Brian Tyree Henry re-lives the trauma of 1980s cartoons

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The Oscar nominee plays a young version of Megatron in new animation, Transformers One. Report by Nelsonj. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn

Transcript

00:00Right, Tyree Henry, good to see you, buddy.

00:01What's going on?

00:02I like the fact that on the back of your jacket,

00:03you've got a quote of the most depressing kids' movie of the 80s.

00:08Such a rogue nonsense, isn't it, at the end of the day?

00:11I remember watching that as a kid, like on a TV rerun

00:14and just being so confused when halfway through everyone,

00:16all the great people start to die.

00:17The 80s really made sure that we were traumatized in ways

00:20that we shouldn't have been, because like our cartoons were really...

00:24I still get sad at the Care Bears movie.

00:26Oh, wow.

00:26It was hard, man.

00:28Camp Carolot, stuff went down.

00:30Well, it's good to see you doing so well, despite all the trauma.

00:33Congratulations on the movie.

00:35Whenever you do something like this, you put a lot of work in

00:37and then it kind of goes away

00:38and the animators work on it for years and years and years.

00:40It's a different sort of relief, I guess, when the critics and fans

00:44actually take to it really, really well.

00:45You know, that's so much hard work that's gone behind it has paid off.

00:49That's the kind of work you put into it, man.

00:50It's hard.

00:51People think that doing voiceover is simple.

00:54You go into a booth, you're wearing your sweatpants, you know,

00:56but there's nothing in front of you.

00:58There's no animation.

00:59There's no storyboards.

01:00There's there's none of that.

01:01And then you usually don't even get to meet your cast mates

01:03until the movie is completely done.

01:05But if you have a great story like Transformers,

01:07which has stood the test of time for over 40 years, great characters

01:10like Megatron, Alita, Optimus Prime,

01:13you have something really special.

01:15And then, you know, we have such a great ensemble with this, you know.

01:19But it's a part of our nostalgia.

01:21Like it feels like a part of ownership.

01:22Like here I am in London where Transformers is, you know, extended here.

01:26It's extended all the way to Australia.

01:28So it's that part of nostalgia that I really love

01:30because there's a sense of ownership when it comes to stories like this.

01:34I think I answered that right?

01:35Because it was close.

01:37I had a baby a few weeks ago, so I don't know what anyone's saying to me.

01:39You don't know where you're at.

01:41I'm glad you got on pants today.

01:43I mean, it's the Transformers movie. I'm going to be here.

01:45Yeah, there we go.

01:46And Megatron origin movie.

01:47This is like your Joker, really.

01:50That must be exciting.

01:51I wish. That'd be nice.

01:52Is the Academy listening?

01:53I don't know.

01:54I'm just saying I'd love to be the Joker.

01:57Be cool.

01:57But like having an iconic character like this

02:00and being able to explore it in a way that's completely brand new.

02:02As an actor, you're your bread and butter, as they say over here.

02:06No pressure.

02:07You know what I'm saying?

02:08Like it mean, look, we were stepping into some pretty big shoes

02:11because these characters have been around for so long.

02:14And, you know, you want to make sure that we're honouring what the fans want, too.

02:17But what's really great about doing Transformers 1 is that we're starting

02:20at the beginning.

02:21So we get to go in there and figure out who we want them to be.

02:24You know, like we get to figure out where they start, how they sound,

02:27what they're going through.

02:28So, yeah, it's a fun exploration of your imagination.

02:32You know, we're looking forward to seeing you for Transformers 2 or 3 or 4.

02:365, 11.

02:37I don't know how many of them signed you up for now.

02:38But we'll see, man.

02:39As long as I get to do it with these guys, it's awesome.

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