Ahoy, squirts! Quint here. Out of all the cool things I’ve been able to arrange in regards to TRANSFORMERS there’s something really special about this one. This is the first time I’ve been able to bridge the gap between the big sci-fi movie Michael Bay is making and the original TRANSFORMERS I recognized from my childhood. I really wish I could have done this interview in person. Maybe it’s a good thing I wasn’t able to geek out in front of Peter Cullen, but I would have loved to have been able to put a face to the voice. I’m sure there are pictures out there, but it’s not the same as hearing traces of Optimus Prime come from the lips of a man of flesh and bone. We did this interview over the phone and it turned out great. Cullen is surprisingly soft-spoken and, not surprisingly, very humble. We had about 15 minutes to talk, connected by the lovely and beautiful Kristina from Paramount/Dreamworks. We cover quite a bit for that short time, though. Here’s the chat! Enjoy!!!
Quint: I have to say, as a child of the 80’s, it’s really cool to sit and chat with you a bit.
Peter Cullen: Well, thank you.
Quint: And whether I knew it or not, you had such a large impact on my life at that stage, because pretty much everything I watched in terms of cartoons you had a big role in, so…
Peter Cullen: Thank you.
Quint: The first thing I really want to talk about is how you came to the movie. I visited Bay in the preproduction offices before they cast any of the robots and at that time I grilled him about the voice cast from the cartoon. He said he was going to audition everyone, but wouldn’t commit until he heard you guys again. Is that how it happened, you came back and auditioned?
Peter Cullen: Yep, as a matter of fact I did more than once. Mike brought me back to reread, which is always very disconcerting from an actor’s point of view. You’re always kind of up in the air…
Quint: Was it weird for you to have to audition for a role that you are so tied in with in the first place?
Peter Cullen: Yeah, there’s a lot of mixed feelings there, Eric, because you can’t help but feel that “No, I did this once before and evidently I was successful and they got rid of me,” and… yeah, kind of personal. Years later, you’re brought back again, but you’re not really brought back, because you have to audition for the role all over again.
Quint: Yeah.
Peter Cullen: And you want to say “Is it worth it?” Then you find out there’s a fan base that you had an impact on and you owe it to them and then you owe it to yourself and you end up doing it. In this case, I’m humbled by the fact that the fan base fought for me as they did, with tenacity and respect. They lobbied for me. And now we are in the conclusion of it and I look back and see it was all worth it.
Quint: Have you recorded all of your dialog?
Peter Cullen: Yes I have, but then again, you know up until the [Laughs]… up until the final word is in… I’m poised and ready to go in. As early as a week and a couple of days ago, I was tentatively on hold for another recording and I’m still kind of waiting, but that was 11 days ago, so I’m not really convinced that they finished all they’ve had to do… but ready, you know, ready at any moment to do whatever they need.
Quint: Have you seen much of the movie or were you just in a booth with a piece of paper and a microphone?
Peter Cullen: I had my script and Michael Bay sitting beside me and I had the big screen and my mic with a camera on it, focused on my face and my lips and what I saw was everything from rough sketches to full completed ILM stuff.
Quint: Yeah?
Peter Cullen: It was awesome, to be quite frank with you. I was taken aback on my first visual look at what they had done and I was speechless. I literally couldn’t speak, I looked up and it was like “blah blah blah” [Laughs] like Jackie Gleason, you know? [Does an impersonation of Gleason]…
[Both Laugh]
Peter Cullen: …yeah, it was kind of stupid and I did that two or three times before I could actually focus on my job. Yeah, it was awesome, really… you know, people have told me that have seen almost the finished, completed picture, that it is incredible.
Quint: It looks like just the hugest, most crazy science fiction action thing… like nothing that we have ever really seen executed at this level, you know?
Peter Cullen: Yeah it’s better with Michael Bay, you know even just a couple of cars would be special… the guy is just brilliant. I mean, he really is brilliant and he’s got a vision. He had a marvelous vision for the entire beginning from conceptual… through the process. He’s responsible for so many great things, including giving Optimus Prime a sense of humor, which makes him more believable, working in the human relation situation along with the real people. Prime is actually charmingly funny. That’s a step in the right direction!
Quint: Yeah, well I think the very first thing the talkbackers and the readers of Ain't It Cool, the site that I write for, are going to want to know… is your opinion on the redesign of the robots, specifically Optimus. What do you think about flames on… you?
Peter Cullen: Well, number 1, just to see it, it’s overwhelming, there are changes, but everything in life changes… cars change every year and I think if one uses his imagination and you separate the sentiment and the history and the memories and tradition and that stuff, because nothing really stays the same anyway, you can actually justify Optimus Prime… a mechanical situation, going to advanced… advanced designs, which makes perfect sense to me, because he still maintains the core of character, with all the ingredients of leadership and that’s what made him an icon. I mean, the writers are fantastic and they have never gone away from that. They have maintained a very strong commitment with his qualities and they did a wonderful job. They’re brilliant, brilliant guys… wonderfully talented…
Quint: Cool, you said that when you were recording your dialogue that Bay was always right there. Was he very hands on with your performance?
Peter Cullen: Yeah. We collaborated and he was very encouraging. He had a calm control that gave me a confidence and the level of relaxation that… just great ideas. I could well understand why he is the director he is. He is everything of that, a pleasure to work with… a real pleasure.
Quint: Now you mentioned that Optimus has more of a sense of humor in this one, is there anything else? Optimus has had many iterations in the past… Is there anything besides the sense of humor that’s kind of new and different about Optimus in the movie?
Peter Cullen: I think that any changes that were made were subtle and defined in the area of well… that the human relationship with the mechanical becomes more believable as they go into the more human qualities for him for sample. On another level, his size, compared to a human being is huge, so there will be minor subtleties in sound to compensate for that for that size and on a big screen outlook, you are going to feel that in the theater and it wouldn’t make sense to have Prime’s voice… I was a little hesitant at first when they said they were going to give me a fuller sound and then when I heard it I realized perfectly (what they meant). The only thing I cared about was did they maintain his characteristics and they did, so I felt great.
Quint: Was there any difference in how you personally approached the character?
Peter Cullen: Not at all, no. Prime is Prime and yeah, he still has all the traits that were first initiated in the break down, the first character breakdowns that I read back 1983 or 84. He hasn’t changed one bit. Hey if it’s not broken, don’t fix it!
Quint: Did you work at all with any of the other voice actors for the new movie or was it just you and Bay in a room.
Peter Cullen: I was by myself with Mr. Bay and his very talented staff that collaborated with him on sounds and stuff like that…. very relaxed. I enjoyed that part too, because I probably would have been intimidated with regular cast, in a voice over situation. The familiarity wouldn’t have been there and I probably would have crossed over a psychological line, for me… like I wouldn’t know what to say or whatever… but none of that. It worked out.
Quint: You would have been intimidated because most of the voices from the original cartoon didn’t return and it all new people.
Peter Cullen: Yeah, right. (For the cartoon) we’d have a whole bunch of us in a small recording studio facing the glass window to the director and engineers… together. The things that happened during those sessions, you know, those were memories and sometimes mayhem (laughs)… wonderful joking going on. You would have ten or fourteen guys that were goofing off and they made for hysterical sessions… long, but hysterical.
Quint: What’s next for you? I can imagine that this movie is kicking off such a demand for more Optimus stuff, because I know that for the video game that you have done…
Peter Cullen: Which is fantastic… I saw some stuff on it. It’s brilliant! It really is… and yeah, you’re right there are other things too, like commercials… Optimus Prime is stepping out of the box you know, he’s even doing Burger King…
[Both Laugh]
Peter Cullen: …oh boy… Oh, I don’t know where to go with that, but anyway buy a couple of things from Burger King and make me happy.
Quint: Alright man, it was a pleasure talking to you this morning and thank you for taking the time to share some words!
Peter Cullen: I appreciate it.
Quint: Good-bye.
There you have it. Thanks to Muldoon for taking a break from his Raptor-hunting to help me out with the transcription. I’m currently working on setting up a new system for the in-person interviews where I can capture high quality audio. The idea is to run the interviews like I usually do, have it transcribed, but also have mp3 clips of certain key bits of the interview to listen along to. Hopefully I’ll have that up and running soon. I’ll let you know Got tons of stuff on the way, squirts. I have two interviews set up for Monday (RATATOUILLE), two interviews in the can (STARDUST, TRANSFORMERS) and a trip to London in a couple weeks. Gonna be a plethora of cool shit for you guys this month and Comic-Con in July is shaping up to be pretty spectacular. ‘Till then, this is Quint bidding you all a fond farewell and adieu. -Quint quint@aintitcool.com
