According to Peter Cullen, he owes it all to the strong Transformers fanbase for his return to Optimus Prime in the upcoming live-action movie. When geeks talk, the studios do occasionally listen.
Peter Cullen Talks Optimus Prime and Transformers
NewsOK recently caught up to Peter Cullen and were able to discuss the upcoming Transformers movie in length as well as Cullen's background on the topic.
"The character breakdown for Optimus Prime was pretty straightforward," Cullen said. "The writers were ... excellent. I got a sense of Optimus Prime having integrity and honor and courage and conviction."
Cullen said the hard-core Transformers fans are to thank for his reprisal of the role in the upcoming big-budget film.
"(The filmmakers) were thinking more Hollywood big names," Cullen said. "They did start to consider the original voice actors because of the enthusiasm and the ... stubbornness of the fan base. God, I'm grateful for those guys," he said.
Cullen was called in to audition for Michael Bay at his offices in Santa Monica, Calif.
"The script assistant was there, and she started reading for Ironside," Cullen said.
"I said, ‘Excuse me, dear, do you mind if I read it?' Because I actually played this character.'"
Cullen completed the read-through reading for both characters.
Cullen received a callback. This time, Cullen was called to act out a more personal, one-on-one scene.
"The reason for that was, they wanted to find out if I in fact could act," he said.
Cullen would later find out that he was again cast as Optimus Prime.
"It started getting exciting, and it's remained that way ever since."
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