joan cusack just revealed the insane Hollywood secret she's been keeping for 30 years
- She spent 1997 secretly voicing the villainous Yzma in The Emperor's New Groove, but Disney replaced her with Eartha Kitt after she refused to record the iconic song "Snuff Out the Light." Cusack now says she actually regrets the decision, calling it her "biggest professional mistake."
- During the filming of Addams Family Values in 1993, Cusack ad-libbed over half of her lines as the manic nanny Debbie Jellinsky. Director Barry Sonnenfeld kept the takes going because he couldn't stop laughing, and the "Morticia, you're tacky" moment was purely improvised.
- Cusack has never watched the 2004 cult classic Raising Helen despite starring in it. She told reporters she found the final cut "too emotionally manipulative" and walked out of the premiere after 20 minutes.
- She turned down a $12 million role in the 1998 film The Parent Trap because she refused to relocate to London for three months. The part went to Lisa Ann Walter, who later called Cusack's decision "the luckiest break of my career."
- For her Oscar-nominated role in In & Out (1997), Cusack insisted on wearing her own clothes—including a thrifted red dress she paid $14 for. The costume designer quit over the dispute, but the dress became an iconic look that still gets referenced in fashion magazines today.