Optimus prime voice actors4/29/2024 And he says, a truck? And I said, yeah but he's a hero truck. And I told him one day I was going out to audition for a truck. He had returned from service as a Marine in Vietnam. I was living with my brother Larry at the time. I was told it was a hero and I was told it was a truck.ĬULLEN: Work with that. RATH: So how did you land the part of Optimus Prime?ĬULLEN: I auditioned like everybody else. Let's actually hear a little clip of the cartoon.ĬULLEN: (As Optimus Prime) This new planet is rich with sources of energy. And you became the first person to voice Optimus Prime. RATH: So in 1984 there's a cartoon show based on a line of toys known as the Transformers. (SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "THE SONNY AND CHER COMEDY HOUR")ĬULLEN: Ladies and gentlemen, Sonny and Cher.ĬULLEN: So it ended up being a series and for four years I, you know, I could make the house payments and lived happily ever after. He was the announcer for the pilot of a new variety show - "The Sonny And Cher Comedy Hour." RATH: Peter Cullen got his big break in voice acting in the early 1970's. And I walked down the center of that aisle with these cows looking at me and I said, this is fantastic. I found one day that if I made a loud noise and all the cows looked up and to me - so I did something silly like, I know that I have your attention. And one of the greatest memories I have is I had a full dairy barn where I would collected milk pails with my brother Larry. RATH: Peter Cullen said he first realized his talent for voices when he was a young boy.ĬULLEN: I lived on a farm and I remember the very first summer I could imitate the cows, the calves, the chickens, the different dogs they had. (SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "THE TRANSFORMERS") But behind optimist prime is 72-year-old voice actor Peter Cullen who first voiced the character 30 years ago on the Transformers cartoon show. RATH: "Transformers: Age Of Extinction" stomped into movie theaters this weekend with the kind of spectacle that comes alive when massive, building-sized robots smash each other to bits on the big screen. PETER CULLEN: (As Optimus Prime) Humans are hunting us. (SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "TRANSFORMERS: AGE OF EXTINCTION") "So we always ended up talking to ourselves.Hey, thanks for joining us on ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. "Frank Welker, one of the great voice actors of all time, he'd do Megatron and like five other voices," said Cullen. Bay was stunned by the ask, not realizing that this is a pretty common practice for many voiceover artists. Realizing this could give him an advantage over everyone else, Cullen asked if he could read both sets of lines, alternating between Optimus Prime and Ironhide. "We looked at the script, and it said 'Ironhide.' I actually played Ironhide in the cartoon series as well." "When I first auditioned for Michael, a young gal was going to read the lines of the other character," Cullen said. Despite Cullen's history with the series, he still had to audition for the role of Optimus Prime like everyone else. In 2022, for the film's 15-year anniversary, Paramount held an event celebrating all things "Transformers," and Peter Cullen spoke (via Comic Book Resource) about his journey from voicing Optimus Prime in the animated series to bringing the character to life in live action.
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