One Thing About Playing 'Toy Story's' Jessie Joan Cusack Used To Hate Has Grown On Her

Toy Story 5 is one of the most highly-anticipated upcoming 2026 movies. The franchise has been around for over three decades, and Joan Cusack has been voicing Jessie for more than two of those. At this point, she’s spent plenty of time with her fiery cowgirl counterpart—likely delivering some of Jessie’s most iconic lines more times than I could count. One of the most memorable, of course, is the rootin’est-tootin’est cowgirl in the west’s signature “Yeehaw!”—though, as it turns out, it wasn’t something Cusack immediately warmed up, which she told CinemaBlend about.

Cusack first started voicing Jessie in Toy Story 2, when the character was introduced alongside Woody’s Roundup gang. Since then, she has voiced Jessie in all of the franchise’s feature films, as well as numerous TV shorts, video games, specials and promotional appearances. The cowgirl has yodeled and “yeehawed” her way through a lot of material, and with what we know about Toy Story 5, Jessie is set to take on a more central role—likely meaning even more of those signature exclamations from our favorite cowgirl.