scenes difficulty as the L.A.-based executive producers weighed on the show's progress via a satellite feed during production. Cusack was cast as high school teacher Joan Gallagher, and the series focused on the character's female bonding with her best friends and co-workers, as well as a tentative romance with a fellow teacher (Kyle Chandler). While the mid-season replacement series received some critical support, Cusack was also criticized for playing too big for television's intimate scale. The series failed to lure in many viewers and, even after a creative revamp, was axed just a few months into the full fall season. Turning to a sweet-natured TV-movie project, Cusack next appeared in NBC's "It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie" (2001), playing miserly banker Rachel Bitterman, who gives the Muppets until Christmas Eve to come up with the money they owe her or else she'll foreclose on the beloved Muppet Theater.
After a too-long absence from major screen roles, Cusack made a welcome return in the excellent 2003 comedy "School of Rock" playing a seemingly stern and imperious private school principal whose humanity and insecurities are revealed after she is tricked into hiring wannabe rocker Jack Black as a substitute teacher and Black recruits his students to form a rock band. After appearing as Mother in the lackluster live action-animated feature Loony Tunes: Back in Action (2003), she provided a brittle comedic edge to the lightweight comedy "Raising Helen" (2004), playing the disapproving older sister of Helen (Kate Hudson), a party girl who finds herself raising the three children of their late sibling. Cusack then played the mother of a high school girl (Michelle Trachtenberg) whose fast track to a math degree at Harvard gets put on the backburner to pursue dreams of becoming a champion ice skater.
Copyright © Baseline 2006.