Keegan-Michael Key on Finally Giving Bumblebee a Voice in ‘Transformers One' (2024)

Transformers One marks a new beginning for the beloved franchise. After several live-action films that featured our favorite Autobots, this film serves as an origin story. If you're familiar with the previous Transformers films, you will know that the character of Bumblebee is notably silent, or at the very least, using his radio to communicate his feelings. The yellow Autobot did not have a voice for pretty much the entirety of his theatrical appearances, but that finally changes in Transformers One.

I was able to speak with Keegan-Michael Key about what it meant to finally give Bumblebee a voice after so long, and how he approached the fun-loving badass that the character evolves into as the film moves forward.

Finding Bumblebee's Voice

MIKE THOMAS: First off loved the movie. I did want to ask you. Bumblebee has notoriously been silent for almost 20 years and theatrical releases, right? So I wanted to ask you, what was, what was your approach to like finally giving this character a voice after so long?

KEEGAN-MICHAEL KEY: I mean, it was like, I was chomping at the bit, you know what I mean? Because there's no rules, right? Nobody can tell us what to do! This is the origin story. So it was so exciting and fun that Josh Cooley, the director and I, we just got to kind of build this together however we wanted to do it. And, and of course, you know, there's guidelines given the script and the story and the journey of his, of his life and how it, you know how it escalates and ebbs and flows. But I was just ready to tear into the steak of this role of what it was gonna be, the meat of it.

You mentioned collaborating with Josh for the role, right? This obviously this is a very stacked cast. Were you playing off of each other? Was it more of you in the booth alone? How did that creative process work?

KEY: It was in the booth alone. We didn't have an opportunity. I mean, especially everybody's schedules, you know, I mean, you're talking about Chris Heworth and freaking Scarlett Johansson here like the, you know, they’re busy. So we never had the opportunity to work with each other, but so I say kudos to the editing team for the movie because it, I mean, our chemistry, I think is pretty great in the movie. But but I worked a lot with Josh, you know, Josh Cooley and I spent a lot of time together and I'm sure he did with the other actors too, and he was my scene partner.

The Creative Process Behind Animation Just Hits Different

So with this being animation, obviously, if it was live-action, you'd be on set, you can kind of see this project come together. What was it like seeing the finished product after so long?

KEY: You know what, Mike? It was glorious. It's one of my favorite parts of animated projects is that you get the opportunity because you just don't know exactly how it's gonna come together. And even when they have some of the animation done and they show it to you and it's really exciting, but it's not the same thing as when they stitch the whole story together. It's so magical to experience. It's one of my favorite parts of working in this part of the industry.

Is your approach to animation different? Like when you're approaching that character, since it's just your voice, right? It's not like you can really get physical with your performance.

KEY: It's funny, I get physical anyway, in the booth. I don't know that I've ever left a booth without at least a couple of beads of sweat. But part of it is depending on the character. It was a little bit different in this role than a lot of my roles. I am subject to going over the top quite a bit because I wanna my voice to match the exaggeration of the visuals. So I, I try to have them meet and in this one, the visual, you know, he is very humanoid and also I think me undercutting some of the stuff and make, you know, when he makes comments about things and you get, try to get a laugh undercutting it, it is, it worked quite a lot in this movie. So it was a different experience for me in a way.

So is there anything that you are excited for the audience to see? Like, is there a favorite moment that stood out to you that you can't wait for them to check out?

KEY: Yeah, I really want people to see one of my favorite parts of the movie. It begins once they get their cogs and they're trying to figure out how to transform, which I think is absolutely fantastic. The fact that you're witnessing the first time that Optimus Prime transforms, you think of the greatest transformer that there was a time when he didn't know how to transform. And to me that, that part of the film is exhilarating absolutely exhilarating. And then it, and it, it continues on toward the end of the film because they're still especially Bumblebee, discovering new, new attributes of, of what they can do when they transform. That part of the film I think is genius.

It’s genius and you know he earns the title “Badass-atron” by the time that sequence ends, right?

KEY: [Laughs] Yeah!

Watch Transformers One in theaters everywhere.

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Transformers One

Not Yet Rated

Animation

Action

Adventure

Sci-Fi

Transformers One explores the origins of the iconic Autobots and Decepticons on their home planet of Cybertron. Set against a complex backdrop of alliances and betrayals, the film delves into the formative events and key figures that shaped these legendary factions, leading to their epic conflict.

Release Date

September 20, 2024

Director

Josh Cooley

Cast

Chris Hemsworth , Brian Tyree Henry , Scarlett Johansson , keegan-michael key , Steve Buscemi , Laurence Fishburne , Jon Hamm , Vanessa Liguori , Jon Bailey , Jason Konopisos-Alvarez , Evan Michael Lee , James Remar , Isaac C. Singleton Jr. , Steve Blum , Jinny Chung , Josh Cooley , Dillon Bryan

Runtime

104 Minutes

Main Genre

Animation

Writers

Andrew Barrer , Steve Desmond , Gabriel Ferrari

Studio(s)

Entertainment One , Hasbro , Nickelodeon Movies

Distributor(s)

Paramount Pictures

Sequel(s)

Transformers

Franchise(s)

Transformers

Character(s)

Orion Pax / Optimus Prime , D-16 / Megatron , Elita -1 , B-127 , Starscream , Alpha Trion , Sentinel Prime , Airachnid , Soundwave , Shockwave / Guard 2 , Jazz , Zeta Prime , Darkwing , Announcer Bot / Guard 1 , Chromia / Arcee , Control Room Guys / PA System / Skywarp , Injured Racer

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