This Star Returns to the Red Carpet After 11 Years Away – Fans Say She Looks Completely Different

She used to be one of Hollywood's most recognizable faces — and then, quietly, she disappeared. Now, more than a decade later, she's back under the spotlights, and the internet cannot stop talking about it.

At the London premiere of "Toy Story 5" on Thursday, May 28, a veteran actress made her first red carpet appearance since September 2015 — an 11-year absence that few in the industry could match.

The animated sequel, arriving in theaters June 19, brings back the beloved gang of toys for a new adventure the studio is billing as "Toy meets Tech," with Buzz, Woody, Jessie and the rest of the crew facing the one rival they never saw coming: electronics.

The returning star reprises her voice role as Jessie the cowgirl toy, a character she has voiced across the franchise since 1999's "Toy Story 2." But long before she ever picked up a microphone for Pixar, she was cutting her teeth in front of a live studio audience.

Born in New York City on October 11, 1962, and raised in Evanston, Illinois, she trained at the Piven Theater Workshop as a child and later graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a degree in English.

She got her first taste of national television with a single season on "Saturday Night Live" in 1985–1986, before pivoting to film and never looking back.

Her breakthrough came with "Broadcast News" in 1987, followed by an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her role in 1988's "Working Girl." A second Oscar nomination followed for 1997's "In & Out."

She lit up screens in "Addams Family Values," "Grosse Pointe Blank," "High Fidelity," "School of Rock," and "My Sister's Keeper," among dozens of others.

On television, her recurring role as the eccentric, agoraphobic Sheila Jackson on "Shameless" — shot on location in Chicago, naturally — earned her a Primetime Emmy Award in 2015 for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series, after four consecutive nominations for the same role.

The sibling acting tradition runs deep in her family. Her brother John has spoken warmly about their dynamic on the set of 1989's "Say Anything," where she played his character's older sister — mirroring their real-life relationship.

"She runs me over like a Mack Truck and they say print it, and then it's everyone's favorite thing in the movie," John said at a 2025 screening of the film. "It's a pretty easy gig. I just get flat like Wile E. Coyote and everyone thinks I'm a genius."

It was also revealed at a 2025 "Breakfast Club" reunion panel that the siblings had once been in contention to play Bender and Allison in the iconic 1985 teen film — roles that ultimately went to Judd Nelson and Ally Sheedy.

So why the long absence from public life? The answer, it turns out, has been hiding in plain sight on Chicago's North Side. When her kids were young, the actress stepped back from the Hollywood grind deliberately.

"My kids were young, and I didn't really want to take acting work, because I always had to go away," she explained in a 2019 interview. Instead, she channeled her creative energy into something entirely her own — a gift shop called Judy Maxwell Home, which she has owned and operated since 2011.

The store, named after a Barbra Streisand character and guided by the Japanese philosophy of wabi-sabi — a reverence for the beautifully imperfect — carries everything from miniature fishing-rod lighters to hand-bound books about Tootsie Rolls. She has been known to work the floor herself, unrecognized by shoppers browsing beside her.

"Being a celebrity actress isn't that fun, over and over," she once reflected. "It's just not that great of a world, except for being exposed to cool sets and talented, interesting people. But this is so fun."

Then came "Toy Story 5" — and with it, a reason to step back into the spotlight.

On the London carpet, she arrived looking effortlessly polished: a crisp white dress shirt tucked into a form-fitting, high-waisted black pencil skirt, the sleeves rolled up at the cuffs with easy, unforced confidence.

Bold black-framed rectangular glasses anchored her face, framing a short, tousled dark brunette bob with wispy bangs. She completed the look with small amber drop earrings and a delicate gold necklace with a single diamond pendant.

Hands on hips, she posed in front of the iconic "Toy Story" logo like someone who had never left. She was all smiles, posing for photos with costars Tom Hanks and Tim Allen, actress Greta Lee, writer-director Andrew Stanton, and producer Lindsey Collins.

Her husband, Richard Burke — chairman of The Rise Foundation by Envoy, a nonprofit providing free legal immigration services — was also by her side.

The couple, married since 1993, were once regulars on the carpet together, often attending events with their two sons, Miles and Dylan John. Fans who spotted her, however, were caught somewhere between delight and disbelief. The reaction online was swift, and divided.

"Iconic actress in all her roles. We could use more of her," one admirer gushed. "She's beautiful," another said simply.

But others peered harder at the photos. "Is that really Joan, or someone in a Joan nose and glasses combo?" one viewer quipped.

"Her face doesn't look the same shape. We sure it's her?" another questioned, puzzled.

"She looks so different. Very small. It's not that she looks 'old' at all. Great outfit, glasses and hairstyle. It seems like a completely different person. Maybe it's a Jim Carey situation.😫," a third observed.

The woman at the center of Thursday's red carpet frenzy — the two-time Oscar nominee, Emmy winner, Jessie the cowgirl, and Chicago gift shop owner — is, of course, Joan Cusack.

And if the reaction to her premiere appearance is any indication, eleven years was far too long to be away.