Credit: YouTube still / Far Out
Sun 21 June 2026 14:30, UK
In 1985, John Cusack starred in the hugely overlooked comedy, Better Off Dead. Though early in his career, he was hitting all the right notes to deliver a cheeky, tremendous performance in one of the most underappreciated releases of the year. However, one man’s fortune spells another man’s ruin, as the very same year, his sister, Joan Cusack, wasn’t having much luck.
Joan, who was born in 1962, had finally graduated from college. Bright-eyed, ready for anything, she soon-to-be-star landed her first role in Hollywood, but it wasn’t quite what she was hoping for.
Today, Saturday Night Live is a household name and has even re-spawned over the pond to make for politically-charged, spunky British television. In 1985, however, the numbers just weren’t there, and the programme was looking down the barrel of a gun, teetering dangerously close to a sign that read “Cancellation”.
Despite this, the names that found a home next to Joan’s on the stage every night were of a tremendously high calibre: Nora Dunn, Jon Lovitz, Dennis Miller, Robert Downey Jr, Randy Quaid, Danitra Vance, and Damon Wayans. Despite the terrific group, it certainly wasn’t deemed one of the high points in the programme’s history.
In a 2000 interview with Fresh Air, the School of Rock star recalled that the whole affair was thrown together haphazardly, and the new group of friends unfortunately never “got a chance to sort of get to know each other that much beforehand”. For improv comedy, some semblance of an interpersonal connection is key.
Plus, there were endless politics about whose material would be chosen for a show, and Joan’s timid demeanour, nascent in this nail-biting world, didn’t quite get her name on the top of those lists:
“It was a really, really competitive place […] I know I was competitive and driven, but I just didn’t feel quite that aggressive. I wasn’t that good at being aggressive in that way,” she recalled.
Further reading: Cutting Room Floor
A year was more than enough time for Joan on the SNL set. When probed as to whether it was the general air of aggression that led to her departure, Joan had a different idea: “Well, yes, I think, I mean, that and they fired me… I like to think it was some choice I made. No, no. They just — it wasn’t working. And it wasn’t working for me too.”
Looking back with fifteen years of distance between her and the demoralising blow, Joan brought much wisdom and empathy to the matter. She confessed, rather painfully, that at the time she “felt so badly about it that I didn’t make it on that show, and it wasn’t right for me.”
However, I suspect that if Joan had her time again, she might have taken the failed year on television as a chance to prove to herself that she really had it in her to become a star. Speaking to her pesky stream-of-consciousness, Joan admonished, “God, to have done that, you just have a little bit more confidence to do things…”
At least the imposter syndrome didn’t plague her forever.
ADD AS A PREFERRED SOURCE ON GOOGLE 