Dane Cook is known for his raunchy stand-up comedy, but the comedian has decided to take his career to new heights, voicing Dusty Crophopper in Disney’s summer flick Planes .
"I was just so completely astonished that I would get a call like that," Cook said of receiving the offer for the part. "After many, many years of hearing my peers like Robin Williams or Eddie Murphy in animated films, it was like, `Finally I get to come in and play in the sandbox.' It's a thrill."
The Huffington Post reports that Cook has lent his voice to a friendly crop duster named Dusty who dreams of competing in an aerial race and overcome his fear of heights. Voicing the character was a new adventure for Cook, as the stand-up comedian was given the task of creating a character with “real heart.”
“I’ll tell you, doing voice-over work is deceiving because you think you’ll pull into this parking lot, say a few hellos, there’s no makeup and wardrobe,” Cook told The Boston Globe. “But then you’re standing in front of that microphone and you have to be energetic and enthusiastic and able to hear it in your voice. You can’t depend on the animation to raise your level of performance.”
With a sequel in the works already, Disney executives must have thought Cook gave a convincing, heartfelt performance. Delivering jokes with compassion, however, was more difficult than Cook anticipated, as he became the victim of harsh criticism for refusing to televise a stand-up routine he did to raise money for victims of the Boston Marathon bombings.
“The unfortunate thing for me was not that anyone was frustrated with me, but that any focus was taken away from what that evening was,” Cook says about the incident. “And that’s why I didn’t speak about it. Regardless of what people were saying, it wasn’t about me. It was about the victims and the city of Boston.”
The comedian added that he did not feel his set, which included adult content, was appropriate for television airwaves, especially during what he described as “an emotional affair.” However, Cook says he is more than willing to make it up to Bostonians, vowing to donate “100 percent of the proceeds” of his upcoming standup tour to The One Fund .
Image: NBC