Interviews – David Kaye – TAP Edition

Hey, it's David Kaye, voice of Beast Wars Megatron

and TFA Optimus. You're listening to the Geekcast

Radio Network. Transform and roll out! Hello

and welcome to Transformation Animation Podcast.

I am one of your hosts, TFG and Mike. Joining

me is PConcord Michael. Hello. Hey, how's it

going? It's going. And Steve Megatron. Hello.

Hello. Returning to the Geekcast Radio Network

is the one and the only David Kaye. Hello, David.

How are you? Is this thing on? Excellent. Yes.

Yeah, I'm good. I'm good. How are you? Pretty

good, pretty good. Yes, we have transitioned

from Beast Wars into Transformers Animated, and

we're going to be mainly talking to you about

that and a few other things as well tonight.

Okay, that's perfect. Absolutely fine. Yeah,

we've started a Transformers Animated review

podcast where we are going to be reviewing every

single episode. We're going to be talking about

the toys. We're going to be talking about the

books and all that good stuff. So I need to remember

stuff then, I suppose? I'm assuming you have

a fairly good memory. Well, they don't know me

very well. I'll try. Yeah, I'll try. So before

we get started, can you give us the scoop on

what's going on in the world of David Kaye? Any

upcoming projects you care to reveal or that

you're allowed to reveal? Yeah, that's getting

allowed to reveal. There's some cool stuff happening.

I can tell you that finally... The Batman argument

side of the thing is I'm in that. And Commissioner

Gordon. There's a bunch of other games and things

I can't talk about because I signed the famous

NDA. And I can also mention that I was... Invited

back. It's already on IMDb. We've talked about

it. Invited in to join the cast of TF Prime and

a couple of special cool episodes coming up.

So I can reveal that I will be involved in the

newest. They can't get rid of me. You what? They

can't get rid of me. Yeah. Nice. That's awesome.

Yeah, there's other stuff. Dan versus cartoons.

There's other episodes that are coming out. It's

kind of a drag because it's hard. You can't say

it because of social media until I get the okay.

I was working yesterday with Big John DiMaggio.

and Tara Strong and Bumper Robinson, but I can't

tell you what it was until I know. Until I know

it's okay. The social media thing, before we

really get started into the questions before

we transition here, you've really taken a shine

to the social media thing, haven't you? Yes and

no. Yes and no. I go, like other people I talk

to, they get into it for a while, and then I

let it go. I kind of go dark for a while. I discovered

Twitter, which is interesting how I get some

news to start the day as well. Twitter is kind

of cool for that. And Tara Strong, it's her fault

that I'm into all this stuff. because she gets

mad if I'm not. Really make her mad. Okay, I'll

tweet. A few months ago, she made a Twitter message

of an event she was going to. She said something

about someone else and someone else and you going

to a burlesque show. And the first thing, I'm

sorry, this is so horrible of me. The first thing

that came into my mind, I'm like, why is Optimus

Prime taking Sari Sundak to a burlesque show?

She's not Sari Sundak to me. I know, I know,

I know. I understand that. That's the furthest

thing from my mind. But no, we're all good friends.

We all hang out. We're all good friends. Right,

yeah. Dita Von Teese, who I wanted to see. So

she was my ally, and so we said, hey, let's go.

So getting into the main topic of this interview,

Transformers Animated, we have a few questions

about that for you. Okay. Okay. I'll start things

off. David, how many roles in Transformers Animated

did you initially audition for? 72. It was a

slightly less pause that time. Yeah. I remember

when the scripts came through from my agent.

I was a different agency at the time when I was

still commuting to Los Angeles from Vancouver.

I did that for about 10 years. And it came through

in Transformers, and I went, whoa. So I guess...

I guess it's over. I had sent an email through

to Sue and said, hey, just letting you know that

I'm going to be reading for Transformers. In

my mind, I was like, man, I've got to get back

on this because I'm on the original Beast Wars

series and stuff. Because I was working in Los

Angeles and I was able to work on the series

if it came down to that. So I looked at all the

stuff. Megatron, and of course, I figured, hey,

here we go, and I did the Megatron thing. I didn't

read for Optimus Prime. I read for some other

characters. I read for Grimlock, I believe, a

few other characters. I think they had one. I

got in the studio at Cartoon Network and reading

for Matt Youngberg and Derek Wyatt and Sue and

other people that were there. I read about it.

Six characters. And then it was going great.

We all had some laughs. And the Megatron thing,

they're loving it. And there's a bunch of silence

behind the glass. And then she comes back on

the mic and says, Hey, listen, can you grab Optimus?

And I go, yeah, sure, okay. And apparently they're

having a tough time finding the Optimus voice.

And I didn't have any idea what to do. And I

just sort of, you know, did. did me younger,

and we played around with it. And then there

was some nodding of heads, and I thought, well,

this is kind of weird. And, you know, I went

away, and it was a couple of weeks later. I got

the call, and they said, yeah, okay, there's

a call back. And I figured, oh, you know, it's

going to Megatron. And then they said they want

to bring you back in for Optimus. And I go, really?

So that's how it all started. And then sure enough,

they cast me as Optimus Prime. and Grimlock and

some of the characters, and that's how it happened.

Nice. Was that your Sue Blue impersonation? Scotty?

Okay, guys, guys? Yeah, something like that.

I adore her. She's back working again. I love

her to pieces. That's awesome. I've never heard

her speak, so I thought that was funny. She's

great. Did you try to get Megatron? And if so,

what would your version of the character have

sounded like? I was just doing the same thing.

I really didn't know which direction the series

was headed. I saw some diagrams. I made a couple

of takes. One was similar to what I'd done for

Beast Wars. Another different take where I made

them a little more... Kind of a little more evil,

I suppose. But I give them two different takes,

I recall. And I thought it kind of covered it.

They wanted to change direction. Nice. How does

it feel to be the only voice actor in Transformers

history to go from the lead villain to the lead

hero? Fortunate? I don't know. I was blown away.

It was really tough, the first four episodes

of the show, because every time Sue would see

Corey Burton, another person I just love dearly.

Corey's such a great guy and a good friend. And

he sits beside me. It's Prime on one side and

Corey's to my left. And on my right -hand side

is Tom Kenny, who was Starscream. And we had

a fun, fun time. And Bill Fagerbecky, who was...

Who was... Bulkhead. Bulkhead, thank you. Bulkhead!

He was sort of on the left and everything. And

Bumper and Tara was on the other side of Tom

and Jeff. Jeff Bennett. It was a great room.

We had a good time. And every time we'd stop

and Sue would say, okay, okay, Megatron. And

I'd go, oh, yeah, that's not me. I always stand

up every time she would say that. I couldn't

get it out of my head that I'm not, I'm optimistic.

She said optimistic a couple times and I kind

of sat there. Oh, right, me. I'm sorry. Yeah,

I wasn't paying attention. Yeah, and it took

a few episodes to get the voice right. I was

having trouble because I was trying to make him

younger. I wanted him to sound a little younger,

and I couldn't. And finally, I guess probably

halfway through, three quarters of the way into

the first season, I started kind of settling.

Everyone settled into their voices, what happens

in a show. You know, if you hear the original

Homer Simpson, you're going, what the hell is

that? And, you know, people just kind of settle

into it. And I liked where it was headed later

on. So finally, yeah, it was tough to be the

hero that, you know, because Megatron had so

many fun little things he used to do and little

moments and peaks and valleys and he has all

this stuff. You know, I could really play around

with him. Optimus, he kind of... You know, it

had to be, when he made his speech, people, you

get the eye roll from the other Autobots, because,

oh, here we go again. He's, you know, doing his

speech. You have to play it pretty straight,

but, you know, all those little nuances. So I

found it difficult for the first little while.

Uh -huh. So with the ensemble cast and everybody

being in the same booth, We had asked you last

time we talked to you about Beast Wars, this

time for animated. Were there any funny outtakes,

any funny stories, anything that can be revealed

as far as just the cast being in the booth or

playing pranks on each other or anything like

that? Oh, there are many bouts of laughing fits,

courtesy of Tom Kenny and Jeff Bennett and Bumper

Robinson. Every time we'd have a moment, Jeff

Bennett would, he's so damn talented, he'd mimic

somebody or something, and Bumper'd start laughing,

and Tom would say something. And what was it

Tom said one day? We're talking about SpongeBob

or something. Oh, yeah, he said, we were just

kind of waiting for the next scene to start.

We had a moment, they were talking behind the

glass about something, whatever. And Tom said,

no, I found this, there's a toy. This is a new

SpongeBob toy I couldn't believe in. And what

was the toy now? It was really wild. It was,

oh, what the heck was it? I'm having a mental

block. It was a SpongeBob, you know, floss, and

it had SpongeBob this. I think it was a SpongeBob

toilet paper or something weird. Some comment,

and we couldn't stop laughing for half an hour.

If I remember what exactly a toy was, because

it does exist, I'll let you know. But that was

classic. A lot of stuff we can't say, because

there was some funny stuff happening in that

booth. Bumper, whenever he did his German accent

with that character. You know that German accent?

You know that thing? We'd start giggling. Which

character was that? Meltdown? The three characters.

Oh, Blitzwing. Yeah. Yeah, there's some funny

moments. I'll think of some more. Tara would

show us funny pictures on her phone while we

were recording. It would make us laugh. You know,

it's like a bunch of kindergarten children in

there. Grade school kids. Very nice. Yes. That's

funny. I was just reminded of the Gary Chalk

moments back from Beast Wars. He still does that,

you know. You don't shout like that. Why do you

guys always do that? You don't shout like that.

Yeah, you do, Gary. Hey, what are you picking

on me? Yeah, he fit right in there. Yeah. So.

What was the process for coming up with the voices

that you did for the animated characters? I'm

expecting to hear this. Well, I get pieces of

copy in, and I look at them, and I go, oh, man,

I don't know. And I'll just kick into something.

Other times, they give you a breakdown of, he's

this age, and he looks like that. He speaks with

an accent or without one. He's the leader of

this or the, you know, they give you a description

of who it is and you kind of come up with it

in your head and what the character may sound

like. A classic example of how one comes up with

a character is you get cast. Something they hear

you, they like you, they know it's going to be

a great fit. Either they know your work or they

love what you did in the audition. But a lot

of times when you get into the studio and it's

the first day and they'd like to have all the

cast. In L .A., it's hard to get people together

because of scheduling. It's crazy. But they really

want to get people in the booth together, the

entire cast, so everyone knows each other. And

they fine -tune the voices. So I can come out

with a voice that starts in here like this. And

I end up the character. talks in a pseudo -certificate

accent with it. And they go, oh, we like that.

Why don't we try that? And that becomes a character.

It depends what, you know, you've got network

executives in there. You've got people from the

writer of the show, the animators. And so it

becomes a collaborative effort. So as an actor,

as a voice actor, you know, people sometimes

wonder, you have to be prepared to change it

up a lot because they might want it. They sometimes

will even switch roles. They say, why don't you

try that role? Get me down to this guy instead

of, you know, something else. So you have to

really be versatile when you go in there because

you end up doing more than one character a lot

of times, and they'll fool with it until they

get something they like. So it really is sometimes

on the fly, and sometimes I come up with it,

and that's what it is. But a lot of times you've

got to be able to change it. So they don't always

have a set idea of exactly what they want? No,

they love what you did. Quite often, if there's

a callback, you go in there and you're prepared.

And they go, hey, listen, we really like what

you did. And I get you in the door. There's a

callback. They go, okay, there's something we

like. Can you make him a little, you know, this?

We want to make him a little older. Can you,

you know, young him up a bit and drop his voice?

And then you have to be on the fly. You know,

you've got to do it. And I love that. I love

the more people when I go in to read or in the

session, the more people in there, the more I

get. My energy's up, and I just want to go and

have fun. If there's one guy in there, an engineer,

it's a letdown to me. More people there, because

it brings the energy. People are up. I'd love

to see a War of the Megatrons between you and

Welker, just to see what would happen. Because

really, sometimes all you really need is one

guy, especially if you had you and Frank in there.

It's like you and a million other voices with

just Frank Welker. Well, it's like, you know,

I was doing Scooby -Doo with Frank. I was doing

a few Scooby -Doos, and Frank's there. And Frank's,

and then, you know, in TF Prime, he was there,

and him and Peter were there. And I think it's

the first time we've been together, the three

of us together. You know, it's all I can say.

I can't tell you what was going on. Right, yeah.

With the Transformers, we've been in the same.

That was kind of neat for me. But Scooby -Doo

and Frank's there. You know, he's such a great

guy. and Kevin Michael Richards in the same room.

Again, more children, and you're sitting there

waiting, and you hear crickets, and you look

around, and you go, what the hell is that? And

it's Frank. You guys hear crickets? And we'll

look over at Frank, and he just stops and smiles.

He's a legend. He's great. To be in the same

room and work with him is pretty damn cool. Switching

gears a little bit, do you have a favorite episode

of Transformers animated? Let me see. There's

a couple funny ones. When they had... They used

to bring guest stars in a lot. It's kind of funny

because you realize when you're in Los Angeles,

it says on the breakdown of the character, they

say something like... I kind of said, you know,

a Weird Al voice. And you realize you go to the

session, you go, oh, it's Weird Al. He's here.

Right. It's L .A. They live here. They're here.

And so that kind of blows me away. And that was

one of those two episodes. There was a couple

he was in when he was in the cast was really

fun. And it's a Henriksen. Lance Henriksen, the

guy who was an alien. Yeah, he did the voice

of Lockdown. Yeah, Lockdown. He's such a great

guy. Those episodes when he was in, his voice

is so cool. He was to my right on those episodes,

and I was sitting in the chair. I sit down and

relax. I stand up when I record. Some people

sit down and record. I can't do that. And when

he spoke, I was getting a massage because it

was moving the walls. I said, Lance, don't stop

talking. I'm getting a back massage here, man.

It's great. You guys are awesome. I want to do

this forever. Lance said it was just so cool

to work with him. But Weird Al was special. That

was pretty neat. Many more. Okay, so if it had

continued, and we all know that there's been

a ton of speculation about Season 4 and all that

stuff. If it had continued, is there anything

that you would have really liked to explore with

Optimus? And did you know about the Japanese

elite guard figure of Optimus? No, I didn't know

about that. Derek Y keeps me up on the toys.

Optimus, he becomes more battle -hardened. If

it was to continue, he'd be a little more battle

-hardened because he started off quite young

and naive. It would have been neat to see him

get into a point where he became closer to maybe

that Frank Welker character. Not Frank Welker,

Peter's version. It's kind of between that and

how I ended up doing an episode to kind of make

a transition. But yeah, a little more battle

-scarred, more weary. It would have been fun.

Very cool. Interesting. To shift things up a

little bit, we can talk a little bit about the

confessions you've done recently. Confessions,

did you say? Confessions? No, not confessions.

Let's totally do confessions. Yeah, we can do

confessions, but that would be a completely different

podcast. True confessions of David Kaye. So tell

us, David. You don't want to go there. I said

conventions. Like BotCon. You've been to BotCon

a few times recently. I'm just happy they had

me back. I mean, I'm honored. They keep asking

me, and if I'm able to, I'll go. It's fun. Did

you have a particular favorite one? I like them

all. The folks in Toronto do a great job. Colin

and those guys are always very friendly. I've

always had a great time. I've had no trouble

with anybody. I've had a great time with Brian

and the crew. And before that, the very first

one I did in Rochester when Venus Terzo and I

went, when they were doing Beast Wars. I mean,

that was a riot. I didn't realize the fan base.

And that was quite a while ago. The BotCon in

Providence, Rhode Island, was a favorite because

I went for some runs around the city and loved

the city for its history. And it seems George

Washington slept in many houses. I don't know.

What was going on. But there was a sign on many

houses, George Washington lived here or slept

here or something. But it's a beautiful city,

and it was a great convention. I like that. Pasadena

is awesome because it's like 15 minutes from

my house. And there's one I'm going to, of course,

the big news. I'm heading over to the U .K. in

August for the auto assembly. Simon and the crew

over there have gone on a great ship. And it's

interesting because... The first time I did that

convention, I was signing autographs, or just

as I was sitting down, somebody came over and

said, hey, Mr. Kennedy, would you like a pint?

And I go, a pint of what? You know, like a Guinness,

or like, you know what I mean, beer? Yeah, yeah,

you know, like a pint. And I go, now, in front

of these kids? Okay, I'll do what the locals

do. And that was, that kind of blew me away.

But they're great over there, and I'm looking

forward to seeing them all again. For you, what's

the cultural difference between, say, BotCon

and TFCon and auto assembly? I've been meaning

to find a way to get any of the auto assembly

guests that have been in the past on an interview

after they've gotten done with that convention.

How big of a difference is this as far as, like,

BotCon's American convention, auto assembly is

based in the U .K.? What's the difference? Did

you notice anything at all? Yeah, Guinness. The

Guinness. They serve beer. And we're not talking

about the world records, people. They serve alcohol.

No, it's to say, you know, take away the accent.

And you could be anywhere. I mean, I met a group

in Amsterdam when I was over there. I flew over

and met them, and they took me around Amsterdam.

And this is saying, you know, they love the series.

They follow it. It's a phenomenon. They grew

up with it. I grew up with famous monsters of

film and magazine, and I grew up with Spider

-Man. And I have my things that I grew up with.

They grew up with Transformers. It's the same.

It's no real difference. I think a lot of them

still. It's funny because they all come up and

say, you know, we always wanted to visit America.

It's like being back in the 60s when the Beatles

visited. They still have this thing. We want

to come to America and visit. They all kind of

still have that, what do you call it, romantic.

vision of coming to America, and I keep telling

them, it's not like it used to be. It's still

great, but they're funny like that, some of them,

but the world's a small place with social networking,

so they're pretty aware of everything. Cool.

Hey, at the last BotCon, you had a chance to

talk to Greg Berger. I think Greg a lot. I worked

with Greg recently, too, on something else I

can't mention. I can't tell us what it is. What

did he say about your version of Grimlock? We

don't say anything. We did this thing at .com.

It was a song we did together, Anything You Can

Do, I Can Do Better, and we did it as a Grimlock

voice. It was fun. I don't know if anybody recorded

it or anything, or not. It should be out there

somewhere. Anything you can do, me can do better.

And then he'd go, yes, you can. No, you can't.

We may do that over at Auto Assembly if we can

get a script because I can't remember the damn

words to that. I so wish that was on YouTube

somewhere. Make sure somebody records that. Somebody

must have it. Somebody, Brian or the crew, they

were filming something. There was cameras. So

I don't know how we can get a hold of that. But

that was great. That was one of the funnest moments

of any BotCon I've had with me and Greg up there.

I don't worry about what people know or think

or do. We each have our own version. We're hired

for a different show. And the cool thing is I'm

a big fan of Greg's, and I really get along well

with Greg. Not too many people in the voiceover

industry that don't get along. It's a real tight

-knit group. Yeah. He's a nice guy. When you

go to BotCon or when you go to TFCon or anything

else, like outside of – like say you go to BotCon

and you have this panel and these signings that

you agree to do. Outside of that, when you were

there this year, did you like go into the dealer

room? Did you look at any of the toys? Did you

go to any of the other panels that you were not

involved in at all? Did you actually experience

the convention for yourself or did you just go

to do your – obligatory duties? I do my thing.

It's exhausting. People don't realize how tiring

it is just to do it because you're on all the

time. You're on all, you know, when you're there,

you're on. You're meeting fans and you're meeting,

you know, friends. I have a lot of fans that

have become friends over the years. You're signing

autographs. You're on and it takes, man, it takes

its toll. You're tired. I've gone to some conventions

after that. I've gone to my room and fell asleep

for two hours and I didn't really do anything.

I work out every day. I train every day, sometimes

twice a day. But for whatever reason, I think

mentally, you get drained. So quite often, every

con I've always gone to, I've always checked

out the dealer room and toys. I'll see if I can

find something for my son, Spencer, or my daughter,

Tiana. I might see something I like. There's

a friend of mine from Ottawa. uh, Canada that,

uh, makes these sort of little big headed replicas.

And he does a really good job of them. I can't

remember what the, he's going to kill me. I can't

remember the name, but I've mighty mugs. Um,

what's it called? Mighty mugs. No, no, not something

else. I can't remember. Uh, he's on, he's on

my Twitter team. I can't, I'll find it. Um, But

he does a great job of those, and it's unusual.

I thought, oh, I got him to commission a Megatron

and an Optimus for me, and it turned out really

great. He'll do anything. He'll do any characters

from video games, and I was quite blown away

by them. A lot of times, though, when I go to

a city and I haven't been to, I need to go by

myself and go off and do a touristy thing. When

I went to Auckland, New Zealand, for a convention

down there, when we were doing the animated,

what was it, the animated version of Transformers,

Hasbro had me down there to sign autographs,

and I literally did my duties, because I didn't

really know anybody. I knew no one. And I would

finish, and I literally walked around that city.

I walked everywhere. I tried the local cuisine.

I even got a chance to see the All Blacks play.

So I'll take advantage of the city and find out.

I'll go and tour around a little bit. Boston,

I went everywhere, walked everywhere. So that's

what I do. Yeah, I'm originally from Boston.

Boston's one of the best cities in the world.

It's spectacular. We have ancestry that's apparently

went through there. I went to the Athenaeum.

I snuck in there somehow. They let me in. I walked

around the cemetery. The whole band, I loved

it. Yeah, so awesome. Yeah, I don't stay in a

hotel. I'm not one of those guys that stays in

a hotel and just does his thing. I've got to

go out and see where I am. So cool. So are the

script readings considered part of, quote -unquote,

your duties, or is that just something that you

enjoy doing? I enjoy doing it. You know, they

have a budget and they obviously pay you to go.

So I figure that, you know, people spend hard

-earned money and they're paying me to go. I

should, you know, do my duties and do what I'm

supposed to do. And the script reading, to me,

is a lot of fun. And I'm doing a... Let me see,

what's it called? An auction over in the UK.

Those always scare me. I'm not real comfortable

doing that because it's tiring in itself, but

they're raising money for charity, and it's like,

you know what? Let's do it. We'll do it. So I'm

pretty easy to get along with. Nice. Yeah. Do

you get the action figures? for the characters

that you voice? Yeah, sometimes. I never ask

any questions. What happens is I'll talk to Derek

and he says, did you get that replica version

2 of the song? I go, no. Really, you didn't?

I go, no, I have no idea. And Derek's been great

because he ended up giving me a couple of toys

from the convention that I wouldn't have got

a hold of. Yeah. So I find out about these toys

after the fact, but I've got a few optimists

around. I've got all the Megatrons. They're stored

away somewhere. A few of them, I have them on

display. Nice, nice. Speaking of Derek, on our

podcast, we've said time and time again what

an asset Derek Wyatt is to the fandom. What an

ass what? What a giant ass this guy is. We've

got a new comic book day in Burbank here at House

of Secrets Wednesdays. Sometimes we get together

with Matt Youngberg and Marty sometimes, Eisenberg

sometimes. We'll just meet at the comic book

store and pick up some new reading material and

grab lunch somewhere. So we hang out too. It's

just really kind of cool. Derek lives down the

hill from me. He lives down, he's probably about

10 minutes away from me right now. Well, very

cool. Do people stop you in the comic shop and

say, hey? No, they have no idea who I am. I saw

Patton Oswalt in there one day, and I was so,

Derek says, hey, see the guy over there? Yeah,

Patton Oswalt. Wow, that's pretty cool. But,

you know, I don't go over and talk to him or

anything. I feel like an idiot. That's funny.

That is so, so awesome. It's just an inside thing.

Wednesdays at that comic shop in Burbank, which

is where all the studios are, everybody who's

anybody who's in Warner Brothers, Marvel, all

those guys are in there, creators, animators,

and everyone works somewhere and is buying comics.

And I swear to you, a lot of those guys get their

ideas or are looking for ideas. They had their

favorite books. And you know damn well that out

of that new comic book day on Wednesdays when

the issues come out, some of these movies have

come from ideas or spawned from guys going into

the comic shop and picking up their latest issues.

So awesome. Steve, you want to switch gears for

us? What were some of the difficulties of doing

Transformers Animated? Compared to doing other

shows like Beast Wars or other Transformers properties.

Bumper Robinson's body odor. That was a problem.

So that's a new Gary joke. No. No. That's not

even true. What are you talking about? I don't

smell. I don't stink. Now, the difficulties,

there were none. I mean, the difficulty for me

was trying to squeeze two episodes in a day because

I do a lot of stuff that says animation. I'm

doing trailers. I'm scratching trailers. I'm

doing network television. I'm on call for a television

radio affiliate. So I've got all this other stuff

going on. To me, it's juggling. So when I have

an episode or two, if they're trying to do two

episodes a day from 9 in the morning or in the

afternoon, I have to somehow beg someone to let

me record. screen back home in the studio and

jump in and take care of some of the TV people

who get a little antsy, especially if it's during

sweeps periods. I'm not complaining. It's just

some days when they try and jam two episodes

in, I'm trying to do a lot of things at once,

and at the end of the day, I'm pretty tired.

But I have no complaints at all. It's playtime.

So you walk out of the animated booth? and then

go into the next room and you do meet bob yeah

like it's it's a whole different thing animation

is very uh you could be down doing stuff like

hey you know but then i gotta come home and if

i'm doing a trailer all of a sudden you know

i'm i'm i'm doing like all i'm doing is this

in a world one man i mean it's it's a total and

and to me to come down to that is uh It takes

me five or ten minutes to kind of get in the

zone. And then television news is completely

different. Something else, a promo is completely

different. It's all different. So you're kind

of switching gears all day long. It's just a

hint to anybody getting into voiceover work is

you need to be able to switch gears and do it

as fast as you can. No reason. Just doing it

forever. And it becomes second nature. It has

to become second nature because no one else has

time for you to screw up. Or wait for you. You've

got to just do it. Does that make sense? Am I

rambling? No, no, no. That makes perfect sense.

Yeah, yeah. I'm right with you. This is a rather

open -ended question. What made this series different

than the other Transformers series that you've

been on in the past? The guest stars that would

come in. It was the most fun. And the cast was

amazing. We had a hell of a cast in Beast Wars.

This was even, to me, extra special because I

am a fan of all these people that I work with.

And the bonus is they have people come in like

Fred Willard and Weird Al Yankovic. And all these

people were coming in. And that was a big difference.

It was kind of neat. Nice. And they have great

talent food here at Cartoon Network. The catering.

The catering is the best. The catering burritos

are awesome. I do. I've done a few episodes of

the regular show, and I don't know where to get

those burritos, man, but they're just awesome.

Best breakfast burritos ever. Nice. Nice. Switching

gears a little bit, what were some of your favorites

influences for coming up with your Transformers

animated voice characters? Flying by the seat

of my pants a lot, honestly. I'm not joking.

They had me take home Grimlock. They had me take

home, you know, watch G1, the movie, and the

Grimlock thing, get an idea for what they kind

of wanted. What was the other one I did? Locked,

not locked down, Lugnut. Oh, yeah, Lugnut was

hilarious. We came up with him in the booth,

and he was Megatron's right hand. Sue just said

he's Megatron's, you know, right. He'll do anything

he says, but he's a few bolts short of a full

deck. Megatron is wise. It's just kind of make

him sound big and dumb and strong. And we came

up with that in the booth. A couple other ones

we come up with pretty much on the fly, I guess.

They give you a picture when you come in. Sometimes

you come in and you see your name on the cast

list, and there's a character there beside your

name, and you go, who's this? Oh, they want you

to do like a so -and -so character. Oh, great.

Okay, I've got to come up with something. How

did you get that? What does he sound like? I

don't know. So you just kind of go. You kind

of go with it. Really quick before we transition

again, was Cliffjumper one of those things where,

like you just said, you just walk in and you

see your name next to a character? How did you

get roped into doing Cliffjumper? Well, Derek,

I mean, all these people would know, you know,

we were in the industry for a while. They know

what you do, and I'm known as a journeyman, and

I do a lot of different stuff, and they just

say, you know, give us a date, you know, or he'll

come up with something. So you don't want to

disappoint them. There's a lot of pressure. And

it was Derek's idea, Matt's idea. It was a sort

of a, I think he was sort of a Clint Eastwood

type thing, and then they mentioned his name,

and you just kind of, I don't know, you kind

of do that thing. You kind of come down in there.

You know, Cliffjumper and Disney. You just really

just have to throw it out there, and if they

like it, great, and they'll tell you if they

don't, and they change it, and you have to change

it. Those are the guys that say, hey, let's get

so -and -so to do this, or let's cast, you know,

or if they don't know, they'll cast. They'll

go, well, we better do a casting session, and

that's when the agencies will all get a casting

for Transformers looking for a new character.

If they don't have any ideas within the cast.

to do it, then that's when they do another round

of casting and try and find someone to come in

and do this. I just didn't realize how many voices

you actually did in the series. Like, I knew

Grimlock, I knew Lugnut, and I knew Optimus.

And there's somebody else, too. Warpath? Yeah.

I wanted to do something with him, and I was

going to go down the road like... you know i

was gonna i thought they meant like what path

you know i thought literally they were gonna

do like maybe a native american thing and and

you know they were all laughing going yeah they

were i thought okay they want me to do that and

i did that in the session they go no no no no

no don't stay away from that oh okay i thought

you were you wanted me to do that they go no

we were joking we're laughing so i had to come

up with something different on the spot I was

thinking, you know, like, you know, my grandfather

taught me well when I was a boy. I didn't know

where they wanted to go. So, yeah, we didn't

do that. That would have been awesome. We would

have gotten in a lot of trouble and a lot of

mail. Yeah. We don't want to get the show boycotted.

No. Not yet. That's funny. I was wondering what

the transition from working primarily in Canada

to working in L .A. was like. You said that you

were commuting back and forth. Let me see the

transition. I never thought I'd do it. Here's

an issue. When you're raising children and they're

growing up and they have friends and they have

their community. To me, L .A. is like a second

home because I've been coming down here forever.

It was like a second home to me. I had friends

here. I have a community here. I know folks.

But when I moved the family down, I forgot. The

first couple of weeks were a little rough because

I forgot that they're not used to this. They're

out of their element. It's like ripping them

apart. ripping the umbilical cord, you know what

I mean? You're causing a big upheaval in your

family when you move them to any different country.

I mean, the countries are... It's an easy transition

if, say, they're going to China or something.

I mean, it's a complete... something different,

but... They speak the same language. Yeah, it's

really... Just barely. Just barely. But there

are small differences, but... My family history

is American -born. To me, it was not a problem.

I forgot that the kids are in a different school

system, and when they come down here, it's a

different system. I'm proud of them. I'm proud

of all of them. My wife loves it. We're having

a great time in L .A. It's a crazy city. It's

a show. I think most people like to see it drop

out of the ocean. But it's a good old city, and

you have to have a good sense of humor down here.

But the transition, to answer your question,

was a little tougher for them. For me, it was

not tough at all. But I had to kind of back up

a bit and say, hey, wait a minute, I forgot,

you know, that's new for them. And so we've been

here, what, four, four and a half years on the

ground, and it's the best move that I've made.

It's been extremely rewarding and fun. And my

wife and kids are also having a ball. So, yeah,

everything's good. Well, glad it worked out.

Awesome. Let me tell you something. A 99 % comedian

friend of mine down here, he said, you go to

your wife one day and say, hey, hey, guys, how

would you like to move to L .A.? 98 % to 99 %

of those relationships stop right there. I'm

not going to L .A. What? No. So I'm just fortunate

that I have a great, an awesome, awesome wife

and great kids who will follow me along this

journey. And I also have to say that we'll probably

become citizens in a couple of years. We're going

to be able to. And I owe this country, you know,

much gratitude because without this country,

I really don't have a career, period. If you

really, you know, so. I've met some wonderful

people. It's been an easy transition for me,

personally. And I'm the first one in the family

to go back across the 49th, because we do have

a lot of American blood and history and family

down here. Really quick, you mentioned your kids.

Are you grooming them to become voice actors?

Oh, I don't know what they're going to do. I

know my daughter's going into fashion, and she's

creative. Spencer loves the videos. He's techie.

He's a Scorpio. He's a wild card. I'm not sure,

but I like to see him. And this is where it kind

of gets scary. USC, he seems to like the Trojans

down here, the football team. And I was a little

leery because it's very expensive to send your

kid to USC, and I'm kind of hoping maybe he finds

somebody. the other day and said, hey, something

about film school, USC film school. And I thought,

oh, boy. So I don't know if he's maybe going

in that direction. I mean, I'll make it happen.

And it's a great program at USC for film. But

we'll see. I think he may be behind the action,

like technically, computer savvy and video games.

He's very smart that way. Maybe film editing.

You never know. You really don't know. My daughter's

the opposite. She's very creative out there,

and I can see her doing very well in her chosen

field. So we'll see. Awesome. I just want them

to be all happy. That's all. Happy and healthy.

Always a good thing. Yeah. If there was a battle,

who would win? Transformers Animated Optimus

or Beast Wars Megatron? Okay. Animated Optimus.

Oh. I'm going to have to, you know, I'm going

to have to go with Beast Wars Megatron. I'm going

to have to go with the, I just, yeah. He's got

too many, where does he get those toys? I just

got a lot of, and he's got the rubber duck. And

I think that could really freak Optimus out.

Now, Steve, you forgot to mention which one.

Is it the purple dragon, or is it the grid dragon?

Oh, we're not getting into the multiple versions

of Beast Wars Megatron. Well, no, because I think

a Season 4 Optimus would probably beat, you know,

purple dinosaur Megatron. Season 4, maybe, because

he's more bad. Yeah, Season 4. Early on, I think

Optus would need a little more, you know, battle

time. Yeah. The dinosaur crunched his head off

earlier on. Yes. Yes, I will crunch your head

off. If you could voice anything or be in any

feature film, whether it's animation, live action,

whatever. Star Wars. Oh, okay. That's an easy

answer. David Kaye wants to be in Star Wars.

Let's make it happen. I'll be able to make some

little announcement about that shortly. Oh, really?

Oh, nice. Wow. That's all I can say. He's going

to talk about it. Auto assembly. There may be

a little more to reveal. Ah, okay. Cool. Awesome.

If there was a chance a live -action Beast Wars

movie were to happen, would you try to be in

it? Yeah. Sure. Whatever. As long as Michael

Bay doesn't direct it, cool. I was interested

to know. I read for a few of the roles, for the

film roles and that. Which one? I can't remember.

Or what movie, per se. The second movie. Oh,

Revenge of the Fallen, yeah. The destructor,

the... Destron? What is it? Devastator? Yeah.

It was Devastator, I think. Is that the one?

The big giant thing? Yeah. I did this sort of...

I thought it was pretty good. I thought it was

okay. I just think... I just have a funny feeling

that if my name or my stuff came in, that they

would just toss it. I don't think the Beast Wars

cast, I think that's not what he grew up with.

I just get a feeling that he doesn't have a clue

who any of us were. It's his money, his film,

and he can do whatever the hell he wants. It

didn't bother me, but it would have been fun

to do a little something -something there. I

think that it was a grassroots effort to get

Peter Cullen in the first movie, and it was another

grassroots effort. That was a great choice. That

was a great choice, absolutely. Yeah, I don't

think he was going to go with him, to be honest.

And it was like at the last second where Peter

Cullen popped out, I think it was E3, and said,

yes, I'm going to be Optimus Prime. And everybody

said, what about Frank Welker? And lo and behold,

in the second movie, Frank Welker comes back

as Dr. Claw. Soundwave. Knock it off. Knock it

off. And I'm pretty sure Frank Walker was in

the third movie as Dr. Claw as well. Soundwave.

Yeah, I don't know who he was in. I think I mentioned

I was talking to John DiMaggio yesterday, and

I think he's doing something in the third movie

too. Interesting. Somebody said, hey, I heard

you're in one of the cast members says something,

and he said, oh, you like him. I'm looking forward

to seeing it. It's apparently, if you felt like

you've been in a battle after you watched the

movie, I'm looking forward to that. Yeah, Dark

of the Moon was really, really well done. It's

probably the best one out of the three of them.

That's what I've heard so far, yeah. See it on

IMAX. It's worth it. Did you miss anyone in particular

from the Beast Wars crew? Because I know that

there's a few members of that team that aren't

doing much anymore. I keep in touch with Gary.

I haven't talked to Scotty for a while. Who else

is around? I'm good friends with Ian Corlett.

I see Ian as much as possible. We're very close

friends. I mean, you know, Jimmy Burns, there's

a few folks on my Facebook team that I still

keep in touch with. When I see them, if I'm up

visiting or there's somebody down here, more

often than not, we'll hang out. But yeah, Alec

Willis I really miss. I don't know what Alec's

doing, but he was so good. Blue Man Kuma, he's

a dear friend and a gentle giant. They're all

great. They're all great people. Very great.

And Venus, I don't know where. We all love Venus.

I know she's doing some Don Cameron stuff, but

from time to time I'll bump into them and see

them. Nice. They're all good people. The chances

that we get to speak with them, it's always fantastic.

Yeah. We fully admit that our Beast, we are the,

and I believe we told you this beforehand last

time we talked to you, we are the only podcasters

to do a full -on front -to -back, beginning -to

-end Beast Wars Beast Machines Review podcast.

The only reason why that show is incomplete is

because we still have not been able to get a

hold of Scotty. What, McNeil? Yes. How is that

possible? We haven't been able to get him for

an interview. I think every weekend he's at some

convention or something. Well, we don't go to

conventions that much. I don't because I can't

travel that much. Oh, yeah. I'm surprised. We'll

track him down eventually. Yeah, you have to

track him down. Before we let you go, can you

remind us what you are, what you have coming

up, what's going on with you? I know that there

are some things you can't talk about, but just

kind of like tease us with what's coming up,

what you've got coming up next. Okay, let me

just check here. Boy, oh, boy. I know it's funny.

I check on things, and some of the bios are so

outdated. Hmm. They're still toying with the

idea. There's a movie called Hero of Color City.

I did it with Christina Ricci. It's still out

there in the theater. I don't know if it's coming

or not. It's 2013. I play a black crayon. He's

really boring. He really woes me. Oh, woes me.

Another thunderstorm. He's really dull and dark.

And that's hence the black cloud, the black crayon.

They have announced some more R &C. And, yeah,

I know that TF Prime has been announced. I'm

in there. Can you say which character? I can't

say what character hasn't been announced. What

about the season? Well, we're recording this,

whatever this is. Okay, so it's currently, you're

currently doing this? We're currently recording,

yeah, it's recorded. Awesome. G .I. Joe Renegades.

I do the narration plus, and also, let me just

see here. I don't know whether they're on a series,

but I can tell you that I'm a father of one of

the cast, and that's kind of a cool thing. That's

coming out. Awesome. Dan versus... A few episodes.

Scooby -Doo. There's a new episode we recorded.

It will be out soon. Wow. DC Universe Online

stuff is out. Assassin's Creed Brotherhood. Regular

show. I'm still out there doing a few things

for them now and again. And that's always fun.

Yeah, that's the stuff I can sort of mention.

vaguely. This is a bunch of stuff I'm doing for

my trailers and scratching. My voice is out there

on different commercials. You may or may not

hear Norton antivirus stuff. I'm doing stuff

for them. Some Viagra commercials. Nothing wrong

with that. There's a bunch of stuff out there.

I can't remember what it is, but it's sort of

constant motion. A lot of the shows, again, because

of social networking, I can't say a damn thing.

But it's been very rewarding and busy and fun.

And I can't – yeah, the great agency and great

people. So, yeah, that's it. Very cool. We would

like to thank Mr. K for taking the time to chat

with us. We'll ask you to hold the line in this

special transformation animation interview. Yeah.