Peter Cullen Talks Prime, War for Cybertron

In a new interview with Techland Peter Cullen, the voice of Optimus Prime, talks about doing the voice in the movies, War for Cybertron, and the upcoming Transformers: Prime cartoon. Below are a few snippets, the rest of the interview is here.

How is the Optimus Prime in War for Cyberton different than other Optimus Primes?
In the game it's perhaps a little different in that he jumps around saying things that are activated by the actions of the player. There will be a consistency in his character but you won't be able to find the same significant emotions he would have with a written script in the movies or cartoons. From what I've heard and what I've seen of the game it's a very interesting combination to have an individual play into, let's say a cartoon, he's now in the cartoon with Optimus Prime and I think that's a very special ingredient to have.

You've said in the past that you were able to improvise while shooting the movies. Were you able to do that in the game?
Somewhat. There were opportunities to perhaps change an attitude that wouldn't be consistent with Optimus as he would be in the series or the motion picture but they were rare. The character was pretty much “spot on” as the Brits would say. Outside of a couple of changes whether he would say something or not and or according to the powers that be what could be said and what couldn't be said in terms of verbal selections or something a little less violent. But they stuck pretty close to the original fabric of Optimus.

Is there any connection between War for Cybertron and Transformers: Prime?
I really don't think so. There may be but I'm not really privy to discuss the creative content at this point. We're in a very exciting stage in development with Hasbro and the Discovery Channel's HUB. The introduction of the series will be coming the fall.

Were you at all upset with Optimus Prime's moving lips in the movies?
Hahaha. Let me tell you how I felt while they were doing it. They had a camera, while I was reading my lines, concentrated on my mouth and nothing else. If you think that wouldn't make you feel uncomfortable then you've got a character of steel and concrete. After a while I would forget it was there but it was very unsettling at first. I wasn't really quite sure why they were doing it but I suspected it. It was a little unnerving, you know, when a camera is pointed at your mouth when you're trying to create something. When I saw the outcome, I didn't really notice it. It didn't draw to my attention as much as I was lead to believe it would be. It really didn't bother me. The only thing that bothers me and to be perfectly frank, I can't stand the movement of my lips. I think they look stupid. That's another reason why I felt odd when they were concentrating on my lips.