Have you been able to see the final film or have you just seen a rough cut?

No, I haven’t seen either.  I’ve seen portions.  What I have seen is fantastic.  I’m really looking forward to it.  I’ve been told by some people who have seen a great deal of it that it is incredible.  I don’t think there’s any hype out there whatsoever that isn’t genuine.  Thoroughly the people that have witnessed are completely honest when they say this is incredible.  They say it to me with a sense of so much truth in their mouth.  I’m really looking forward to being a part of that viewing audience.

Did you just play Prime in the film or did you play any of the other roles?

Nope, just Prime.

Of course I have to ask, have you already said maybe next year there might be a sequel because I’ve heard rumors of a trilogy.

I’ve been told they’re already in the plans for a number 2 and conceivably 3 would be on it’s way because they’re going to be from reports at hand that once….it’s extremely expensive to do 10,000 moving parts in 1 character and once they get a little bit of a poke you know, a good amount of money that the next one is going to be twice as much.  So I think that’s pretty exciting. 

I was going to say this is the film unlike…it’s not a sequel.  It’s one of the only original films of the big-budget summer.

Yeah, it’s not a sequel.

And do you ever go and see all the toys and this is just a random question but do you ever go see all the toys in the store and feel a little bit of sense of ownership on Prime?

Yeah, you know it’s funny.  There’s some sentiment attached to that but I get more of a thrill when I go to some of these conventions.  I’ve been to a handful and they have the toy fair kind of thing from antique toys and Prime’s for example. I even bought one one time.  I paid full price for it. It duplicated the one that I had for years but my kids got into and over the years they kind of got mangled you know from playing with it, but I still love it.  I cherish that one for all its bruises and everything but the amount of toys I see at these conventions are just incredible. I’m like a kid too.  I just say, geez here’s a good one, oh, here’s Iron-head. I want to get him. I’m just like everybody else. 

I guess I want to ask you about Optimus in the feature because none of us has seen the movie, is he played like the way it was in the cartoon or in the ’86 movie or is he a whole new Optimus?

No, he’s exactly the same. He was built on the components that the original writers gave him which was the brilliant traits of these guys found. They stuck to it. Prime is Prime. He hasn’t changed. He still stands for all the things that made him successful and popular and loved by so many people.  If it’s not broke, don’t fix it.  It would be impossible I think to stray away from Prime because he stood for so many good things and still does.

Also can you talk about the involvement with the video game and being able to work with Frank as Megatron?

It’s one of the best experiences of my life and working with Frank is one of the great, great thrills.  I love the man. He’s such a huge talent and our reunion and being directed by Carl Weathers from Rocky fame you know Apollo Creed, we had sensational times.  The video game—I’ve seen portions of it—it’s brilliant, the designers, the guys that conceptionalize it.  You can place yourself in as a good guy or a bad guy.  There’s one-on-one with Prime and I think it’s going to be a fascinating thing.  I wish I had something like that when I was a kid because it could transport me right into an imaginary world that I was capable of anyway but this to me is a dream for kids today.

Did you have like a ton more dialogue in the video game or was it…?

Yeah, and  just looking at the specs because in the game of course I talk on-on-one with the player and sometimes as the character or sometimes to give advice or you know slow down you’re going too fast. You know, things like that, which I think is great and I was told sometimes it’s more fun to be the bad guy.

I guess my final question is in the video game, did they have any sort of mandate from Paramount to be careful about certain things?  Did they have any sort of guide that they had to follow in making the game or did they pretty much know the characters and they weren’t going to overstep anything?

I’m not sure who the powers would be whether it would be Paramount or …I think it would be Hasbro who were more in control.  I’m sorry I can’t answer that question precisely but quite frankly I don’t really know but I can say that Hasbro has a huge amount of control over it and it’s that collaborative effort with whoever else is involved in it.  It may or may not be Paramount, I’m not sure.  Paramount I know is movie and the game I think is Activision and Hasbro.

I guess I have to ask just at the end and you don’t have to but is there any way you could do any sort of plug for Collider.com?

Collider.com. All right here’s a fast one.  Are you ready?

Sure, thank you.

You are looking at Collider.com.  Don’t scroll out, don’t scroll down.  Stay with it.  This is Optimus Prime.

Thank you so much and have a fantastic day and I’m sure I’ll be talking to you next year for Transformers II.

Steve, it’s been a real pleasure. Thank you, sir.

Thank you so much.