Don Cheadle Talks About How He Almost Got Up and Quit His CAPTAIN PLANET Parody Video at Funny Or Die

Over a decade ago, fans got to see Oscar-nominated and stoic MCU actor Don Cheadle rock blue face makeup and a green mullet in a Funny or Die video in which he played a version of Captain Planet that was a little off his rocker. He showed up to help a bunch of kids who saw some bad guys cutting down trees, and they think it’s cool when he starts turning the bad guys into trees, but when he gets a little power hungry and starts turning dogs, babies, and other innocent bystanders into shrubs, the kids are horrified, and Captain Planet takes it even one step further! It’s a totally hilarious a ridiculous short, but it almost didn’t happen.

In a recent video interview on GQ's trademark "Breaks Down His Most Iconic Characters" (via CB), Cheadle was asked about the parody, and he said it came about while he was filming another video for Funny or Die that he conceived of while filming one of the Ocean's movies. While waiting to shoot, the Captain Planet sketch came up, and Cheadle agreed to be in it until he saw a photo of what the animated character looks like.

"So, I'm sitting down in the makeup chair, and they start to come up with this blue face paint. I was like, 'What's that?' They're like, 'Well, it's Captain Planet.' I'm like, 'I don't want to do that.' And they're like, 'Well, this is how Captain Planet looks.' And they showed me the picture of him. I was like, 'That's ridiculous. I don't wanna do it.' I almost left, and I don't know how they talked me into doing it. Somebody talked me into doing it. So, I did it and immediately regretted it after I did it. But, then I saw it, and it made me laugh, so I thought it was pretty funny, and now, it's ridiculous how many people talk about that character."

He went on to add:

"I mean they were just like, 'What's the craziest thing, how can we end this in the craziest way that we can?' So let's have him be like the good guy, and be the guy that would be your hero on Saturday, but he's messed up in his head. That Captain Planet was very messed up, clearly." 

You can watch the original sketch below.