Peter Cullen has apparently been on the online promotion circuit as their are 3 interviews up for him. They can be found at Latino Review, Superhero Hype, and MovieWeb.The interviews mostly don't cover any new ground but here are some of the highlights:
LatinoReview: After reading the script, do you believe that the writers Roberto Orci, and Alex Kurtzman stayed faithful to your character?
Cullen: Yes, they have, absolutely. In other words, the old phrase of don't mess with a good thing or if it's not broke don't fix it – they've done that. They've honored the feeling and the sentiments of the fans after all of these many years. They've brought him back and I think that's a great honor a sign of respect for the fan base that they so wonderfully deserve.
LatinoReview: How was it working with Michael Bay?
Cullen: Fabulous. He's brilliant. He's not the most exciting person in the world emotionally. He's so together. You just become charged with the fact that he's in total control of what he's doing and what he's thinking. He's inspirational in that way. I went in from the very beginning with a sense of trust and I knew that I was in good hands and I knew that I could relax and do the best work that I possibly could and there was no coloring or phoniness or anything. He's a genuine guy and I have a great deal of respect for him.
LatinoReview: Did you have a good chemistry with Hugo Weaving as you did with Frank Welker who played Megatron? I don't know if you two were ever in the studio together.
Cullen: No, we weren't. I didn't even meet him. I only discovered just several weeks ago that Frank Welker would not be Megatron and I was extremely saddened by that. He's just an uncommon guy and one of the rarest people in the world, one of the most talented and nice people. I have such great respect for Frank and to find out that he wasn't Megatron was very disappointing for me, but Hugo Weaving is a great talent and his work is phenomenal. So, having not worked with him, but knowing his reputation and his work I'm pretty sure that it's going to be impressive.
LatinoReview: Now did you have a part in that? Did they digitize your lips at all?
Cullen: Well, I don't know if they used me or not. This is an ongoing kind of mystery to me. They had a camera focused on my mouth while I read every line and whether or not they used my lips, I have no idea really. I mean, I don't know how they did it or how they would do it. It's all a mystery to me. So in the final analysis his lips move. I don't think that there will be too many times in the picture where we'll be concentrating on it though because it's so overwhelming seeing the character in full-screen to begin with. It's just one of the many things to look at. It's just unbelievable.
SHH!: What was the experience like making the movie? Were you just in the booth doing the dialogue or was there anything else?
Cullen: Correct. I worked with Michael Bay in the sound room, in front of a big screen and that's where I did all my work. And I worked by myself, except of course with Michael Bay right there with me.
SHH!: You said you had to look at it on a big screen, have you seen what it's going to look like yet?
Cullen: I've seen portions. Everything else that I've seen has been on television. I worked in front of a huge screen, nothing like IMAX or anything and nothing like High Definition, it was just working prints in the studio, but enough to indicate to me that this is huge and it's overpowering. I was just explaining to a person earlier that when I watched Optimus for the first time and the beeps went off to signal me to speak I was speechless. My jaw kind of hung down. I went "oh wow." And they rolled it again and I was speechless still because I'm gawking at it and it was rather humorous. I had to apologize – "I'm sorry guys but this is awesome." So that's how that went.
SHH!: If I remember right you did Ironhide's voice as well, for the show…
Cullen: That's right.
SHH!: ...but you're not doing him for the movie.
Cullen: No.
SHH!: Do you know anyone else who's doing a voice?
Cullen: I have no idea, Josh. I'll tell you, I haven't even heard Megatron, so I have no idea. It's just going to be as new to me as it is to everybody else. And I'm excited.
MovieWeb: Can you tell me what your favorite scene in the movie is, or are you not allowed to talk about that yet?
Peter Cullen: Quite honestly, Paulington, I have only seen bits and pieces. For me to judge that would be impossible. Of the scenes that I saw completed, I was impressed. The Industrial, Light, and Magic stuff is beyond description. I will give you a little hint of that. When I was listening to my beats to cue me in as Optimus Prime, it was my first opportunity to see some of the work done on the big screen in front of me. As I was cued in, I couldn't speak. I was knocked over by it. I just looked in awe, and said, "Oh, my God! This is incredible." Then they said, "Okay, Pete, we're going to have to do that again." I said, "Oh, sure, okay." It went again, and I still couldn't speak. Because I saw more. It took a few passes before I could collect myself. If that's any indication of what we can expect. It's going to be incredible.
MovieWeb: What kind of feedback have you gotten from the makers of this film?
Peter Cullen: I've gotten excellent feedback from every corner. And I'm not just talking about people on the net, or folks who have just seen glimpses or something. This has been coming from the major studios that are evolved in all aspects. Promotion, marketing, just average office people. They have that glint in their eye, and they say, "This is gong to be fantastic." From those points of view, I'm quite excited. I'm also quite confident, too, that it is going to go on to another one. Possibly even a third one.
MovieWeb: Did you do all of your voice work after the film was shot?
Peter Cullen: No, during. I looked at sketches. Rough animations as well. And finished product. It was an ongoing effort. Even though I didn't start my formal recording sessions sometime after the beginning of the New Year, Michael Bay would call me in as scenes progressed. That was exciting, because I always had this idea about how the film was coming along without too much information. The news on my end was that this was powerful. That this was a metamorphosis of excitement. God, where am I coming from today?
MovieWeb: Did you work with any of the other actors on this?
Peter Cullen: No, I didn't. I worked alone. It was very unlike the series, where we all worked together as a unit. We would have ten to fourteen guys in one room crammed around a microphone. That was missing during this go around. But it didn't affect anything form my end. I was working a lot with on-screen actors who were staring off into space at an imaginary object. In this case, that would have been me. And I would have to relate to that on the big screen. So, I tried to make Optimus more human. More one-on-one with the characters. But I didn't work with anybody physically. It was all on film.
MovieWeb: I'm sorry. I thought [Frank Welker] was in the movie.
Peter Cullen: No, we combined forces on the game. The videogame, which is incredible. Frank and I got together, and we teamed up on that. We had a ball. We even had Carl Weathers directing us. You know, Apollo Creed from Rocky?
MovieWeb: That's funny.
Peter Cullen: Oh, Paulington, that was great. What a combination. They recorded us for about forty-five minutes on videotape. This guy had the opportunity to ask us two questions, and we took those two questions and turned it into almost an hour. It's supposed to be hysterical. I hope I get to see it someday.
MovieWeb: Do you know if that's going to be included on a DVD release?
Peter Cullen: I don't know. That's a mystery to me. It is tied solely to the game. I don't think I had an opportunity to ask that question yesterday. If I did, I forgot what the answer was. There was so much happening. I would expect somewhere down the line it will be viewed. What isn't? It seems to me today nothing is private anymore. You have to be careful of what you say or do anywhere.
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