Interview with David Kaye on his Voice Acting Career and Transformers Roles

This is Megatron, and you're listening to the

Beast Unleashed Podcast. Ha ha ha ha ha! Oh,

yes! Transformers and the Beast Unleashed crossover.

I'm your host, Steve Megatron Phillips, and joining

me as always is... DFT1 Mike, hello. Hello. How

are you? Very well. Yes, and we have a very,

very awesome privilege coming up this evening.

This actually will not air until next week. We

are recording this Friday, December 4th. It won't

air until Friday. December... Friday, December

11th? Is that right? Yeah, that's right, because

the 12th is the Saturday. That's the holiday

show record for ToonCast, yeah. So yeah, we have

huge news, and we've kept this a secret from

everybody because it's just off the scale. I

think this is the part where we need to get our

geekiness out now so we don't geek out on the

next part that we have to record. The Beast Unleashed

podcast, as most everyone has already heard episode

zero, because episode zero will be out for this,

before this will, but Steve and I and Michael

Wilton will be doing a Beast Wars Beast Machines

Review podcast, much in the vein of TFG1, but

a little bit better, because we've all grown

in the past year and a half of podcasting, and

we actually know what the hell we're doing to

some degree. Yeah. I wanted to do something really

special for Steve's birthday. Steve's birthday

was six months ago, unfortunately, and now is

the only time I was able to finally get something

out of what I was looking for. I wanted to get

an interview with David Kaye. Everybody knows

David Kaye is Beast Wars, Beast Machines, Megatron.

He also played Megatron in the Unicron trilogy,

and he plays Optimus Prime in Transformers Animated

along with Grimlock and Lugnut. So, yeah, happy

belated birthday, buddy. Thank you. Yes, it took

six months, a lot of unanswered e -mails and

phone calls, and just one night I just happened

to be on Facebook. I just happened to look in

the chat window, and lo and behold, I have a

friend in David Kaye on Facebook, and he was

in the chat. And I just said, you know, hey,

this was like right before Thanksgiving this

year. I said, hey, how are you doing? Are you

ready for the Thanksgiving holiday? You know,

I, you know, wasn't really sure what else to

say to the guy, honestly, because, holy crap,

it's David Kaye. You know? Yeah. So I was like,

you know, my friend and I, you know, are really

big Beast Wars fans. We're actually going to

be starting up a Beast Wars Beast Machines review

podcast next year. And he said, oh, well, let

me know if you need any soundbites. And I just,

I said, it's funny that you bring that up. because

we were actually wanting to interview you. I

had contacted your assistant and said that we

could work something out, but never heard anything

back from him. He said, oh, okay, well, just

send me a message or send me stuff with the info

and whatever else. I said, all right. I said,

I'll send you a message on Facebook. So a few

Facebook messages later, here we are, you know,

less than... eight minutes until we have to actually

contact Mr. K. So, yeah, you know, this is hopefully

going to be, hopefully we can get more Beast

Wars, Beast Machines actors, voice actors for

interviews. As well as the writers. Yeah, yeah,

as well as the writers. You know, so I think

this is going to be a great treat for the All

Things Transformers subscribers and, of course,

the soon -to -be Beast Unleashed subscribers.

We are actually starting the show in January.

That will be when Episode 1 will be. Episode

0, as I said, will be up next Friday. Basically,

Episode 0 and this are going up next Friday.

I think I might make the listeners suffer like

an extra day. Of course, they won't know that

until they listen to this. Yes, exactly. So,

yeah, we're just trying to contain our excitement

because we want to be professional when we talk

to Mr. K. We've got a bunch of great questions

for him, and hopefully he can give us some promos

in his various voices. So we'll see where that

goes from there. Do you have any other final

thoughts before we continue? Yes. No, not really.

I just felt like doing it. Yes, we'll see how

the War of the Megatrons goes. I'm not sure how

that's going to work just yet. I may say, I don't

know, we'll figure it out. So up next is the

interview with David Kaye. Podcast good! Hello,

everyone. This is Michael Blanchard, and I am

joined by my friend and podcasting partner, Stephen

C. Phillips. Today we have a super awesome privilege

to interview David Kaye. Yes, that's right. Megatron

from Beast Wars and Beast Machines is on the

line with us. Hello, David. How are you, man?

Doing pretty good. How are you? Good. Yes. Just

to get things going here, for most people that

may not know about you online or know where to

look for information from you or whatever, where

did you grow up? I actually grew up back in Canada.

I grew up in a little place called Peterborough.

It's Hockey Town Central up there. If you didn't

own hockey equipment, there was something wrong

with you. There was a donut shop on a big corner.

I actually believe there still is. Yeah, that's

where I grew up. Spent a lot of time in Vancouver.

I was commuting to Los Angeles for about 10 years,

and we finally moved two years ago on too many

airplanes. Yes, yes. Based in Burbank, California.

Cool. What got your voice acting career started?

A lie. That was it. Well, not really. It was

kind of a white lie, I guess. In Vancouver, I

met an agent. who was teaching a commercial modeling

class. The modeling part was goofy. I think at

that school, if you had one eye, you thought,

oh, you could work in this business, but it was

a bunch of crap. But the acting side of it, there

was a commercial thing. You get to learn lines.

It was my first foray into that business. The

guy who was teaching it became my very first

agent, a very close friend. He asked me if I

wanted an agent. I said, yeah, sure. He said,

can you do voice? I said, yeah, okay. Sure, I

lied. There's an audition for G .I. Joe coming

up. I auditioned for General Hawk, and I ended

up getting the part. I had no idea what I was

doing. It was the coolest thing ever. From that

moment on, that's what I wanted to do. Very cool.

Steve, you've got a couple of questions for Mr.

K there. I'm not saying to lie. No, we know.

No. Yes, we completely understand that. It was

convenient at the time. Yes, exactly. Yeah. So

did getting started in radio help you transition

into voice acting? Not really. That was a really

tough transition from radio because, for example...

If you're given something to read in radio or

to talk over the intro of a song, back in high

school I had a part -time job at it. It has its

own style and own thing. When you get into voiceover,

everything is slowed way down. If you send anything,

like you're talking on the radio, there's no

way you're going to get hired for any of the

big gigs. It's just the way. It's the way it

was. It's the way I was told by a lot of production

houses. So I had to really work at it, even,

you know, so many years being in the business

in Vancouver when I first started doing stuff.

I had to really work at losing a sort of a radio

sound. And there is, I think we all know what

that sort of is. You're hearing a lot more people

on the air these days who are very natural sounding.

And that's, you know, the way it should be. But

back, you know, back then it was sort of a heightened

sort of, hey, how are you? 75 degrees downtown

and people didn't really talk like that. And

so when you're taught to do that and you spend

all your waking hours doing that to get rid of

that is really tough. So it's actually better

coming at it from a non -radio background, if

you understand what I mean. Yeah. Yeah. So you've

done many other acting roles outside of Transformers.

Which do you prefer, voice acting or on -camera

work? I prefer voice acting. I know what to do

technically in here. I know what I'm capable

of. For me, it's play. When I'm on set, when

I have done stuff on set, I've been in films

and television shows, it is fun. It is a good

time. There's a lot of waiting around. For me,

I prefer the voice side of things. I just love

it every day. Okay. Can you reveal any behind

-the -scenes moments during Beast Wars and Beast

Machines recordings? No. No. Sure. I mean, there's

a lot of dirty jokes and horsing around. And,

you know, God bless Sue Blue. She was able to

wrangle us, you know, rein us in. Yeah. But it

was... It was a really fun cast, and it was,

I don't know, it was the most fun I've ever had

on a show. I think what approached the most fun

I've had on a show is working on the new Transformers.

It's currently out, just because working with

people like Tom Kenny, and who's SpongeBob, and

Bill Fagerbacky, who's Patrick, working with

the cast. That makes it fun. And it's like, literally

in the room, it's like a bunch of kids playing

around and throwing things at each other, and

it's up to the director basically to rein us

all in and settle us down. Otherwise, we get

carried away, and there's a lot of snickering

and laughing and joking, but somehow we get a

show done out of it. Feel like you are typecast

as Megatron. Do I feel like I am? Yes. I love

it. That's fine. Yeah, that's great. Bring it

on. And it's funny, when I first met my friend

Steve here, I didn't actually know he imitated

voices, and in my mind, it's almost like hearing

the real Megatron, which you are. Steve, if you

want to show off your skills there to Mr. K,

why don't you say something in Megatron's voice?

Excellent. Yes. What do you think? Not bad. That's

what I've heard. Go ahead, Steve, with the next.

What is your favorite memory from Beast Wars

and Beast Machines, and what do you miss most?

Holding Gary's finger. I guess... I miss... Really,

you miss the cast, like I mentioned before. It's

tons of fun, the joking around and going in for

four hours and knowing that you're going to have

four hours of fun and, you know, read some well

-written scripts. Some of my favorite stuff was

from Larry and Bob, Larry Dottillo and Bob Forward.

Yeah, just the camaraderie, just, you know, working

with your buds. That's what I miss. I miss the

most on every show I do. I never want to leave.

I never want the show to be over. Was there anything

that you did not like or was hard for you in

both of these series? No. The only thing that

was hard is when I was cast as Optimus in TF

Animated, it was a hard transition for a few

episodes to find out, really kind of find a voice

and find it, you know, where I wasn't kind of

struggling. because after so many years of playing

the bad guy, you're now the good guy. That was

a little bit of a tough transition, but other

than that, no, not at all. At the time Beast

Wars and Beast Machines were on air, which voice

actors in the industry did you admire most? Well,

the people that I'm working with in C down here

in L .A. on a daily basis. I run into Peter Cullen

a lot. I don't know if he knows who I am or anything.

I've met him about a half dozen times, and I

just kind of get the feeling that he doesn't

really know who I am. Yeah, I think he does,

but I don't know. But he's always been a hero.

Frank Welker has been a major hero of mine. And

there's many people, I mean, you know, modern

stuff, Tom Kenny. The folks that do Chowder,

I think they're all brilliant. Flapjack, I did

an episode of Flapjack recently, and that was

just a total riot. And then who really got me

into the industry, I do a lot of promo network

trailer and promo and stuff like that, and in

the trailer business was Don LaFontaine. He died

last year, and he's one of my main mentors, and

it was a sad day when he left because he's a

lot of people's hero. And so, yeah, you know,

and the cool thing is a lot of these guys, you

see on doing the rounds down here, so it's kind

of fun. Was there any voice actors in the industry

that you just didn't get along with for one reason

or another? Very, very, very rarely, very few.

There are a couple now and again. You meet some

folks in just as, you know, in everyday life,

they're a little... kind of quirky and different

and they don't fit the mold. It's like, it's

kind of like, you know, it's like a hundred people

and it's kind of like two that kind of stick

out where everybody kind of goes, yeah, what's

the deal with them? Otherwise, no, it's very,

very rare in this business. How are you informed

that Beast Wars and Beast Machines were coming

to an end, and did you think the show had done

everything it could, or did you wish it would

have gone on longer? Oh, because I wish it would

have gone on longer, but nothing lasts forever.

The show sells toys, and Hasbro has their own

agenda and has their own thing, and that's what

it does. It's a vehicle for selling toys. If

they don't think it's working or, you know, they

want to change it up, then, you know, they will.

I mean, we're lucky we got, you're lucky you

get a season out of a cartoon. So when it went,

I think it went, what? Yeah, five, yeah. Five

total. I mean, that's, after the first season,

now it's like bonus time. Yeah, really. So, yeah.

Over the course of the show, did you ever watch

the cartoon back to hear what you sounded like,

basically? Did you ever watch the show back in

the 90s while you were working on it? Yeah, I

did. But truthfully, it was to see the animation

and how it was progressing. I'm very finicky

about what I do, and I'm never totally happy

with it, which is fine. I was striving, but sometimes

it's hard to actually enjoy it because you're

listening with a critical ear. It's hard to do.

The certain things, the speeches that I did,

it turned out pretty good. Other things I hear

and I go, ah, what did he use that for? Or why

did I do that? So it's just me being self -critical

a lot of the time. Yeah. But I did watch a fair

number of them. I'll dig them out again and watch

them quite often. Yeah, I do that quite often

as well. Yeah. How easy or hard was it for you

to keep track of which voice went with what character?

Sometimes it depended. Certain characters just

came naturally. Other ones, they would show up

in a different episode, and they'd have to play

you what you did before. Although Megatron was

always... would get you into the voice would

be the laugh or the, yes, excellent, yes, Commander

Rattrap. As soon as I said that, I was back in

the character. And then, you know, for the current

one that's on television, Optimus, you know,

transform and roll out. Once I get that out,

then I can find my, where I'm supposed to be.

The episode of Flapjack I just did, it was sort

of a, they wanted a Mexican accent, but they

didn't want it too strong. They didn't want it

to sound Spanish, so. That took a bit of sort

of working around, and finally when you land

into it, there's a certain phrase, a certain

thing you say that can dig you back into character.

So I've never had too much trouble, but there's

times when I've forgotten what the heck I did.

That's why we ask the hard questions. What's

your favorite part or memory about doing each

of the Transformer cartoons? Let me see. I remember

the first time we saw... The rendered animation

of the Beast Wars stuff, when we first saw what

they were doing, at that time, you look at it

now and go, oh, man, that's lame. It's come so

far. But the first time we saw it, we were like,

whoa, this is different. That's quite exciting.

And then I like some of the speeches. There was

one that was kind of darker, Beast Machine. Yeah,

I kind of liked the Noble stuff. People kind

of thought it was so dark, but I kind of liked

it. I liked that. I have a side question, actually,

about the Noble character. Was that more closely

to your own voice than the Megatron voice? They

wanted me to pull back. The direction from Sue

Blue at the time was... Okay, so like, you know,

it's Megatron, but we don't want people to hear

this Megatron. We want them to kind of hear a

little bit of it, but, you know, so I had to

kind of find it. an in -between type of voice

to make people realize, oh, it's probably him,

or, oh, is it him? That was sort of the direction

given at the time. Yes. I guess the CF animated

was standing beside Tom Kenny, SpongeBob, working

every episode. That was fun. I have a question

closer to the end about a couple of the animated

stuff. Go ahead, Steve. We Which voice actors

that you have worked with do you still keep in

contact with? Pretty much all of them. Really?

Tara Strong is a good friend. I see Tom all the

time. Yeah, we always think Corey Burton. I mean,

yeah, we sometimes don't see them a lot, but

it's like old home week when we see them get

together. I see Greg Gerger a lot. He wasn't

in the show, but I see him doing the rounds.

He's a great guy. So, yeah, we all maintain friendships.

I used to hang out, and Bumper Robinson and I,

who played Bumblebee, were Lakers fanatics, and

so we'll text each other during the game. Either

we'll be mad or we'll be happy or miserable or

whatever it is. So, yeah, we're always in touch.

I can just see Bumblebee getting mad over a Lakers

game. Oh, dude. Oh, dude. Now, this goes back

to, you had mentioned Peter Cullen earlier. How

was it meeting him at one of the, knowing that

you had met him at one of the BotCons, and can

you tell us... Yeah, in Rhode Island, yeah. Can

you tell... Go ahead, sorry. Yeah, for the first

time, it was Rhode Island, I believe, yeah. Can

you tell us a little bit about your BotCon experience

and your thoughts on the whole, like, fan base

for Transformers? Oh, it's great. I mean, without

it, you know, as well as... As I know, there

wouldn't be anything without the fans. They're

the ones that buy the toys and watch the show

and go to the cons. It's a huge business. I always

hope people get their money's worth when they

go. It's an expensive weekend. It can be expensive.

Very much so, yes. I worry about that aspect

of it because you want to try and get as many

people there as possible. I love the kids when

they're coming up. It still blows me away that

when you do a convention and fans are all there

to see the work you've done and sign autographs

is still strange for me. I mean, it's like me

meeting Peter Cullen for the first time. It's

like I was kind of shaky and kind of like, oh,

you're that guy. I felt like an idiot. And yet

we do the same thing. So I'm also a fan, too.

This next question has to do with an episode

of Transformers Animated. It was close to the

end of Season 3 where Optimus Prime had got his

jetpack. I don't know if this is true or not,

but did you bring a little bit of Beast Wars

Megatron to Optimus Prime and Animated? Because

you used two lines when you were flying through

the air. You used the excellent and the yes.

Yes. That was as close to the beginning of the

show. the animators are all big fans of, you

know, Beast Wars and stuff like that, and Derek

Wyatt and Matt Youngberg and Marty Eisenberg.

They're all trying to, you know, we go to lunch.

I still go to lunch with those guys, and we hang

out and get new comics on new comic book days.

And it was always a plan to somehow, you know,

work it into the script, and so that's what they

did. An homage to the other series. Very cool.

And the final question before we wrap this up

is what, Steve? What was it like being the only

voice actor in Transformers history to switch

sides? That was the strangest thing when I got

that call. I thought for sure at the end of the

interview, oh, they want you back as Megatron.

What I said was, oh, they want you back as Optimus.

Who? What do you mean? You mean the Optimus one?

Yeah. And then my agent wasn't quite sure down

here who I'd play. She said, well, didn't you

play him before? I said, no, I was, I was, you

should have done it. I said, you sure they want,

it's Optimus? She said, no, that's what they,

that's what Sue just called. I go, oh. So that

was, totally blew me away. It's very surprising.

All right. So we would like to thank Mr. K for

taking the time to chat with us in this special

All Things Transformers and the Beast Unleashed

podcast interview. We would like you to hold

the line for a few minutes so we can possibly

get some promos from you. Do you have a... Absolutely.

Yes. I will hold the line. Don't take too long.

Do you have any... Might unleash all hell on

you or something. I don't think Megatron ever

cursed in this show. Wow. That's... Yeah, that's

right. That's the verse right there. Do you have

any final... Just for, like, a closing, do you

have any final words for the Transformers fans?

Yes. There is something new in the works. I certainly

can't guarantee that I'll be involved, but there

is stuff happening, and so you won't be without

the next installment. But, yeah, it remains to

be seen that I will be involved or not. If I'm

not, it's been well over 15 years in the franchise,

and I've got no regrets, man. It's been a blast.

I think you and Sue Blue are the two. I know

Sue is the longest ever to be associated with

it. And she still will be. Yes. Oh, really? That's

a big hint. Maybe a good sign. Yes. Keep that

to yourself and all those people out there. You

know this is going on air, right? Anyway, thank

you again, Mr. K. Again, please hang on, and

we will be right back with the special closing

to this interview. This is Megatron, leader of

the Praticoms, and you're listening to the Beast

Unleashed podcast. Excellent. Yes. Hello, and

welcome back to All Things Transformers Beast

Unleashed podcast crossover. You've just heard

the interview of David K. Yeah, wow. Yes, that

was freaking awesome. Yeah, wow. Yeah. That was

great. Yes, it was so nice of him to spend time

with us on Friday evening and do this interview.

Very much so. And we did get a few promos out

of him, which will probably be spritzed through

this episode and through the other episodes of

each show. So, yeah, just, you know, I'm like,

I don't know, for some odd reason, every time

after I do an interview, I'm just like in so

much shock, it's just like I can't talk. Yes,

I know how that goes. He actually liked your

impression. Said it was the best, one of the

best, probably if not one of the best, but the

best one that he's heard. That's awesome. Yeah.

That means I've been practicing very well. Yeah,

yeah. So coming up, let's see, I've got to pull

up the schedule here. Coming up in January, after

this airs, we're going to take a Christmas break

for the Beast Unleashed podcast side anyway.

And coming up in late January, you will hear

episode one of the Beast Unleashed podcast with

myself, Steve, of course, and Michael Wilson

will be joining us. which people would have heard

him in the episode zero, but he was unable to

record with us this evening. So, yes, we will

see you in January 2010.