ForeverACharmedOne

Did Hollywood forget that there is something called voice acting. That there’s a wide pool of people who even specialize in just voice acting. Like how many times are we going to let a famous celebrity just use their normal voice for a character. Where is the flavor in that.

So I went to megacon back in 2019 and something that I think is absolutely crazy that I never thought about posting before is how filmmakers are slowly trying to slowly push Peter Cullen and Frank Welker out of the business. The main thing that came up out of this were that they are:

So the SAG is a union that, in short, protects their acting rights so that they are paid and treated fairly. A lot of people filmmakers tend to try and avoid hiring actors who work under the SAG and other acting unions because it will require them to have to put more money into their budget to keep these actors on amongst other things.

Now during megacon there was a panel for Peter and Frank where them being apart fo the SAG was discussed but then somebody asked a question that I can’t quite remember but was asking about the Bumblebee movie. Peter basically said that he hated it, not the movie, but the process of doing his lines. He explained that since he is apart of the SAG and having him in the studio to record his lines would cost the filmmakers more than what they were willing to play, they had somebody else come in to record and calibrate and sync the cgi lip movements of Optimus Prime. They then had him come in later to do the voiceover which required him to change the way he spoke when doing Optimus to match the lip movements of the person who came in before him. He was only in the studio for that one day which was more cost efficient for the filmmakers. This was just crazy to me. I get it, you’re on a budget and have to cut some corners to get your film done and on time. Sure you kept the same voice actor but not without ruining the experience for said actor who has been doing this level of cgi voice acting for years. It goes so much farther beyond money though. You’d rather under pay some actor and treat them however, taking advantage of their rights than have an actor who knows their rights and is not so easily taken advantage of.

Another thing I found interesting and quite funny was that Peter Cullen is definitely not a fan of Michael Bay. He roasted him like 5 times during the panel it was hilarious. He spoke on how when he went to audition for Optimus Prime for the first time for the first transformers film (Transformers 2007) and he did his lines, Michael Bay told him he didn’t do the voice right. Michael Bay told The Peter Cullen he didn’t do the voice right. To which Peter responded with something along the lines of “I didn’t do it right? I can do Optimus Prime and Ironhide! Let me show you…” and proceeded to have a conversation back and forth with himself as both Optimus and Ironhide from G1. Peter said “I was convinced Bay hadn’t ever seen a single episode of the original television show. He knew nothing about anything and it drove me crazy.”

But besides that Frank and Peter are literally the sweetest old guys you’ll ever meet. They are literally so genuine and do not deserve the mistreatment that the film industry is starting to show them. I started crying when I met them in person and Peter held my hand and said “don’t cry, if it weren’t for people like you we wouldn’t love what we do.”

Thanks for listening to my TED talk.