Voice actor Peter Cullen,
who did the voice of Optimus Prime in the oh so groovy
Transformers cartoons and who will
reprising the role in Michael Bay’s upcoming live action version of
it (hitting the screens on the fourth of July 2007) was recently
interviewed by
USA TODAY where he talked Prime then and
Prime now.
Read the whole interview
HERE and check out some excerpts below!
Question remains, will Bay be smart enough to bring back Frank Welker
(voice of Megatron in the cartoon) for his film? He better! Autobots…TRANSFORM!
What did
you think when you saw the script for
Transformers: The Movie (1986)
and realized they were killing off your
character?
(Laughs) I was in the studio
with the guys, because we sight-read
most of the time — we go through our
parts, and then we start rolling. I was
reading through it, and I turned to
Frank Welker, and I said, "Frank! These
guys are bumpin’ me off! I’m gettin’
smacked!" He says, "What?" "Yeah!
Look at this! I’ve got a death scene
here! Geez! Ah, well. There go the car
payments."
And now
you’re working on the live-action
Transformers movie. Were you
approached for the part right away?
No. I (heard) the movie was going to
be done, and then I heard rumors that
big actors … were being considered for
the role. And that’s when I found out
about (my) fan base — I was very, very
surprised. That’s when I started
thinking, "Gee whiz, I hope these guys
get what they want. Then I started
saying, "Boy, I hope I get it, too!"
I finally got a call from my
agent. I met with Michael Bay,
the director, and I didn’t hear anything
for a little while. And then when I met
with Michael again. I guess he had a few
feelings that he wanted to rectify in
his own mind, and then go over a couple
of scenes, and then he realized that,
yes, I could in fact act.