Tom Hanks and George Carlin may be two wildly different performers, but Dane Cook says both of them provided inspiration for his voiceover role in Disney’s “Planes.”
“Listening to Tom Hanks’s performance in ‘Toy Story’ some years ago, I remember kinda closing my eyes and listening not just to the dialogue but what he would emote, and there was all these great little interesting breaths and sighs and things that he would put in between the lines,” Cook told me while promoting the forthcoming “Cars” spinoff. “And so when I got an incredible phone call from [Pixar/Disney Animation head] John Lasseter saying ‘I’d like to sit and talk to you about this new franchise’…I thought of Tom Hanks in that moment.”
As for Carlin, it was what the late comedian did with his voice on stage that proved to be a guiding force in Cook’s latest venture.
“He was so good at using different voices and tones, and – [mimics Carlin] he would go really low – and sometimes…he would be whimsical and ‘up here.’ And I thought if I could bring all of that into a character someday, a cartoon character, CGI, whatever it would be, that I…might be able to really get in there and play.”
To hear more from Cook (who knew he was a “Cole Porter kid”?), click on the video above for the full interview.
“Planes” hits theaters this Friday.