Interviews – Gregg Berger

Hey, this is Greg Berger, and you are listening

to the Geek Cast Radio Network. Many millions

of years ago, on the planet Cybertron, life existed.

But not life as we know it today. Intelligent

robots that could think and feel inhabited the

cities. They were called Autobots and Decepticons,

but the brutal Decepticons were driven by a single

goal, total domination. They set out to destroy

the peace -loving Autobots, and a war between

the forces of good and evil raged across Cybertron.

Hello and welcome to the TFG1 podcast. It is

the year 2012 and we are semi -back. More details

on that later. But yes, this is the second voice

actor interview for the TFG1 podcast. Michael

and I talked with Dan Gilvezan last time, and

this time we are talking to none other than Mr.

Greg Berger. Yeah, I'm really excited for this,

because I've met Greg Berger a couple of times

at conventions and such, but I've never really

had a chance to sit down and have a lengthy conversation

with him. So this will be very cool. Oh yes,

very much so. And we're going to get right to

it. It is the year 2005. The treacherous Decepticons

have conquered the Autobots' home planet of Cybertron.

But from secret staging grounds on two of Cybertron's

moons, the valiant Autobots prepare to retake

their homeland. Their defenses are broken! Let

the slaughter begin! Dinobots, destroy Devastator!

Me! Hello and welcome to the TFG1 Podcast. I

am one of your hosts, TFG1 Mike, and joining

me is Peacon Court Michael. Hello. Hey, how's

it going? It's going. And in the latest TFG1

Podcast interview, we welcome the voice of Ripcord,

Skyfire, Longhaul, Ripto, Hunter, 30 years of

voicing Odie, and of course, Grimlock. Along

with everything else he's done, Mr. Greg Berger.

Hey, Greg, how are you? Hey, hey, hey. Thanks

for having me. I only go where I'm invited. Thanks

for the invite. I tried going where I wasn't

invited, and it didn't work out well at all.

Yeah, no sneaking into places. Exactly. I honestly

had no clue. I knew you were the voice of Odie

or the barking of Odie. When I tell people, oh,

voice of Odie, and they're like, what voice?

I'm like, well, the dog barks. He's making vocal

sounds. But I had no idea that you have been

Odie for 30 years. I was part of the original

auditions for everything from Garfield on. I

got on so well with Jim Davis and everybody else.

He told me years later that when I left the room,

he said, I don't know what he's going to do on

the show, but I want him. I want him around.

And so obviously I'm. incredibly flattered by

that, but yeah, I've been in since the first

special special, and now I do Squeak the Mouse

on the new show, and Harry the Alley Cat, and

Herman the Mailman, so I'm a good portion of

the township. Cool. So before we really get started,

since I had a fangasm about Odie there for a

second, before we get started, can you give us

the scoop on what's going on in the world of

Greg Berger now? Any upcoming projects that you

would like to reveal or that you're actually

allowed to reveal? Well, allowed to reveal is

really the key for so many of us now. There's

non -disclosure on so many projects that are

in the works, understandably so. But I've been

given the go -ahead on Transformers Fall of Cybertron.

I am in as Grimlock. I'm very proud of the work.

I'm very proud of the entire undertaking. And

we've just started season four of The Garfield

Show. So I'm crazy busy. And The Garfield Show

puts me... back mic to mic with Frank Welker

every week. So life is good. Life has been good,

stays good, and hopefully continues good. Awesome.

So kind of getting into your background, where

did you grow up? I'm from the middle of the middle,

St. Louis, Missouri. In fact, Dan Gilvezan and

I wound up in college together in a theater conservatory

in the Midwest. Webster College now Webster University

and we we we found ourselves on stage quite a

bit together and It's amazing to keep tabs kind

of through a lifetime with parallel sort of careers

but I really think it was kind of an Archie and

Veronica kind of way to grow up and be a kid

when I was a kid and a teenager when I was a

teenager and just sort of take careful notes

on the world and all of the characters that make

up the world. So, yeah, I'm grateful for that,

too. I followed sort of a theater course path

and I was always character wise kind of fascinated

by the. the voice first and foremost. I'm a people

watcher from way back and always got kind of

my greatest kind of interest in all of the characters

that frequent the world. Awesome. It's more fun

to play the villainous ones. Yes. You get to

act all over the place. Exactly. Leave it on

the scenery. That's right. Yeah, the villains

always get the best lines. They really do. So

did you always want to be an actor or a voice

actor? I kind of, I didn't know where I was headed

or what I was doing, in fact. And when I went

off to school. in New York State. I went to Colgate

University and I was an English major and I had

a pal, a very close pal then and now, who was

part of the theater wing and there was a play

they were having difficulty casting. He kind

of dragged me along because he knew I enjoyed

doing dialects and voices and stuff and I auditioned

and the head of the theater department asked

me what I was doing in the English department

I said I didn't rightly know he said continue

your interest but he said you're the kind of

person we love to have around so I pursued I

pursued it starting my freshman end of my freshman

year of college I really had no inkling but honestly

it still feels fresh and new awesome yeah So

how did you break into the business? Like, how

did you, you know, come up and how did you get

discovered in voice acting? Well, there's a bunch

of things that all were partially responsible.

One, I was doing theater in St. Louis with the

repertory company of St. Louis, which was through

the same college that I had gone to. I just figured

that one of my interests was voice and that people

were hiring people for commercials in that town.

There were advertising agencies, and I kind of

crafted the most ridiculously inane voice demo

you can imagine, and I took it around. I credit

a lot of my success and anybody's success with

a combination of optimistic naivete and just

kind of... good fortune that comes from hard

work. I took it around to agencies and a guy

called me and he said, when I heard your demo,

I knew I had to meet you. So I went and met with

him. He said, that's the worst voice demo I've

ever heard. Don't ever let anyone else hear that.

He said, but you have a very interesting voice

and I may be able to be of some. help to you

in doing this the right way instead of the wrong

way. And in fact, he did. He's one of my heroes.

And that got me some radio work in St. Louis.

And I guess I've never been comfortable staying

in one place forever. So I ventured forth and

met with some agents in Chicago, got represented

in Chicago, did work in Chicago, felt comfortable

enough with that that I took I acted in a tour

that headed for California. While I was here,

I continued spending every day off pounding pavement

and trying to meet people. And, you know, I'm

of the opinion that to get what you want, you

got to wake up earlier and stay up later and

knock on more doors than everybody else. And

every once in a while, somebody answers the door

and says, come on in. And honest to goodness,

that's kind of the path I took. Awesome. Very

cool. That's probably one of the more interesting

answers to that question that we've gotten. We've

gotten a lot of interesting answers. Like David

Kaye said, oh, well, I, you know, instead of

getting in trouble for voices, I get paid for

them now. Welker always used to say, well, it

was this or college. I find it interesting that

you did all this in the Midwest as opposed to,

you know. growing up in LA. It seems to me that

a lot of the voice actors are either in LA or

they gravitate to LA. I gravitated to L .A.,

but I had a comfort zone in the Midwest cities

that I had been in. In fact, I got my SAG card

in doing industrial films in St. Louis and Kansas

City. If you stick around and you ask enough

questions and you find out who's doing what,

they were actually doing kind of training films

for corporations and things, but it was all under

a Screen Actors Guild contract, and I was able

to put together enough credit. to join while

I was there. Plus there was, in those days, a

number of theaters that were working. So I've

always considered myself a juggler, and I figure

the more things that you have in the air at any

one moment, the more... likely you are to be

able to catch one. So, I mean, and frankly, I

still do that. I do it with promos and narrations

and radio spots and animation and video games

and teaching and writing and, you know, I just...

I'm not someone who has ever been comfortable

sitting around waiting for the phone to ring

because I think a lot of the people who wait

for the phone to ring and look for them spend

most of their lives waiting. And I'm just not

comfortable with that. I'd rather be doing than

waiting. And it kind of doesn't matter what it

is you're doing. It just sort of keeps your juices

flowing and you feel like you're on the active

list instead of the waiting list. Oh, yeah, most

definitely, because it was, you know, it's like,

you know, put as much work into what you're doing

versus waiting for something to happen. Correct.

You know, and that's just the better way to approach

life. That coupled with what I said was kind

of an optimistic naivete. You just keep trying

to be in the right place when something good

is trying to happen. Yeah. I'm laughing at my

title for the next question. The title for the

question. This isn't the actual question, but

the header here. Are we playing Jeopardy? No,

no, no. Our final Jeopardy question. Answer.

Question. Title. Being the one dog Frank Welker

is not. That's actually true. As I said before,

you've been Odie for the past 30 years. You've

worked with both Lorenzo Music and Frank Welker

as Garfield. Tell us about those experiences.

Two of my best, closest, most talented friends.

And when I teach, I talk about Lorenzo music,

saying, you know, everybody says don't even think

about animation unless you've got 30 voices or

50 voices or whatever it is. I say you only need

one, but it better be a really, really, really

great one. Lorenzo is and was and remains the

one and only. You know, that was a voice. that

the whole world responded to. Frank has given

it his own turn and his own spin, and it's a

whole new character with complete reverence for

everything that came before. But to have the

privilege and pleasure of working with both of

them is kind of... dream stuff and uh i can't

talk about the garfield show or garfield and

friends without talking about jim davis without

talking about mark evanier uh without talking

about all of the people involved it's most it's

the most get along get it done family uh and

and uh it's one of the few uh becoming fewer

shows that that insists on being done ensemble

style with complete knowledge and confidence

that that uh you know the best work is always

collaborative and and uh it's it's so much fun

to be in that booth it really truly is and always

has been since since the first special and my

god the longevity of those characters and those

stories and and uh That little neighborhood is

phenomenal and fantastic. Well, I can kind of

hear it in your voice. You were also Orson, weren't

you, in Garfield and Friends? Well, maybe. Wade,

you're afraid of everything made. I've never

seen anything like it. You're afraid of the water,

afraid of the dark, afraid of the nighttime,

too. The sun and the shade, I'm really afraid.

Wade, what'll we do with you? Yes, I was. Was,

am. Animation is kind of eternal. That's so awesome.

I love the new show, especially that Jason Marsden

is normal. He's having a very good time. So awesome.

Yeah, and I just think it continues to be a great

sandbox to be able to play in. Yeah, it is. Very

cool. So, transitioning over to your time in

G .I. Joe. Tell us about your time on the show

as Cutter, Ripcord, and Firefly. And was this

similar to the ensemble cast on Transformers?

Yes, you've managed to leave out Spirit, who

was one of my favorites, with his eagle freedom

and his ongoing battle against Storm Shadow.

I did Spirit, I did Cutter, I was always off

to the island of no return. Ripcord only wanted

to jump out of planes, and Firefly just wanted

to blow up stuff. I was kind of the new kid on

both Transformers and G .I. Joe. And I needed

an air traffic controller. I was so busy in those

days. There were so many episodes and it was

all happening at the same time. And I had been

seen on stage. Actually, I knew Wally Burr, the

director, whose praises I sing as well. Without

trying to be goody -goody, I have so many people

in whose debt I am and who I'm just awed by their

abilities. Wally had this gift of just absorbing

a storyboard and really demanding performances,

even though sometimes it was extremely time -consuming,

but demanding performances that obviously...

have lasted for decades so you know he guessed

right and he pumped up those universes both transformers

and gi joe which i kind of think of interchangeably

because i was so busy jumping from one to the

other but um you know there was phenomenal talent

in the booth and i i hadn't been doing it animation

that long. So I just kind of sat and was in awe

of the people I was working with. And I'm not

undervaluing my contribution. You know, it was

a red hot game of jump rope and I had to jump

in and not trip and bring my best game to every

session. But my God, what a fantastic place to

play and learn at the same time for me. They

were golden, golden days. And sometimes there

would be very long writers breaks where they

would work on script or factor something new

in. So it's astonishing how many people from

those days and those two shows are still working

and still holding their own and still, for the

most part, busy. And again, I think it speaks

to like really careful casting. And they were

putting together a ball team and they put together

a really winning seasons on both of those shows.

But G .I. Joe, Wally. managed to pump up from

the other side of the glass, everything to these

sort of epic battles and, and transformers, the

same thing, only the battles were galactic, but

it was all the marbles every time really vocally

demanding, but, but you wanted so much for it

to be good and be right and be everything that,

uh, that they envisioned that everybody just

sort of dove in and gave it their all every time.

So my favorite GI Joe figure as a kid was Firefly.

Because he looked like a great ninja. Which one

was yours? Well, I mean, it was, like I said,

it's really fun to be the bad guys and it's fun

to be the good guys. I would say... If I had

to pick, and I hate picking, because there's

things I love about every character, but I just

think the nobility of spirit and the ongoing

battle with Storm Shadow and kind of the moral

overtones of good and the dark side and all that

stuff, it really appeals to me. But it was also

fun to blow stuff up. And honestly, that voice.

It's like ingrained in my brain because it was

my favorite character. And when he was on the

show, it was like, oh, this is awesome. Well,

all the original G .I. Joe episodes and Transformer

episodes are airing on the hub. And also my Men

in Black. I was Agent K in the animated Men in

Black. And those are all airing on the hub as

well. I didn't know that. Shoot him, Jays. A

cerebral effect. Lloyd, their brains are in their

bottoms. You know where to aim. That's awesome.

Men in Black 4. Forget Tommy Lee Jones. When

Tommy Lee retires, we're bringing Greg in to

fill his shoes. I thought those animated episodes

were phenomenal storylines as well and really

interesting and hard to resolve in the course

of a half hour. I think a lot of them could have

been fleshed out into longer form stories. That's

how good they were. Yeah, that was a really well

-written series. I really liked that one. I didn't

know that was you, though. Wow. They brought

me in season two and on. Nice. Okay. Cool. Very

cool. So you have all the figures of the characters

that you've played, right? Well, I'm gifted with

a fair amount of them. I have the ones that I've

been given. I wouldn't say I'm a rabid collector,

but I really treasure the ones I have. And I've

had sort of a secondary life going to conventions

around the world and meeting people face -to

-face who have been incredibly loyal. through

fandom. And it's great to meet people one -on

-one. It's great to do Q &As. It's great to stay

in touch. It's great to know how receptive a

lot of the producers have been to fan demand.

The fans are unbelievable. And social networking

and the online community and the fact... of people

who keep alive those things that they loved growing

up and continue to be fans of. I've had people

introduce me to their kids. I had a guy introduce

me and say when Transformers was on in the morning,

this guy's the reason I was late for school every

day and when they were on in the afternoon, this

guy's the reason I missed my last class in the

afternoon. Nice. Yeah, it's cool. It's all cool.

It's great. Now, do you have one figure per every

character you've done, or do you just have certain

ones? I have odds and ends. I'm not a collector.

busy doing it uh right right but but uh but i've

i've uh held on to i had i had uh a grimlock

that i that i uh ripped back i would say my eye

hand coordination is not good for transformable

characters i'm one of those guys that rips all

the limbs off trying to try and try to make it

transform Please tell me you did not rip Grimlock's

tail off. Well, I didn't, but I stopped just

short. If it fell to me to play all the games

that I voice, I'd rather watch people play who

know what they're doing. Right, yeah. All right,

so the main reason... If it ever falls to me

to reinvent electricity, we're all going to sleep

early every night, that's all. Thank God I can

talk. Ain't that the truth. So the main reason

we are here because this podcast is it's a Transformers

Review podcast where we, myself, Michael, and

our other friend Steve, this was my first podcast

that I started and I went to review all 98 episodes

of the G1 series. So that's what we're here for.

Very cool. Did you audition for any other roles

besides Grimlock, Longhole, and Skyfire? Outback.

Yeah. Oh, yeah, that's right. Outback. That's

right. Oh, he was out back as well. I auditioned,

I think, for everything I ever did. There were

occasional really peripheral characters per episode

that Wally would just sort of have little audition

offs for in the booth. But I don't think anything

was a given or a giveaway. I think everything

was earned by everybody. And like I said, Wally

was just like the height of... of integrity,

and if he was putting his name on it, he was

going to make everything the best it could be.

I will put that animated feature way up on character

delineation and characters that you can care

about, and, you know, I just think... they were

very character driven stories and story driven

characters. Uh, and I think that's, if, if you're,

if you're trying to analyze and figure out why

it had the, has the longevity it has, I think

that's probably the why, you know, and then there's

some factor that nobody can account for, which

is just that people loved it and held it close

and, and it meant something to them. And, uh,

you know, so Bravo for that. Yeah. Yeah. Nice.

So speaking of Wally and Grimlock, how did you

settle on such a deep voice for Grimlock? And

what was the process there of creating that voice?

I think like I do with everything that I do,

I really consider it all kind of a detective

story. And you look for as many clues as you

can get. And most of what. i went with was increased

aggression and increased uh muscular uh drive

and decreased uh not not diminished but but uh

but sort of small brain big muscle and uh just

that hinging of the jaws and in the early episodes

i actually sort of restricted my jaw so once

it was coming from there and i knew I was going

to give myself a tonsillectomy every time we

did a session. And it took care of itself. And

I just at some point you throw yourself into

the character and open your mouth and see what

happens. But I always wanted aggression to to

be out front. And I wanted that that. powerful

jaw muscle to be uh to be hearable at all times

uh you know that i was gifted with a lot of stuff

and and just as an actor your goal is always

to sort of figure out something consistent that

you can hold on to and any voice actor who's

lucky enough to have a character that sustains

for that long you're kind of obliged to just

open the script every week and figure out where

that journey is going for you, the character.

And obviously they took me in a lot of different

directions, and I tried to stay honest to all

of them. Well, Frank Welker had a throat -ripping

character voice. I think Grimlock came a close

second. That hurt a lot, right? You know what?

It's just like going to the gym and... You work

your way up to the heavyweights and you try.

There are a lot of people, I think, who try to

be protective of their voices. I'm kind of more

of the opinion that once you understand that

muscle, you really get better results if you

just throw yourself in all the way and assume

that you'll have some kind of innate protective.

Yeah, you know, I was going to leave it all in

the studio every time. And if that meant, you

know, lozenges and everything afterwards, so

be it. I just wanted it to have the life that

thankfully it's had and has and continues to

have. But I think I became a better actor and

a stronger voice person and a stronger everything

just having to find it every time. for what I

was doing. But yeah, it was a tonsil blower and

a throat ripper. And I would always look at the

glass between us and the producers and writers

and say, are those my tonsils? Well, with, you

know, stickler for work and 12 -hour sessions

in those days, yeah, I could see why it would

be a throat ripper and a tonsil blower. Yeah.

Oh, boy. But you know what? It beats heavy lifting.

All right. So which is your favorite version

of Grimlock in season two where he was a badass

or in season three where he was more silly? Me

Grimlock kick butt. Why boy hit my nose? I obviously

I found I found where it needed to go. Season

three, we all found it together. But I love.

But Grimlock, I love I love the sort of looking

over his shoulder at Optimus and thinking it

could be maybe done a different way. And I just

I think there was all kinds of stuff built into

that that batter ass side that just. spoke to

me but but uh like i said i i go along for the

ride you know i buy my ticket like everybody

else and wherever it goes my job is to make it

go there honestly awesome very nice so it's more

of just toning down the aggression or pretty

much the same voice well yeah yes and and uh

just letting it be driven situationally and trying

to make it stay true, including... being gifted

with a new brain and then opting to pass it on.

But whatever's in the pages is kind of the gift

that you're handed, and then it's your obligation

to make it gospel and give it whatever it needs

to get there. But there's also a whole host of

people on the other side of the glass who are

making decisions to make it fit the storyboard

at the same time. You go back and forth until

everybody's happy, and that's when it's done.

See, Greg brings it every time. So I wanted to

ask you about Simon Furman. Simon tends to include

a lot of Grimlock in his writing. It's almost

like a running gag in our podcast here. We always

talk about Grimlock and Simon almost simultaneously.

Have you ever met Simon, and did he gush like

a fanboy? We we have had the good fortune of

meeting at conventions all the way from here

to the UK. And every time we became fast friends,

like right away, we met at a botcon. I believe

it was in Chicago and it was at least 10 years

ago. And we stay in touch. We're really very

kind of. compatible as people and he's the one

who brought to my attention how much Grimlock

history I wasn't aware of in my involvement with

the animated series but back to a lot of the

book comic and a lot of actually intelligent,

more intelligent Grimlock and still strong. Yes,

he has an immense fondness for it. He's very,

very, very complimentary of where I took it.

And at a couple of conventions, he's actually

written scripts that sort of take liberties with

it. But I've been able to do Furman scripts at

conventions, a lot of conventions at this point.

But we always look forward to seeing each other.

And he's another of these people with incredible

integrity, great sense of humor, really bright,

really funny, and really fun. Yes, I'm a huge

fan of his, and I think it's mutual. As are we.

We really dig him. You can see, like, in Fall

of Cybertron, which we'll get to in a little

bit, but you can see where that came from, you

know, his earlier stuff that was published in

comic book form. Yeah, I think it's all coming

around and it's all becoming sort of, I don't

know, homogenous. There's a real sense of continuity

in play here. Yeah. So we've all heard the Wally

Burr session stories, but is there a story that

you can tell us that we maybe haven't heard yet?

Wow, I don't know. I can tell you my favorite

days were when Scatman Carruthers would bring

his ukulele along and kind of hold court in the

parking lot. And I think we got to know each

other, the acting company, as people because

there were so many sort of breaks where they

had to... go over script revisions or relook

at a scene or just sort of figure out what they,

what they were up to and needed in that session.

So we spent, we all spent a lot of time together

out in the parking lot or in the, in the green

room or wherever we were. And so that made for,

for just a lot of getting to know each other

time. And, and that was phenomenal. Let's see.

Well, I think a lot of people tell the... The

feedback story. We've heard that before about

Frank doing the feedback and the sound engineer

not knowing where it was coming from. Frank can

basically, if he's in a silly enough mood, make

the entire studio start arcing and make sound

engineers dive under the board and dive into

the patchwork. He also, if he got bored, would

start making pay phone calls to himself in the

corner of the room, doing both sides of the conversation

and the coins falling and the call connecting.

And on at least one occasion, we heard a little

air leak in the room and went on for sort of

an interminable amount of time. And then ultimately,

Frank put his finger up to his head and plugged

the leak and the air leak stopped. I want to

go back to something a minute ago. You mentioned...

Regular Grimlock versus Grimlock having a brain.

How did you go from the Grimlock we all know

and love to, not that we don't dislike Grimlock

having a brain, but walk us through that voice

transition of the regular Grimlock to the voice

that has the brain. I'm not sure I can walk you

through it because I'm not sure. like i was saying

earlier that that you can really analyze anything

other than sort of uh turning the page when you're

first reading a script and seeing oh i gotta

go there huh okay uh let's see how we're gonna

do that and uh just kind of trying to create

a transition uh from a more powerful more aggressive

to a more thoughtful and more uh Yeah. Intelligent.

You just do it. You just you just give yourself

to it. And, you know, there are parts of. this

that are teachable and parts of it that are not

teachable and not learnable. And that's just

sort of that leap of faith that you make in hopes

that you're going to guess right. That's more

true in video gaming voicing than anything else,

because as a rule, you're in a booth all by yourself.

You're kind of acting in a vacuum. It's the director

and the people on the other side of the glass

who are kind of spoon -feeding you the scene

and the emotional level and who you're talking

to and how it goes. But you're really having

a conversation by yourself. And I'm not trying

to change the subject, but a lot of this is just

sort of an actor's trust in themselves and just

sort of... jumping there and knowing that they'll

correct you if it's not ringing true and that

you'll move on if it is ringing true. So I just

take the script that I'm given as the place that

I have to get to. That's my job. And if I mess

it up, I'll be made aware of that. And if I do

it right, somebody will pat me on the head and

give me a gold star and pat me on the back and

off we go. Yeah. You know, video games, you know,

even before Fall of Cybertron, you've been doing

Grimlock for different things, like you did it

for a BotCon promo for this year. But specifically

to Fall of Cybertron, what was it like coming

back and, like, doing Grimlock again, seeing

him in a video game versus the animation? Well,

I got to say, I think it's... If it's not one

of my proudest moments, it's my absolute proudest

moment. This is nuts, and this is fantastic.

And a lot of this, even according to Hasbro and

Activision, was fan demand and keeping hope alive,

and it's phenomenal. I will say I... dove in

and had a fantastic time. F -A -N -tastic time.

And I really feel the importance of all of the

stuff I've been allowed to do. And now we're

in the realm of things I'm allowed to talk about

and not allowed to talk about. I'm at liberty

to talk about my involvement and my pride and

The awesomeness of the whole experience, but

not specifics. Well, we already know from screenshots

and stuff like that online, we already know that

Grimlock will have fire breath. You know, fire

breathing Tyrannosaurus rex on Cybertron, that's

just amazing. It's all so cool and so exciting.

Space dinosaur. Oh, wait, no, Mac Teeger always

says Space T -Rex. He's a Space T -Rex. How cool

is that? It's pretty friggin' cool, yes. Well,

as soon as we saw the E3 footage, the E3 footage

actually included the voice. And I said, that's

got to be Greg Berger. Cool. Yeah, I'm on cloud

nine. It's a Cybertronian phenomenon, and it's

great. Speaking of Matt, Matt Teeger has said

that Hasbro was going to abandon the Dinobots

in their new Consolidated Transformers mythology.

And to hear Matt tell it, it sounds like he kind

of takes credit for saving the Dinobots, and

Grimlock in particular, by writing a believable

reason for the dinosaurs to be on Cybertron four

million years ago. Uh -huh. So what's your take

on this? What do you think about that? It's outside

my realm. I arrived in the mix after all of that

had been done. I know that Aaron Archer from

Hasbro and Matt, and I know that everybody was

putting their heads together and trying to make

this, not trying, but allowing. to all work believably

and all work realistically in the storyline.

So that all predates me, but I'm the beneficiary

of everything that they put their heads together

and came up with, and I think it's going to play

like a dream. I can't wait to play it. Actually,

I only play games on the PC. I don't have a console

at home, so I was really excited. When Matt announced,

I think via the Facebook page, that they were

going to create the PC version after all. Again,

that's outside my realm. I'm not sure about platforms

or anything. But if that's the news, that's great

news. Yeah, no, I can't wait to play it. It should

be exciting. So transitioning again, are there

any crazy off -the -wall... behind -the -scenes

moments you can tell us about the voice sessions

for Fall of Cybertron? I was alone in the sessions

that I did, so like most... video game interactive

gaming situations it just it's it's a really

intimate relationship between both sides of the

studio glass because they kind of have to fill

in all of the blanks so it it's it's it's an

exercise in kind of closing your eyes and and

really getting the feel of where you are and

the size of where you are and obviously this

is an all the marbles epic epic epic battle and

So it was between me and the microphone for the

most part. And I can't tell you crazy stories

about it other than it was urgent and it was

important and it was all the marbles and it was...

Totally fulfilling to me, and I wanted to make

this everything it could be. I can't tell you

I didn't take it personally. I took it totally

personally. This was a crowning gig for me. Literally

crowning. King. Anyway, it would be really nice

to see you do more Grimlock stuff in the future.

Well, here, here. Cross the fingers. Yeah. Let's

talk about other voice actors. Who are some of

the other voice actors that influenced you? Dawes

Butler. I mean, a lot of the classic voices are

what influenced me. Dawes Butler and Mel Blanc

and June Foray. More recently, Peter Cullen and

John DiMaggio and Dan Castellaneta. I mean, all

people who I work with and work with fairly regularly.

But I can't even tell you how phenomenal it is

to just share waiting rooms and table reads and

everybody's got... got a a goofy funny bone and

uh you know when all else fails we go back to

the script but usually in ensemble reads and

ensemble get -togethers we're just allowed to

kick it around until it's time to work and uh

you know we're we're we're all readers so uh

tend to be kind of better read i guess uh the

jokes are dirtier and, and, uh, it just, it's

just everybody. I think, I think because the

voice has such a thumbprint to it, uh, that,

that everybody in the working tier kind of knows

it could be anybody, anytime. And you're all

taking your best shot. You can't take somebody

else's best shot. Either I'm still that naive

or it's just. not competitive in the same way

because everybody's reached this this uh uh level

of of being accepted in the community and uh

you know at some point everybody got off the

bus you had to convince everybody every time

and to a certain degree you still do but uh i

i just think it's a it's a pretty uh copacetic

community of people i think we're all kind of

Always glad to see each other, and it just seems

like everybody wishes each other the best going

in, and whoever gets it is not necessarily at

the expense of somebody else's talent. It's just

whoever's most right for whatever's being done

that day. Right, right. Yeah, I'm a firm believer

that those ensemble get -togethers should be

like a pay -per -view event. We should all get

to watch these. You know, we just lost Ray Bradbury,

and may he rest in peace, but there was an interview

with him where he said people always say, when

are you going to retire? And he always answered,

he said, everything I do is fun for me. Why would

I retire from having fun? You know, if you love

what you're doing, there's real... There's no

real sense of needing to retire from it. It's

what you do. It's who you are. And when I teach,

which I do kind of irregularly, I basically say

the same thing. If you're not bringing all of

who you are to what you're doing, then you're

cheating the audience and you're cheating yourself.

It's a big deal to be allowed to do what it is

you love doing. And it's a big deal to be allowed

to play. to be paid to play. And you shouldn't

take it for granted. And you should celebrate

every time. I'm still, you know, Cinderella going

to the ball every time somebody picks me, somebody

plugs me into something. And, you know, there's

a quote that says, the harder I work, the luckier

I get. So, you know, you can say you've been

fortunate, but it also should mean that you put

in the work. You get out of it what you put back

into it. You know, you made me think about something.

You mentioned a couple of times that you teach

and I wasn't aware of this. What can you tell

us about how how could I be in a great burger

class? Well, it's it's. I was working through

a place called Talk Shop L .A. and giving classes

at the moment. I'm trying to compress it into

a more travelable. so that I could take it to

some other cities and stuff and do it in a more

compact presentation. But the hard part is, and

when I start my... Well, actually, when I start

my class, I say, do everything you do today as

though someone decades from today might still

remember it because I'm here to tell you that

that's exactly how it has gone for me. And I

talk about Transformers and G .I. Joe. But...

The other thing is I can't get anyone a job.

I can't get anyone an agent. I can't further

anyone's career. That's the part they have to

do when they leave. What I do when I teach is

basically set it up like... Gold's Gym and just

I can promise students that they'll leave stronger

because we'll look for what their strengths are

and we'll exercise those and we'll try and expand

parameters and people that don't know their versatility,

you know, every situation and every breakdown

that you see in an animated series gives you

clues if you're really true to that mix. of elements

plus whatever the artist supplies you, of course

you're going to come up with something new because

all of the elements that you're supposed to be

mixing around are new. So, you know, even if

it may be similar to something you've done before,

it won't be the same because no two characters

are the same. Anyway, that's kind of the way

we approach it. But I'm hoping to begin taking

it on the road and trying to... lights and fires

under people in in other cities you know and

if it if it lights a fire hey, go for it and

don't let anybody stop you. But if someone can

stop you, let them. Maybe it's not strong enough.

Your strength and your belief in yourself will

be tested every day. And if you're not willing

to be the answer to people's problems and bring

something to the party that's not already at

it, then maybe you shouldn't go on. And if you

are and no one can convince you that you're not,

maybe you're the guy or girl. who should go for

it, you know? Nice. See, I can see you selling

out some auditoriums on like a university roadshow

type of situation. That and my warm -up band.

No. Well, you know, we talked to Bob Skeer, who

did a bunch of writing for G .I. Joe and Transformers,

and he teaches at, I want to say UCLA. I forget,

but that was really interesting to hear from

him. He teaches people how to do what he does.

It's very cool. I am not doing it in an ongoing

or academic environment yet. I may look at that

someday. Well, then I'll have to grow a full

beard and smoke a pipe and do a jacket photo.

There you go, with the patches on the sleeves.

Exactly, and white whale corduroy pants and some

kind of tweed jacket. So – that's funny. Speaking

of writers, let's see what I did there. Have

you ever seen something in a script that you

would refuse to say? Well, yeah. Actually, I've

kind of – Steered clear of some stuff just because

I didn't feel comfortable. The thing is, everything

that's recorded and everything that's that's

filmed and everything that's everything is is

like forever in all formats now. And so I want

to feel comfortable with everything I'm doing.

And I feel there's things I feel stronger about

and things I feel less strong about. I've been

approached for some voiceovers for. some political

stuff that I've said no to because I don't want

to influence anybody if it's something I don't

feel that I can endorse or get behind. I want

to have at least a point of view about everything

that I'm asked to say, and I want to feel good

about it. I want to be able to talk about it

positively. But that's just me. I'm just, you

know. Terminally optimistic. I'm a positive person,

and I don't want to soil it if I don't have to.

So it's more of a political issue and not a,

wow, this guy just said something really heinous,

and I don't think I should be voicing that. Yeah,

I don't know. I just think you take everything

and look at it, and if you can't feel comfortable

about doing it, don't do it. I think in the end

it'll gain you more friends than it loses you.

Absolutely. But what do I know? Actually, I was

waiting for Mike to jump in there. I feel like

I'm commandeering. I'm having fun talking to

you guys. All righty. So you know what? You mentioned

earlier about meeting Simon Furman at the conventions.

You've been to a few of these conventions. What

do you think? You know what? It's not for everybody.

It is for me. I totally dig the vibe. I really

like the camaraderie. I really like the panels.

I really like the sincerity of the questions.

I've been approached by people that if I saw

them in a back alley, I'd probably start walking

a little faster. But when I've gotten to know

them one -on -one at my table or in a panel room

or whatever, everybody's there for the same reason.

Everybody's there for the love of the game. And

I've met some terrific people and I've had some

terrific times. Now, having said that. Whenever

I get back from a convention, there'll be somebody

in an audition or whatever that says, oh, that

must be awful. And I say every time, I say, well,

you know what? It would have been awful for you,

but it was fantastic for me. I really like it.

I've been afforded incredible travel opportunities.

And I just have been, to be honest, kind of nicely

pampered while I'm there. It's all good. I'm

doing my 13th consecutive San Diego Comic -Con

this summer, and that's kind of the mother of

them all. Wow. And it's just nuts, but it's nuts

in a good way. And the floor is incredibly cool,

and most of the vendors all... have something

interesting and eclectic and quirky about them.

And, you know, that's what I look for. I look

for the genuine originals in life, and a lot

of them are in the convention circuits. So I

love it. Plus, it really has afforded me... tens

of thousands of miles of travel and tens of thousands

of fans one -on -one, maybe more than that. It's

all good. And BotCon, which is specific to Transformers,

and Auto Assembly, which is specific to Transformers,

and TFCon in Toronto, they've all been... just

fantastic narrow cast. Not so narrow because

there's so many incarnations of Transformers,

but huge assemblies of people with a real love

and loyalty to the whole franchise. Oh, yeah.

That's going to kind of wrap it up for us. Would

you like to inform the fans of where they can

interact with you online? I know you're on Facebook,

but I don't know how often you... You interact

with people on that. Do you do Twitter or anything

like that online? I haven't been Twittering,

but Facebook slash my name, G -R -E -G -G -B

-E -R -G -E -R. They can always find out, like

I do, what I've been doing, what I am doing,

and what I will be doing if they search my name

at imdb .com. There is a gregberger .com website.

I clicked on that a couple of times. It does

not go to anything that has to do with you. Really?

Yes. You need to look into that. I will look

into it immediately. Yes. Well, thanks for the

heads up. You're welcome. A speed bump on the

internet superhighway. There you go. A speed

bump that's like five feet high. Before we let

you go, remind the listeners what you have coming

up. We know Fallout Cybertron is going to be

huge. Is there anything else that you've got

going on that you want to tell the listeners

about? I have a very nice role in Resident Evil

Raccoon City as Harley. And I have been allowed

to make it known that I will be involved with

Guild Wars 2. I can't say much more than that,

but I'll be there. And like that, watch for all

seasons of Transformers and G .I. Joe on the

Hub and Men in Black. Watch for upcoming seasons

of The Garfield Show and Life is Good. We'd like

to thank Mr. Berger for taking the time to chat

with us here in this TFG1 podcast interview.

We'll ask you to hold the line and we'll be back

after this. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Thanks again. Nice

dino, good dino, sweet dino. Won't you step into

the nice spaceship for blood? Pretty please,

pretty pretty pretty please. Nice dino, good

dino, with sugar on top and a cherry and some

whipped cream. Nice dino, good dino, sweet dino.

Me Grimlock, not nice dino. Me bad brains. This

reminds me of the battle on Alpha 9. The petra

rabbits were... Grimlock, get your noodle out

of my face. Me Grimlock love Cubs War Stories.

You're living one now. Engage the boosters for

Cybertron's sake. Tell Grimlock about Petro -Rabbits

again. I'll give you Petro -Rabbits. Congratulations,

Autobots. We've lost them. So rest while you

can. Yep, I remember the dust was so thick for

Beta 4, you had to use windshield wipers on your

optic sensors. Me Grimlock know all about wipers.

Want to hear good part of story? Good part, Cap.

Tell Swoop good part. Okay, okay. Well, the dust

was really thick. And then this gigantic inkjack.

can trumping and stumping down the mountain,

flames spewing out of its astral. And I thought

for sure... Hey, cop, don't you think we have

better things to do now than tell old stories?

Like what? Like maybe figure out how we're going

to rescue our friends and then save Cybertron.

No! Tell story! Shh! Quiet! Tell story! We want

to hear story! Listening to the TFG1 Podcast.

Me, Grimlock, need new strategy. So there you

go, ladies and gentlemen. Oh, my God. Yeah, that

was pretty great. I really applauded when he

went into Odie Barks. I was like, you know, it's

just that simple thing. It's just that simple

of a thing that it's like, wow. You know what's

weird is I've got a friend of mine who is the

best man at my wedding. He's married to somebody

who has been a lifelong Garfield fan. And it's

very rare that I send her links to the podcasts

that we do. But in this case, I think we have

a new listener. Yes, yes. But no, talking with

Greg was so awesome. Such a great down -to -earth

guy. Just amazing. It was so great talking to

him. We're going to keep the interviews going

here on the TFG1 podcast, as many as I can get.

Obviously, sadly, I don't think we're going to

be able to get Mr. Welker or Mr. Cullen, but

if we do, obviously the listeners will know.

But I'm going to announce here and now, 2014,

the 30th anniversary. TFG1 podcast is coming

back, and we are redoing the entire G1 series.

It's going to be done differently. It's going

to be done not five episodes at a time. It's

going to be a different format. It's still going

to be us talking about each of the episodes.

I believe it will be myself, Michael, as always,

Steve, Megatron, and Kevin, all four of us. I'm

not sure if it's going to be all four of us on

every episode. It might be. Three of us. It might

be two of us. It just depends. Cause the way

I'm going to advertise it is, Hey, who wants

to talk about these episodes? If everyone wants

to talk about all of them, obviously it'll be

all four of us, but no, we have a plan. TFG one

is making a comeback for the 30th anniversary.

Wow. Yes. That's exciting. Yes. Two years from

now. Oh, well it's like six years from the original

airing of TFG one. Four years after it ended

completely, we're doing it again. That's right.

It's like, oh, okay, yeah. This is where you

put on your sunglasses and go, yeah. Exactly.

Rock out. Exactly. But, no, thank you so much

to Greg Berger. Greg is such an amazing guy.

It was so great talking to him. Just a fun time.

I'm so impressed with Greg. Yeah, I've met him

a couple of times at conventions, but, again,

this is the first time I've really had a chance

to sit down and talk with him, and he's just

such a good guy to talk with. Fanboy gushing.

Yeah. Stop it. Yes, yeah, stop it. All right,

so that's going to do it for this interview here

on the TFGN Podcast. We will catch you next time

with whomever we're able to get next time. You

never know. It might be Michael Bell. It might

be Neil Ross. Anyone, well, not that that person

had anything to do with G1. Anyway, all right,

so for now, I am TFG1Mike with... Michael Wilson.

Thank you for listening. Transform and roll out.

Podcast good!