Interview with Garry Chalk on his Transformers Career

You are listening to the Beast Unleashed Podcast.

Hello, welcome to yet another Beast Unleashed

podcast interview episode. This will also be

featured on All Things Transformers, the other

podcast feed, the General Transformers podcast

feed. I am your host, TFG1 Mike, and I am joined

by Peacon Court Michael. Hello. Hey, how's it

going? It's going. Yeah, we have a really awesome

privilege this afternoon. I'm excited. Yeah.

Yeah. I'm like, just like, yeah, I can't say

anything at this point. And we haven't even done

it yet. I mean, usually I'm shocked after the

interviews, but it's like, holy crap, because

after we finished our David Kaye interview and

released it, I had this brainstorm idea. I am

friends with Gary Chalk and Scott McNeil on Facebook,

and I sent them both a general invitation requesting

an interview. Two days later, I have a new message

from Gary Chalk saying, you know, just let me

know what the time, date, you know, whatever

works for you guys. I said, you know, that's

fine. Just, you know, give us your, you know,

a contact number for you and we'll, you know,

we'll work it out and whatever else. And, yeah,

here in about ten minutes, we're going to be

talking to Gary Chalk, the voice of Optimus Primal

from Beast Wars and Beast Machines. Oh, holy

crap. I'm nudging you. I'm nudging you through

the internet and saying, oh, my God, it's Gary

Chalk. Gary Chalk is going to talk to us. Yeah,

yeah, exactly. Yeah, it's one of those moments.

And we are going to be, I'm going to be approaching

this interview pretty much fresh because I've

never met the guy, I've never talked to the guy,

unlike you, who have spent, you know, 30, 40

minutes in line waiting for the guy at BotCon.

Yeah. I actually shook his hand and got a picture

with him, and my wife got a picture with him,

too, because we both had stuff we wanted to sign.

And I had him sign my monkey. It was funny, too,

because I had an Optimus Primal figure, the,

I don't want to say leader class. I'm not sure

what the classes were called back then, but it's

the big one. And I said, you know, hi, will you

sign my monkey? and he just kind of looked at

me like, uh, I'm not sure how to take that. But,

uh, yeah, I have an Optimus Primal with a big

Gary chalk across the chest. Cool. Cool. It's

very cool. Yeah. Yes. Um, this will be a special,

uh, episode. This will not be in an inclusion

to any of the other episodes because this will

actually go out, um, I'm probably going to put

it out to Christmas Day. It'll be a Christmas

present for all the listeners who, you know,

Like us, have no life and aren't really doing

anything Christmas Day, an opening presents,

but, you know. Merry Christmas, one and all.

Yes, exactly. So, yeah, up next is our interview

with Gary Chuck. We'll be right back. Hello,

everyone. This is Michael Blanchard, and I am

joined with my friend and podcasting partner,

Michael Wilson. Hello. Hey, how's it going? It's

going. Today we have a super awesome privilege

to interview Gary Chalk. Yes, that's right. Optimus

Primal from Beast Wars and Beast Machines is

on the line with us. Hello, Gary. Hello. Happy

holidays, everybody. Yes, happy holidays. It's

funny you mention that. This interview will be

going up Christmas Day. Oh, fun. Yeah. So, how

have you been? What have you been up to? What

are some of your recent projects? Recent projects.

Well, I just finished a little sci -fi film called

Behemoth, which will be on the Sci -Fi Channel

coming up pretty soon in another month or two.

Other than that, an animated film called Max

Steel. As far as that goes, that's about it.

We rolled up a lot of series earlier this year

with Robots. It was a new series that I've been

working on last year. That's all finished up

pretty well, so everything's sort of wrapped

up for the holidays. I'm getting ready to go

over to England on January 21st. I'll be in London

doing a Stargate convention. And that's about

it for the moment. Aren't you also doing, what

is the English Transformers Convention? Oh, in

Birmingham. Yeah. Yeah, that's the, what is it

called? Auto Assembly. Auto Assembly, yeah. I'm

doing the Auto Assembly with Scott McNeil. We're

going to go up there and do that in Birmingham

in August. Very cool. That's going to be fun.

Yes. Oh, yeah. Before we get too far along, I'd

like to say that we here at The Beast Unleashed

also listened to your interview with Brian Kilby

and his friends over at Radio Free Cybertron.

That was a great interview, by the way. Oh, thanks

very much. We are going to be covering some different

ground here in this one since we are Beast Wars

and Beast Machines Podcast. We'll be zeroing

in on your Beast Wars experiences. Invite all

of our listeners to... tune into Brian's interview,

which had a broader scope, and I'm sure that

Brian will send his fans here as well. Yeah.

Michael, you want to go with the first question

here? Sure, yeah. Gary, you've popped up in a

lot of live -action roles that kind of surprised

me. Not so much surprised like, oh my god, why

is he there? But surprised like, whoa, cool,

he's there. I was really excited to see you in

Freddy vs. Jason. Yes. That was very, very fun.

I was playing Sheriff Carter, and my part of

the legend was that I actually killed Freddy

Krueger, which caused him to come back as the

creature on Nightmare on Elm Street as he got

burned in the house. So that's... That was one

sort of iconic thing that I was very proud of.

And I got to work with Ronnie Yu, who was a hoot

who I'd worked with before on another sort of

animated live -action film about fighting kangaroos.

Do you think I can remember the name of the title?

I can't. What was it called? But Ronnie was a

hoot. Yeah, I've worked in a lot of films, at

least over a hundred. Well, I like your character

Colonel Chekhov in Stargate SG -1. I love that.

Again, I was surprised to see you there doing

the Russian accent. Yes, I do that on occasion.

You'll have to pardon me, I'm just getting over

a cold, so my voice is a little rough. I've done

a few things. I've played a German and a Frenchman

and an Englishman and an Irishman and a Russian

on various shows. The Russian was quite fun because

I had a thing with the producers of Stargate.

I used to work with them before in a show called

MacGyver. Right. Back in the 80s. and I was on

several shows of MacGyver back then, and got

to know Richard Dean very well, and he turned

out to be a really wonderful guy, and also Don

Davis, who played General Hammond, who since

passed away last year. which we were very sad

to see him go because I'd known him for very

many years and he was a very good friend. I miss

him anyway. They had said, oh yeah, we're going

to get you on to Stargate. And I said, okay.

Well, that sounds like fun. So I waited a couple

of years, a couple of three years, four years.

Nope, it's coming, it's coming. And then one

day I got a call. I said, oh, yeah, we finally

got a role for you on Stargate SG -1. And I said,

oh, what's that? He said, oh, it's a good one.

How's your Russian? And I went, you're kidding

me, right? He said, no, how's your Russian? And

I said, oh, I don't know. I can do it not so

bad, but, you know, speaking, I don't know. So

they said, well, we got this guy, but he speaks

Russian a lot. And I said, well... and, you know,

we'll give it a go. So they hired a Russian coach

who was from Mosfilm in Moscow, who was a television

director in Moscow, named Sasha, I think it's

Bulganin. I can't remember exactly the pronunciation,

but Sasha I'd known and was a great guy, and

he came and taught me how to speak Russian because...

All the first scenes in the movie were in Russian,

or in the show were in Russian. And as he was

teaching me, he's going, oh, this is very weird,

very strange. And I says, what? He says, when

you speak Russian, you sound exactly, exactly

like Joseph Stalin. He says, you sound like Stalin.

You have same rhythm, same tone, same accent.

It's easy. And I went, oh, yeah, I'm channeling

Stalin. Great. So I ended up learning all these

scenes in Russian, and then when I came to the

day to shoot the first scene, they said, oh,

it's too long, we're going to cut the Russian.

And I said, no. No, I learned for three weeks

this, we're going to use it. But they never did

keep it in the show. Well, so the question that

leads into would be, do you prefer the voice

acting or the on -camera work like you did in

Watchmen? Well, the on -camera work is incredibly

exciting. I always enjoy it a lot. And the thing

I like about... Well, the thing is, I love to

perform. And performance comes in different ways,

and the joy comes out of different things. With

the voiceover stuff, with the animation, I enjoy

it because the scripts are fun. And I get to

go in the studio dressed in my pajamas or whatever

I want and go in the studio and have to put makeup

on and don't have to memorize tons of lines.

And I get to work with a bunch of people who

I just adore who are tremendously talented individuals.

So that's my thing with the voiceover stuff.

And you get to sort of create a theater of the

mind or you can create the movie in your head

and hopefully it works. with what the guys at

the animation studio want. With film, the great

thing about film is that technically it's a lot

of fun, and you get to work with a lot of great

people, and just hitting the marks and being

there, it's just very exciting. Yeah. Actually,

it's very funny. The very first live -action

role I saw you in, I mean, I knew Optimus Primal,

the voice of Optimus Primal from Beast Wars.

The very first time I was able to put a face

to the voice was when you played Dum -Dum in

Nick Fury. My God. Dum -Dum, yeah, Dum -Dum Dugan.

Yeah. Oh, yeah. That was fun. I got to work with

David Hasselhoff. Lisa Renner, and I got to work

with Stan Lee. Yeah. Not in the movie, but I

think it might be in the DVD. But, you know,

Stan Lee usually does a scene in every movie

that's made of one of his shows. Yeah. You know,

he always shows up like, you know, he showed

up in Spider -Man, and I think he showed up in

The Hulk a couple of times. Well, I got to do

the scene with him in Nick Fury. And I said to

him, I can't believe it. I'm meeting Stan Lee.

And he goes, well, I'm meeting Gary Chalk. And

I said, yeah, but you don't understand. When

I was a kid, every Saturday we'd go to the corner

store, my buddies and I, and we'd pick up this

week's edition of the comics. And Stan Lee wrote

all our favorite comics. And so we're sitting

there on the sidewalk in the summertime reading

them. And all we're looking for is because we'd

always send letters to Stan Lee. You know, I

have this section in the comic book, send a letter

to Stan Lee. Right. And I'd always send a letter,

and then we'd go and look in the comics to see

if our letter showed up, and it never showed

up. So I said to him, you know, I wrote to you

religiously. I wrote every week letters to you

hoping that you would answer my letter, but it

never came. And he goes, no, no, no. We only

have room. We get thousands of letters. I know,

you get thousands of letters, but you could have

at least picked one. And he goes, well, I'll

tell you what. You take a picture with me and

I'll sign your picture and you can sign mine.

I went, okay. So now I have a signed picture

of me and Stanley. It's one of those defining

moments in your life when you meet an actual

hero of yours in the flesh. This legend blew

my mind. I felt the same way when I met you.

Where did we meet? Not in North Carolina. Where?

It was BotCon in 2006. I'm trying to remember

which one that was. It was in Lexington, Kentucky.

No, it was in Chicago. Yeah, Chicago. You were

there with Greg Berger and I think Dan Gilbozan.

That's right. Yeah, and we sat in line and I

asked you to sign my monkey. Yeah, I asked and

I did. Yeah, I saw that. I signed a few monkeys.

Yeah, to tell you the truth, I don't really go

to many conventions. I've only been to, as far

as the Botcons and the Transformers, I've only

been to, I can count them, one, two, three, four,

five, six, seven. That's more than I've been

to. Yeah, well, considering they have them all

over the place. I met some people in Louisiana

in July. I went to a MeccaCon in Louisiana, which

was really fun. It was huge. I couldn't believe

it. There was like 1 ,200 people there. And they've

moved, because their venue in Lafayette is too

small, they're moving it to New Orleans this

year. But I went there in July and just had an

absolute blast. But you never get to see a lot

of people. I forgot my focus. I forgot my question.

I'm sorry. I was sitting there going, what the

hell am I doing? I just made a comment about

the Nick Fury movie. Moving into the Beast Wars

stuff, what is your favorite memory from Beast

Wars and Beast Machines? My favorite memory...

Well, one of my favorite memories from Beast

Wars was... Scotty used to like to... lay down

on the floor and take a nap when he wasn't working.

We would cover him with paper. That was fun.

Tormenting Ian Corlett was always my favorite

because Ian and I would stand beside each other

in the studio. He was the one who played Cheetor.

It used to unnerve him because I would... I would

do visual things to him while he was doing his

read. He would say, what are you doing? I'd say,

nothing, nothing. I'm not doing anything. He'd

say, stop looking at me. The favorite things

were just being in there with those guys and,

of course, watching Venus Terzo do her thing

with Blackarachnia was always a treat. We were

always jealous because Scotty McNeil always got

to stand beside Venus, who was so wonderful.

Is that a visual thing or something we might

not know from not being there? Venus Terzo? Yeah.

Venus Terzo is absolutely drop -dead gorgeous.

I had met her once at another convention. Oh,

did you? Yeah. Did she not just drop dead gorgeous?

She was very attractive. And Scott McNeil was

there, and he went on and on and on about how

very attractive she is. She is very attractive.

And what's really attractive about her is not

only is she just like hot looking, I mean, she's

really hot, but she's just the nicest person

you'd ever meet. Just a wonderful, bubbly, great,

fun personality. Just enjoyed the hell out of

her. We just had a privilege a couple weeks ago

to speak with David Kaye, and he said what he

misses most about Beast Wars and Beast Machines

was pulling your finger. Thank you, Dave. Pull

my finger. Come on, pull it, pull it. He said,

I'm not going to pull your finger. Don't pull

his finger, Ian would say. No. And he said, don't

pull my finger. And he goes, I'm pulling it.

And he goes, no, don't pull it. Ah! Too late!

And at the end of the year, I got my ceremonial

can of Florient. So the question is, what do

you miss most about your time on Beast Wars and

Beast Machines? Well, what I miss is I miss the

cast so much. I mean, I just had so much fun

with them. And I had a pile of fun with Sue Blue

and with... Mike Donovan and Al Willows and all

the gang. They were just a great bunch of people.

We worked together almost every day for years.

It was a real crusher when the show ended. I

couldn't see why it ended, but it did. I just

miss that. I miss all the recording sessions

and seeing the new toys come out and the new

posters. And that's basically it. I just miss

that camaraderie of being there and telling really

great stories. It was like, I was very proud

to be part of a groundbreaking show. Yeah. You

know? It was just like a really neat, neat premise.

And I remember the very first time they sent

out the test, the test reel of the first episode,

and we watched it on the big screen in the studio,

and we just went, oh, my God. This is a TV cartoon.

Oh, my God. It's fantastic. Yeah. It just blew

our minds. It was state -of -the -art back in

the day. Yeah, state -of -the -art back then.

I mean, it was the first time that anybody had

been doing CGI for network television. Now everybody's

doing it, but, you know. But it was the first

time, and it was like, It was just like, we are

part of this, and that's what I wanted to be

still. Right. Now that we've covered your favorite

memories and such, what was, how should I put

it, was there anything that you did not like

or that was hard for you to do in the Beast era?

Season 3. Season three, when we got all introspective

and we were all sniping at each other all the

time, those storylines, the sort of esoteric

with, you know, going on to the planet, I guess

it was the planet Cybertron. And we were, you

know, the seeds or the key to the future lies

buried in the past. And all those things, we

got very, very zen. I mean, it was neat, but...

I think after a while I just wanted to get back

to the action, moving and banging and slashing

and going after Megatron and his evil cohorts.

It was fun, but that was one that was a bit tough.

So you're saying it was kind of going against

character for Primal? For me, I thought it was.

I thought it was like I was turning into a navel

gazer. Well, that's what I thought. I mean, you

can look at season three and tell me what you

think, but I think that was one of my only complaints.

I think that's a general criticism with that

season, with Primal not being the leader so much,

to the point where Cheetor had to take over.

Yeah, and I just thought that it was wrong, and

I got into a few beefs in the studio. with the

producers and the writers about it. And it's,

come on, you guys. I mean, what is this? We sit

here, I'm sitting here doing nothing, basically,

and everybody's fighting amongst each other.

What's this show about? We're a team, not a dysfunctional

family. So what sort of things would you consider,

oh, I don't know, difficult to do? Difficult

to do? What would I consider difficult to do?

Right. Any orcs or orcish kind of villains on

video games? Have you been asked to do that?

Oh, yes. I've done it. Do that for eight hours

and you've got no voice left. All right. A little

side question now that you bring that up. Were

you the voice of the prehistoric humans? The

prehistoric humans and... Beast Wars. Ah, yes,

some of them. I was going to say, because the

older father -type figure, because I just watched

the series a couple weeks ago now, and I'm like,

wait, that sounds just like Primal, except he's

doing his Uggs and Oggs and all that. Uggs and

Oggs, yeah. Yeah. That's so cool. Yeah, very

cool. That's... Those things... I don't think

there's anything I really find difficult to do.

I find some things challenging. The more depth

the character has, the more you have to reach

into your inner self to find the truth in it.

It's not so much difficult, but it's challenging.

Basically, what are we doing? We're telling the

story, and we're going to tell the story, so

that in a way that people care about us. You

know, if we're bad or good or indifferent, it's

just, you know, if you're going to tell a story,

you want to make sure that people care about

you, whether you're a villain or a good guy.

And if you don't do it properly or don't do it

honestly, people will see that and will say,

nope, don't like it, off, change the channel.

Yeah. At the time, Beast Wars and Beast Machines

were on air. Which voice actors in the industry

did you admire most? My favorite voice actors,

the ones I admired was Maurice Lamarche. I thought

he was fabulous. You know, he played Ren and

Stimpy? Yep. Oh, sorry. Pinky and the Brain.

Pinky and the Brain. He played the Brain, right?

Yep. I thought, to me, he was the most... a wonderful,

versatile actor and very funny. I worked with

him a few times. The other ones, I really liked

Tony Jay, who's since passed away. He was the

voice of Megabyte on that other show, Reboot.

And, of course, Doz Butler. And now I've always

been my hero since I was a kid. But Doz Butler,

I just... He was like, I grew up with Doug Butler

with Huckleberry Hound and Quick Drama Draw and

all those. I thought he was tremendous. Yes.

Question. Yeah. What could you tell us, or what

can you reveal about the behind -the -scenes

moments during Beast Wars, Beast Machines recordings?

Not, I want to say, Not just, you know, how hot

Venus is, but stuff that might pop up in like

a cast -only Christmas party clip show. A cast

-only Christmas party clip show. Have you ever

heard the Thundercats one on the internet? No,

I haven't. Oh. But I'll check it out. Now that

you've given it to me, I'll check it out. It's

racy outtakes from their recordings. And it was

only supposed to... Yeah, it's mostly just...

Yeah, racy outtakes. You know what's unfortunate

in that sense, quite fortunate, is most of the

cast of Beast Wars or Beast Machines were squeaky.

You know what I'm saying? We have two very devout

Christians. an elementary school teacher, just

a straight guy like myself, an older fellow.

I mean, we never really did any of those kind

of outtakes. I mean, the worst, I think, I can't

even recall of anything we did nasty on that

show. Well, not nasty, but outtaking. We never

really did any of that. It's kind of boring,

huh? Yeah, I'm expecting something, you know.

Something racy and nasty? Something blackmail

worthy. I want the dirt, man. Oh, the dirt. Well,

to tell you the truth, there wasn't really any.

I think the only thing was, you know, my dog

used to play with the engineer's dog in the studio,

and that created a little grief sometimes. Other

than that, I don't know. I'm trying to think.

Well, maybe Scotty could tell you, but all I

remember is going in and doing the show, recording

the show, and leaving the room. I think one time

I took my headset off and threw it on the floor

in frustration about something. I got into a

beef with Sue one time, but that's about it.

There's just, there was really nothing. I mean,

you have to recall, you have to remember that

at the time that we were recording Beast Machines,

we were recording shows every single day. Different

shows. I mean, there was Beast Machines and there

was Reboot and there was, you know, Mummies and

Knights of Justice and all these. different shows

that we were recording every day. And it's like

we're just going into the studio, running into

the next studio, going out one after the other,

one after the other. So we didn't really have

any time to get silly. Right. Imagine we tried

to get silly. He says, you know, we say to Venus,

okay, Venus, it's time to do your running wallah.

And she goes, what? It's time to do the running

wallah. And you know what running, well, you

know. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm with you, girl.

And then when she figured it out, she screamed

at us. You bastards. How dare you? That's funny.

The Beast Wars voice actors were a tight -knit

group back in the day. Do you still keep in touch

with the original team? Yes, I do. Every single

one of them. The only one I haven't seen in the

last couple of months is Al Willows because he's

been out and about doing some theater. But I

saw Scotty the other day. I saw Venus about a

month ago. Or no, a couple of months ago on the

beach. And that was fun. And Ian I saw a couple

of days ago. Ian Corlatt. I see him all the time.

Jimmy Burns, I saw him last week. He has a radio

show on Shore 104 .1 every Saturday night from

8 to 11. And if you ever get a chance to listen,

that's a great radio station. Just a little plug

for Shore 104 .1 in Vancouver. I wonder if you

can get that on the Internet. Huh? I think you

can. Yeah, because that would be worth tuning

into. I live in Chicago, nowhere near Vancouver,

but if I could hear that, that would be very

cool. Oh, yeah, it's very cool, and Jim is very

cool in it. And all the rest of them, yeah, see

them all the time. You mentioned Scott McNeil.

We would love to talk to him sometime. You can

make that happen, right? I can make that happen.

I can torment him to do an interview. I have

been calling him. Actually, I've been calling

him for the last week or so, trying to get a

hold of him, but I don't know where the hell

he is. He goes on these conventions all the time.

Yeah. So he's never around. But I'll make a point

of getting a hold of him and send him your way.

Very cool. Nice. See, that Jedi mind trick worked.

Your mind trick, yes. No, because he's actually

a fun interview. Yeah. I saw a video that someone

posted that had tagged you in it. It was about

a reboot panel. where Scotty was talking about

going to some convention, and somebody was drawing

a picture of Waspinator, and he was standing

right behind the guy, and he went into his Waspinator

voice, and after he says that, the camera pans

to you next to him, and you're like, I was there.

You were there. No, the... You were there. You.

I was there. Oh, I remember that. No, I remember

that. And the guy... Scott. And the guy was doing

Waspinator. Scott was doing Waspinator behind

him as he was drawing it. And the look on his

face was very funny. Oh, yeah. He's an entertaining

guy. He's what? He's an entertaining guy. It's

good to talk to him. Oh, yeah. Very entertaining.

Quite fun. That reboot panel that we did was

at the anime convention in Vancouver. I think

it was in June. I think it was in June or August,

one of the two. I can't remember. But that was

a big one. That was like 5 ,000, 6 ,000 people

there. Wow. Yeah, it was wild. It was in the

new convention center, and it was just like,

whoo -hoo. Wow. Pretty cool. That's pretty amazing.

Yeah. Well, back to Beast Machines. How were

you informed that the show was going to end?

How was I informed? Did everybody know ahead

of time, or was it just, oh boy, we're not picked

up for another season, you know, Bob Scare made

this ending for us? No, the end came as, as I

recall, the guys who were producing it had decided

they weren't going to do it anymore. They just

said, no, I'm going to move on to something else.

And it just stopped. And I had no idea that that

was what was happening, but we had sort of an

inkling that the season that we did, that last

season, was going to be our last season. It was

some kind of a, I don't know if I'm telling tales

out of school, but I don't know if it was some

sort of a dispute with Hasbro about the show.

And so they decided not to do the show anymore.

That's how I figured it. But they remounted it

again, didn't they? Or not these machines. No,

they remounted Transformers again down in the

States. Well, after the fact, the Japanese came

up with a show where they actually brought back

vehicle Transformers. And they translated that

and brought it to the States. And that stuck

around for about a year. Which one? Cybertron?

Energon? Oh, Robots in Disguise, yeah. Well,

that was before Armada came in and started the

Unicom trilogy. Yeah, and that's what I did with

that trilogy. Right, right. Do you think that

the show could have done anything else after

that, or do you wish it could have gone on longer?

Oh, yeah, because I really, I really, I've got

to tell you, I really enjoyed that show. I would

have loved to see what would happen if the beasts

and... suddenly been transformed into the future

and assumed the original Transformers mode again.

That would have been cool. That would have been

cool. I would love to have seen that because,

well, how did they get the animal things? They

landed on the planet, got the DNA, scanned the

animals, and became those animals. So it would

have been nice to see them all go into some deep

hibernation and all of a sudden wake up in the

future. take on some new vehicles. I have a little

side question to that. What was your favorite

version of Optimus Primal as far as character

design? Because he went through several different

transformations throughout the entire Beast Wars,

Beast Machines. Yes. My favorite was the... Not

the gorilla. The gorilla I really loved. I still

have my gorilla. But the one I really loved was

the one just before Transmetal. Just before Transmetal.

That was the original gorilla. Oh, no. Sorry.

It's the one. I guess it was the Transmetal.

Oh, the blue one? Yeah, the blue one. With the

surfboard. Yeah. I kind of like that one. That

is a very cool design. Yeah, I kind of like it.

The other ones I can't remember. I still have

them. I should go down in the basement and look

at my little shelf. I keep them on a shelf, you

know. So do I. In my little room. My mom won't

allow me to have them in the living room. I have

to keep them in my little room downstairs. Yeah,

it's sad, but I can relate to that. But it's

true. My wife says, you're not having those things

in here. That's right. And I said, yeah, but

they're mine. She goes, no, you have your little

room down the stairs that you can put them in

with your little posters and your little business.

I'm going, I'm not a kid. These are memories,

memoirs of a life well lived. Exactly. Yeah,

I keep them all. Nice. Transitioning into the

Unicron Trilogy stuff, after Robots in Disguise

did its year and was quickly shot down, I don't

think they even ended it. There were a couple

at the end that I've never seen. But then you

were cast. as Optimus Prime again in the next

three shows, the Unicron trilogy. So how did

you change from Optimus Primal to Optimus Prime?

Well, with Optimus Primal, Optimus Primal, to

my mind, was a lot more human, a lot warmer,

and subject to emotional kind of outbursts and

had a real sort of... I hesitate to say, but

a very paternal relationship with all the rest

of the gang on Beast Machines. But in the trilogy,

Optimus is back to his old officer, you know,

I'm my bad. Jetfire, let's go. It was more like

the Peter Cullen version. Right, right. And I

tried to inject some of that humanity into that

trilogy, but they said, nope, got to make them

tougher, harder, bigger, more like the original

Transformers. And so that was sort of a thing

that I enjoyed. It was good, but I just, I wished

I would have, I know it sounds silly, but I wish

I had an opportunity to inject more me into the

character. Right. Now, is that because you were

constrained by the Japanese translations? I was

constrained big time by the Japanese translations.

The hard part about those things is that Japanese

speak with a very specific rhythm, and Americans

speak with a very specific rhythm. In Japanese,

it's, you know, all these polysyllabic words.

In American, it's, jet fire, let's go. So how

do you fit those polyphonic words into American

language that makes sense and doesn't sound like,

hmm, looks like we've got some raspberry jam

on my toast. I would have preferred strawberry,

but they only had raspberry. Blueberry would

be nice. But, you know, it's like adding all

these extra extraneous things, and it just made

it very, very difficult. And, of course, in the

Japanese, they love, in Japanese animation, they

love the long, charging confrontation where good

and evil, you know, collide in this, you know,

cosmic battle in space, and they're like miles

apart. they start this long Kai scream. And collide

and do this giant sumo wrestling thing. It used

to drive me nuts. Yeah, I personally don't like

that. I don't like it either. I also don't like

the form of storytelling where you say, oh, Optimus

Prime just got his butt kicked all the way around

the block, but... That's okay, because he can

power up with this new power -up armor he's acquired

and turn right around and defeat Megatron that

way. It's not, how do I think my way out of this?

How can I use my team to benefit? I know, there's

no real struggle. Yeah. There's no real peril.

There's no real danger. And then we're going

to defeat this guy, whereas we couldn't five

minutes ago. Yeah. Yeah. I don't like that form

of storytelling. No. Combined. When all the characters

combine into one giant character. From a toy

point of view, I like that. I like combiners.

But from the storytelling, they didn't use it

to push the story along. They used it as a means

to an end. Yeah. To my mind, it's contrived and

it's just not interesting. I agree. You know,

it doesn't leave you... What's the word? It's

not... You don't... You feel like you're anticipating

what's going to happen, what's going to happen,

what's going to happen. Yeah, you're not... You

already know they're going to win. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. So, sorry, Megatron. It doesn't matter

how fabulous your idea is or how powerful you

are, you're going to lose. Actually... I was

going to say, you could move on to the next question

if you wanted. We normally see you on the small

screen in a sheriff's or general uniform since

you play the leaders in many cartoons like He

-Man, Beast Wars, and the Unicron Trilogy. Would

you say that you prefer to play good guys? I

do prefer to play good guys. Well, no, that's

not true. Playing bad guys is fun. Because when

you play the bad guy, you get the best lines.

You get to do all the evil stuff, and it's really

interesting, and you get to go mu -ha -ha -ha

-ha -ha a lot. The good guy has to go, we can't

do that. We have to do this. We have to maintain

our sense of honor. Come on, darling, don't do

that. Come over here. We'll try it. It's just

like in Freddy vs. Jason. I was the good guy

in Freddy vs. Jason. In every scene, I said,

we're going to contain this thing. We've got

to contain this situation. If we don't contain

this right away, this lack of containment is

going to cause us some containment problems.

You know, I said containment in every single

scene. If you watch the movie, you'll see in

every scene I say, we've got to keep this thing

contained. And I went to Ronnie Yu about it,

and I said, Ronnie, you know I say contained

in every single scene? And he says, no, it's

good. It's like a joke. You know, we let the

people hear. You say contain every time. It's

a good joke. We like it. So we're going to keep

it. That was just annoying. Huh? I remember that,

but I was just annoyed. Like, come on, give Gary

some good lines. Some good lines. But I never

forget that. But, no, I like playing villains.

I've played a few of them. I did a villain on

Ghost Cop. That was quite fun. And a few other

shows like Airwolf. I was a villain a few times.

But the good guy is great, too. Like in Nick

Fury, that was really straight ahead and fun.

Who were you in Airwolf? Huh? Who were you in

Airwolf? In Airwolf, I was a... In one episode,

I was an arms dealer. In another one, I was a

mercenary. A mercenary soldier. What the hell

was my name? We were fighting in Burma somewhere,

you know, with the drug cartel. Well, I'm going

to have to go check. I got to beat up John and

Wynne Davies. Yeah, it was fun. I got to fly

in a helicopter and shoot at stuff. No, I've

had a few good ones, but villains get all the

best lines. The trouble with being the good guys,

you're the straight guy, so you have all the...

You're that humorless guy who just, you know,

straight ahead, Dudley Do -Right, you know? It's

like Goody Two -Shoes. I guess you get the best

lines. I honestly don't think... Now, I know

Optimus Primal is a good guy through and through,

but as the ending of Beast Machines came up with

those, like, final four episodes... Yeah. And

his anger that you put into it towards Megatron,

I think he was kind of rebelling against everything.

Yeah, I would say so. Because it was the time,

you know, it was time to end it once and for

all. And every one of us, I think, you know,

we get self -righteously, well, we get righteously

angry. You know, because it's like with any good...

any good person or any good group of people,

you get pushed to a certain extent. And you go,

we're like, you know, a network. We're mad as

hell and we're not going to take it anymore.

Right? Yeah. After Megatron takes out a whole

planet, it's time to put the foot down. Yeah,

it's time to put the foot down. You know, I let

the block go. I let the car go. You know, that

was fun. You destroyed a city. All right. Planet.

I'm sorry, buddy. You've gone just too far. What

I would find funny is if I found out that whenever

you and David Kaye might have a phone conversation

that you talk to each other in the Primal and

Megatron voices, that would be so funny to learn

if you guys did that. Well, actually, I have

talked to David Kaye on numerous occasions, and

he has called me back exactly the same way. We

have spent a lot of time, you know, David Kaye

and I, we were at the MeccaCon in July. We were

out in New York one time launching a video game

and spent a lot of time going to different restaurants

and shows. I actually took him through the Museum

of Modern Art. All the times he'd been in New

York, he'd never spent any time in there. Wow.

And so we went there one day and he just went,

oh, oh, oh. It's a fantastic place. Transitioning

into your thoughts on fandom and BotCon and things

of that sort, how do you feel about the Transformers

fandom? The Transformers fandom is, well, considering

I've met quite a few of them and have... you

know, a lot on my internet, you know, the Facebook

page, you know, it always comes up. And a lot

of who I've met and known personally are tremendous.

I mean, a lot of people poo -poo that kind of

fandom, like, you know, with the Star Trek, a

lot of the cool people, you know, like, I know

some people, you know, they go, come on, Star

Trek, come on, you know, Transformers, the anime.

But you know what's great about it? The people

who watch these things and get involved with

these things are pretty bright. Most of the people

I've met have been exceedingly bright and have

great careers and are talented artists and some

musicians I've met. I'm not plugging Candice

anymore. My friend Candice is a tremendous artist

and a devoted fan of both Transformers and Stargate.

And all of them that I've met have just been,

you know, just wonderful people. They're not,

they're not, they're not, what do you say? They're

not freaky. They're not freaks. Yeah. Right?

Their common bond is their love of this. of this

cartoon or their love of this TV show. When they

get together with the fan groups, they just get

to share their excitement and their zeal with

a bunch of people who are like -minded. And to

me, that's a great sense of community and a great

sense of human social interaction, which I enjoy.

Now, I've got to tell you, on the anime side,

some of that stuff's a little creepy. You know,

those little Lolita girls going around with their,

you know, their Lolita outfits and the sort of

racy kind of things that they wear. I've said

some of the costumes are like, ooh, don't let

your mom catch you wearing that puppy. I mean,

some of them, but I don't know if it's sort of

an expression of some kind of post -pubescent

sexuality, but it's kind of bizarre. And when

I see these older guys that are sort of hanging

out with their little demon costumes and whatnot,

I'm going, you guys are creeping me out. Sorry.

Mind you, there was a few fans who I'd met who

were kind of creepy. There was one guy who decided

he wanted to be my bodyguard. And he had a sword

and a long black coat like, you know, Columbine

kind of thing. And that was kind of scary. But

apart from that, most of the people I've met

have been wonderful. I enjoy it. What has been

your other strangest fan experience besides the

bodyguard? Oh, I've got to tell you. The two

guys, funnily enough, from Kentucky. I wonder

if it was you guys. No. I'm from Chicago. Oh,

you're in Chicago. Okay, good. There was two

guys in Chicago, and they were sitting at the

bar, and I had just escaped a big clash, and

I'm sitting at the bar, and I'm having a drink,

and the guy goes, Hey, Mr. Chalk. And I said,

It's Chuck. And he says, Yes, Mr. Chalk. How

can you stand and hang out with all these losers?

And I said, Wait a minute. You're here. Yeah,

but I'm not a loser. Well, they're not losers

either. They're great. Yeah, but you know what?

No, I'm different from them. And I said, really?

How is that? He said, I had sex last night. And

I said, really? Yeah, with a real woman. And

I went, oh, well, that's great. And then he says,

I'll prove it. Do you see that? And he pulls

his shirt down and shows me a big hickey on his

neck. And I went, ah, hello. I was tempted to

say, so you've had sex with a real woman. What

about those times when you had sex with a woman

who wasn't real? Who was that? I was trying to

figure it out, and I was just conjuring up really

creepy visions in my head. I'm going, no, I won't

touch that one. But that was a bizarre one. That

is creepy. Can you tell us your thoughts, experience,

attending BotCon? Attending BotCon? Yes. The

very first time I attended BotCon, I was in Van

Nuys, not in Van Nuys, in Orange County by Disneyland

in L .A., and that was a big BotCon. And I first

went in there. I had no idea what to expect.

I just sort of showed up, and the guy took me

into the building, and I'm walking around, and

nobody knew us from Adam. And we walk into the

main... and there was a bunch of gals sitting

at a table when we first walked in. And the guy

who was leading it said, Hey, guys, this is Gary

Chalk. He plays Optimus Primal. And the girls

went, Do you see Galaxy Quest? Yeah. And when

he walked in the room and all those girls went,

Like that? Yeah. These girls all did that. And

I went, Holy moly. What's this? And then it was

just like this exhausting experience for three

days. I had no idea that it was such a big deal.

Zero idea. I just walked out and went, yeah,

yeah, do the cartoon. Holy, well, can you tell

us? Well, yeah, no, just do the cartoon. Yeah,

but it's kind of, you know, it's like I'm going,

oh, yeah, I don't get it. Yeah. Now I sort of

get it. It's like seeing your favorite celebrity

up close. Oh, yeah. Well, if that were the case,

I'd be going to a, oh, I don't know, an Alec

Guinness convention. Or Stan Lee. Or Stan Lee.

Or, you know, there's a little lot of them. My

dog has just climbed up into my lap right now.

If you don't hear him, he'll be... He's looking

at the phone. He's going, why aren't you taking

me out? Because he's such a good dog. Well, there

are two of them. I've got two of them here. Two

more questions for you. Yeah. Did you ever, just

going along with the same BotCon question thing,

did you ever browse the dealer room for toys?

Yes. I have browsed on numerous occasions and

actually bought a Transformers anime shirt, and

I bought some pens, and I bought, what else?

I can't remember. It was one little toy, one

little car toy that I bought just to, you know,

sit it on there. And, of course, some Pocky.

Pocky seems to show up at every convention. I

don't know why. It's a big Pocky thing. The candy.

Yeah, those candy stick things. I bought a box

of those. But I was talking to some guys there

who, when they're looking for this one Transformers

toy, it's like a little car, but it's worth like

tons of money. They only made like a couple of

them. And I cannot remember for who the character

is, but it was like a little green or a little

yellow car. It was probably a G1 Bumblebee. That's

the one. Is that the one? The bumblebee sort

of rings a bell. Everybody's looking for the

bumblebee. I can't tell you how much money I've

dropped at the BotCon dealer room. Just thousands.

I know. Well, you'd be amazed if you go into,

like when we did the product launch or the video

game launch. for Transformers. That was the second

game. We were in New York and they had a display

case of the Transformers, like all right from

G1 Transformers. And there were some pieces in

there. There was one, I think it was like the

original Transformers truck. And it was like

something ridiculous, like 7 ,000 bucks. Wow.

For a truck. But it was the very first one. Yeah.

It was like if there was a couple of guys who

got in as fans. I'll be quiet. A couple of guys

as fans got into the product launch, and they

were just looking at this glass case, and they're

just going, I want this. I want this. No, it

was very fun. Do you prefer to watch panels at

conventions or participate in them? I like to

participate in panels. Watching them, especially

if I'm watching the guys that I work with, I'm

just hearing what I've already heard and already

know. But sometimes I went to a couple of anime

guys, like the anime After Hours. That was quite

fun. Pretty racy. We had some good jokes in there.

And, yeah, I like watching the odd panel every

once in a while. But most of the time you're

either in a panel or you're signing pictures

and then you get an hour of free time to browse

and so you just go and hide in the guest room

and go to sleep. Now my other dog has just climbed

up into my lap now. Uh -oh. Have you been...

Have you been contacted about doing voice work

on an upcoming Transformers cartoon? The upcoming

Transformers cartoon? No. No? You're talking

about the series or the movie? No, the cartoon.

There's a new cartoon coming next year in 2010.

On TV? Yeah. Yeah. No, David Kaye's playing my

part. Oh. Well, he's playing a part, but you

could play... A part? I could if I could go down

to America, but they're recording it in Los Angeles.

Oh. Yeah. That would lead to the next question.

I thought David was playing Megatron, and then

he ended up playing Optimus. But I don't know

if the series is going ahead or not. No, that

series is done. There's going to be a new cartoon,

brand new. now that the second movie is already

out and done with Hasbro has struck a deal with

Discovery Channel and it's going to be a Hasbro

Discovery Network a cable channel and they have

a brand new cartoon on there well I hope they

contact me this is where you and the network

and that great big internet world will go hey

we want it back exactly This is a plug for me.

Hi, my name is Gary Shock. Get me back to Transformers.

Little plug. Because I love doing it. Yeah. We

love having you do it. Last question. The last

Transformers cartoon was done in L .A. at the

Cartoon Network headquarters. We're not sure

if the next cartoon will be through Cartoon Network

or not, but would you be interested even if you

had to do the taping in L .A.? Oh, yes. No. I

love going down there. So I thought you were

more of a Vancouver -centric and didn't make

the trip that often. No, I'm Vancouver -centric

because, well, this is where I live. But if they

required us to record in L .A., I would go and

record in L .A. I mean, it's not a big deal.

It's a two -and -a -half -hour flight from here.

I don't like going down. The only reason I would

go down to Los Angeles is for work. I'm not a

big fan of the city, you know, as far as, you

know, just going there to visit. That's right.

I was down there in the 80s and that and visited

a few times since then. To me, you know, Los

Angeles is just another city. And for me, I've

been in the business for 30 years, you know,

in the movie business and the cartoon business

for a long, long time. The allure of the big

studios down there is just not as great as it

used to be when I was a kid. Right. You know,

because I already know what goes on in there,

and I've been doing that all my life, so it's

just another location. I mean, it's fun to go

to the beach every once in a while. Yeah, exactly.

I'd go to Disneyland. But it would definitely

be worth it to us as fans for you to make the

trip and just to hear you. Even if you didn't

get the prime role. Just to hear you back in

the cartoons again. Oh, that would be fun. That

would be fun. So we'll see what they come up

with. And that will be in 2010. Well, I don't

know if they're recording it right now or not,

but I don't think they won't start to record

it until 2010. Well, it's supposed to be late,

like fall of 2010 is when it's supposed to be

after summer. I've heard they're casting now.

Yes. Well, let's hope. I'll get on my agent and

have her look at that and see what she says.

Oh, stop it, you guys. Thank you. We'd like to

thank Mr. Tom for taking the time to chat with

us on this special All Things Transformers and

the Beast Unleashed interview. Be sure to also

check out his upcoming projects. Behemoth? Yeah.

Behemoth on SyFy. Yes. You mentioned to me when

I was requesting, when I sent you a message when

you and I were talking back and forth through

Facebook, you mentioned that... The day previous

to us recording this was a bad day because you

were doing stuff with A -Team? Oh, yeah, yeah,

yeah. I went down and was trying to do this A

-Team thing for the new A -Team feature. And

I go down to do the interview last week, and

I was so sick with this cold. I just went, I'm

sorry, I can't do this. That's just too ill.

It was just a little one -day bit on the A -team.

It was actually going to shoot today, and I decided

I wasn't going to do it. It went another way.

A -team. I'm sorry? What role are you going to

be on A -team? I'm not going to be on A -team.

I was supposed to shoot today, but I'm... When

I went, I was so ill at the meeting that they

decided they were going to go with someone else

because they didn't want to risk me being ill

on the set. Oh, okay. So they went with another

guy. But it looks like it's going to be a fun

movie. As I say, it was only a one -day little

cameo role as a judge, advocate general. Oh.

Yeah. But now they've got a fellow named Tom

Butler who's going to play the part, and I'm

just going to recover. I hope you feel better

soon. Yeah. Well, I hope so, too. This does it

for the Beast Unleashed interview of Gary Chalk.

Mr. Chalk, hold the line, and we will be right

back. Okay. We are back. Oh, my God. Yes. Oh,

my freaking God. We just talked to Optimus Primal.

We just talked with Gary Chalk. Wow. I know you

can't see this because it's not video, but it's

this big smile. It's a smile that radiates. Yeah.

I hope you can feel it from there. Oh, yeah.

It's like giant gamma radiation. I know. Okay.

Yeah. Wow. That was just so awesome. Yeah, anyway.

Yeah, it's like I said in the outro to the David

Kaye interview, whenever I'm done talking to

a celebrity, and mind you, I haven't talked to

many, you know, interview -wise, but, you know,

I mean, you know, I'm getting up there, but anyway.

It's an appreciable number so far. Oh, yeah,

and it's just like, it's like my vocals go into

shock where I just can't say anything but, Oh

my god, yeah, way cool. You know, just like one

of those crazy stupid one -liners, you know?

But that was just the best thing ever. That is,

again, that's like one of those once -in -a -lifetime

deals. I wouldn't say that, I mean, technically

this is the second time I've talked to Gary Chalk,

so, I mean, I'm sure that there's going to be

a second time in your life as well. Right, but,

okay, if you'd have told me a year ago... When

I started podcasting that I would get to interview

people, I just gave you the middle finger and

walked away. It's that type of thing where you

just never... Never say never. No, I know that.

No, I'm not saying that. I'm saying you just

never think that you're going to get a chance

to do that. That's right. With hard work and

perseverance, you too can have a body like mine.

Oh, good lord. That's right. Oh, God. Anyways,

yeah, that was just great of Mr. Chalk to give

us some time. Fantastic guy. Very, very cool

of him. And, you know, I think we got some promos

out of him, too, so you may see those in upcoming

Beast Unleashed episodes and maybe all things

Transformers episodes. So this will, as I said

in the intro, this will air on Christmas Day.

So Merry Christmas, everybody. Merry Christmas.

And The Beast Unleashed, Episode 1, will air

January 11, 2010. Wow, 2010. That's going to

get really hard to say. Yeah. When you're writing

your checks, it's like, no, it's not 9 anymore.

Damn it. I'm going to have to write it out. I

can't write 10. I can write, oh, whatever. But,

yeah. Anyway. 2 -0 -1 -0. Yes. I have a problem

with that because I kept saying 2010. And my

boss was like, it's 2010. You know, it's 2008,

2009, 2010. Okay, so this has been the Beast

Unleashed Podcast special interview with Gary

Chalk. As I said in the intro, this will also

be featured on all things Transformers podcast

as well. I have been TFG1 Mike, and you are?

Michael Wilson. And we will see you next year.