Chris Hemsworth and Brian Tyree Henry Talk Transformers One and Peter Cullen’s Legacy

Transformers One stars Chris Hemsworth and Brian Tyree Henry are talking about their voice acting roles in the Transformers origin story. Paramount Pictures has gone back to the Transformers well once again, except instead of another live-action/CGI hybrid film, the studio is going the animated route for Transformers One. And instead of picking up in the middle of the war between the Autobots and Decepticons, Transformers One shows the origin story of the factions and their leaders, Optimus Prime Megatron, and how they started out as best friends. Now hear from the co-leads on what went down with the making of the film.

ComicBook spoke to Chris Hemsworth and Brian Tyree Henry before the premiere of Transformers One. One of the first topics was about Hemsworth’s role as Orion Pax, aka Optimus Prime, and Peter Cullen’s reaction and thoughts to his portrayal. “I don’t know. I haven’t spoken to him. I hope he’s pleased,” Hemsworth said. “That was always my apprehension, or what was nerve wracking about stepping into the role, was to try and just do what Peter Cullen had done. I didn’t want to attempt to mimic that. So it was great to be able to have there be more levity.

“And, the playfulness and a sense of humor to the character that we hadn’t seen before. But then toward the end of the film, as he becomes Optimus to start to play with the cadence and the vocal quality that we know and love so much that Peter has done. It was a lot of fun.”

Brian Tyree Henry compares his Spider-Verse and Transformers characters

Brian Tyree Henry was asked what were the challenges of voicing Miles Morales’ father, Jeff Morales, in the Spider-Verse franchise and Megatron in Transformers One, and how they’re different.

“They are. But I think that the connection between the both of them is that their heart is kind of in the same place, right? I knew going in at some point I was going to say the iconic, ‘I am Megatron’ or ‘Decepticons rise up!’ I knew that that was going to come, but what I really loved the most is like, well, where did he start?

“Like, where did he start? I like to hear the levity in his voice, to hear the fear, to even hear Megatron be afraid of something, you know, and then the laughter. Like to actually hear him have a partner in crime and to know that he was even a fan of other Primes is really cool to me.”

He added that when it comes to voicing animated characters, it’s important for audiences to feel the heart of the character. “And so I always think about that when it comes to voicing these animated characters. Will you be able to feel their hear at the end of the day? Will you actually be able to understand who they are and see who their character is through what I’m performing so that it was no different when coming to Megatron?”

You can watch the interview in the video player above.

What is Transformers One about?

Transformers One is the untold origin story of Optimus Prime and Megatron, better known as sworn enemies, but once were friends bonded like brothers who changed the fate of Cybertron forever. 

The movie features a voice cast that includes Chris Hemsworth, Brian Tyree Henry, Scarlett Johansson, Keegan-Michael Key, Steve Buscemi, with Laurence Fishburne, and Jon Hamm.

Transformers One is now playing in theaters.