Peter Cullen Almost Didn't Voice The Live-Action Optimus Prime - Here's Why
With the passing of Peter Cullen, the voice of Optimus Prime, Eeyore, and the narrator of Toonami, among countless other roles, it's a talent that will be impossible to replace. For modern audiences, he's most famous for his role as Optimus Prime in the live-action Transformers films.
Maintaining his status as the voice of Optimus Prime since 1984, his audition for the 2007 movie was incredibly unique. He was not only not auditioning for Prime's voice, but also no one even knew he was the voice. In contrast to his very first audition, it became a fun story Cullen told for years to come.
Peter Cullen's 'Transformers' Audition Wasn't For Optimus Prime
When Cullen auditioned for Transformers (2007), he wasn't guaranteed the role he had made famous decades earlier. Instead, he was supposed to read for Ironhide, another character Cullen brought to life in the animated series, as well as Prime. When he read with someone else who was doing Ironhide's voice, Cullen offered to read for both characters, and director Michael Bay asked if that was something he could do.
Cullen replied: "Yeah, all the time. Frank Welker, one of the great voice actors of all time, he'd do Megatron and like five other voices. So we always ended up talking to ourselves." From then on, Cullen was brought in for two more auditions, with Bay always happy to see him, and the ultimate adjustment to make this much larger version of Prime work was to lower his voice.
Cullen would go on to voice Prime in a total of seven live-action films, where he continued to evolve his voice as the leader of the Autobots. But there was always a peculiarity about the fact that he had to audition for a character he made his own.
Peter Cullen's Original Optimus Prime Audition Was Incredibly Inspirational
Compared to Peter Cullen's original audition for Optimus Prime in The Transformers (1984-1987), the story was very different and even more heartfelt. While living with his older brother, Larry, a decorated Vietnam veteran who served in the Marines, he informed him of his role, stating: "I'm going to be a truck."
He then elaborated on how his character is a hero truck, and his brother looked at him and said he was a "real hero" rather than the screaming macho ones in the movies. Of all the words and advice he gave, the key to Cullen's audition was the phrase "...be strong enough to be gentle."
Cullen would later talk about how during the audition, he channeled his brother in Optimus Prime's voice and it came out with ease. Of course, we all know the rest is history, but the impressive part of this audition was that the gentleness of Prime's character has become the prevailing trait in every iteration. It's a benchmark for great leaders and has shown that being evil is easy, but being kind and optimistic in the face of adversity is both hard and worth striving toward.
Peter Cullen's Optimus Prime Was The Best Part Of The Live-Action 'Transformers' Movies
The live-action Transformers movies are a cultural milestone of the late '00s. They weren't the best films ever made, but they pushed action movies to a new level and, with their use of CGI and practical effects, left audiences in awe. Unfortunately, characters often suffered for this as it became more about the spectacle than the people.
Nevertheless, when it came to memorable characters, few could measure up to Optimus Prime. He was always the hero of every story, and the best moments in every film were reserved for him. That said, there were also moments where Prime acted much darker than you'd expect. Hearing him say he would kill all the Decepticons is a bit out of character, but when measured against other versions, it's still a cool chance to see Cullen voice a more brutal iteration of the character.
Peter Cullen was, and always will be, Optimus Prime, and it's a blessing he was given the chance to show that again in the live-action Transformers movies. Because of that, we got almost 20 more years of voice work from the actor and saw very different shades of his fan-favorite character. It's just shocking that there could've been a reality where none of that happened.
