I had the great honor to chat with Peter Cullen, who is known for his work as the voice of so many great characters in film and television. The voice he is most known for is Optimus Prime, who is the leader of the Autobots on the Transformers Series. You can see new episodes of Transformers Prime by Hasbro Studios on the Hub Network. We talked about the new show, changes from the old Transformers series from the 80’s to the present day show, and much more.
Art Eddy (AE): The Hub Network has you taking up your role of Optimus Prime once again in the show Transformers Prime from Hasbro Studios. Can you tell us what is different in this new series of the Transformers from other Transformers series in the past?
Peter Cullen (PC): It is a very interesting show primarily because it has interaction with human characters. This is a little out of the norm for the old days, for back in the 80s. I guess with the contact with the humans brings out more human instinct that the Autobots portray, not that they didn’t before, but more so this time. The cast are just really, really great to get along with, we just enjoy every show. There is so much that is put into each character and we all sit back and say wow where did that come from. So it is really very interesting the human and the Autobot reactions to that make it a far more enjoyable experience in my mind as a working actor. Not necessarily from the old day point of view, but we were all machines and now we are working with humans. There are a lot more laughs, I gotta tell you that. We have a heck of a lot of fun in there. I’m surprised we get as much work done as we do because we break up so much. Everybody holds themselves together until the mics are off and then we burst out because of the little instances that occur.
AE: You were talking about the cast and I know you have worked with Frank Welker for many years in different roles here and there, but how was it to work again with him? He being Megatron your arch rival.
PC: Well number one it was a joy to find out. When we did both discover that we were going to be back together in the same trenches working Megaron and Optimus Prime together we were taking a back a bit. We were wondering if we could still pull it off. It was so very easy it really was. We have so much fun together over the years. Anytime we are in a studio together it is one of the real perks of our occupation. It just is a total joy.
We also talked about where he got is inspiration for the voice of Optimus Prime, his thoughts when Optimus died in the Transformer’s film in the 1980s, and other voices he is known for like Eyore and the Predator. For the complete audio interview go to the Simply Syndicated website or click here!