Chris Hemsworth Talks Playing Optimus Prime

Peter Cullen, the actor who traditionally voices Transformers star Optimus Prime, is so synonymous with the character, you practically hear his voice when you think of the character. “Autobots, roll out.” You heard that in Cullen’s voice, right? Well, one person who is very well aware of that legacy is Chris Hemsworth, who is voicing the character in the upcoming Transformers One. And it was not beyond him just how big of a deal that is.

“What Peter Cullen has done with the character is so incredible,” Hemsworth said at Comic-Con during the movie’s panel in Hall H. “It’s iconic and the thing that is equally inspiring is also terrifying when trying to play the character. But the goal was never to mimic or sound like Peter Cullen.”

Transformers One is set 3 billion (yes, you read that right) years before any Transformers story we’re used to seeing, which is a big thing that sets it apart from every other Transformers story. “Usually when we see the Transformers it’s like ‘WAR!’ and everything is already ready to go,” Bryan Tyree Henry, who voices Megatron in the film, said. “And with this one, you get to see them discover all these different parts of themselves.”

Fans of the franchise have long known that Optimus Prime, leader of the Autobots, and Megatron, leader of the Decepticons, used to be friends. But what they didn’t know was what their lives were like at that time and how they went from best friends to mortal enemies. That’s the core of this film. “This is the brash, young, cocky version of Orion Pax or Optimus Prime,” Hemsworth said. “Before he became the all-knowing, omnipresent figure who’s so brilliant that we’ve come to know and love. So the youthfulness and the banter and the humor was really important.”

To make sure their versions of the characters were unique enough to stand apart from the originals, Hemsworth and Henry had to channel something unique. “There was an eagerness and enthusiasm between both of the characters,” Hemsworth said. “Slightly idealistic. They have larger hopes and dreams for what they can become. And that, I found, helped ground the story. To begin with the characters as we know them would have been, again, mimicking something would’ve felt too similar to what we’ve seen. So it felt it was an original story there when I read the script which I was incredibly excited about.”

And, it gave me the courage, to step into those huge blue shoes left by the legendary Peter Cullen. Transformers One opens on September 20.

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