In the 2009 film District 9, Cope played a variety of characters including the alien Christopher Johnson, created entirely through CGI using Cope's motion captured performance. This process creates a character modeled on the performance of an actor or Actress, allowing for on-camera performances including interaction with the other cast members. He also played the character Grey Bradnam, one of the narrators of the film, and provided the majority of the background voice work in the film, including the cameraman Trent. In a deleted scene of the movie, Cope also played a Doctor at a clinic visited by the film's protagonist, who was seeking to have his arm amputated due to being infected with alien DNA. The scene is featured as part of the movie's DVD "extras."