Excellent, yesss.. In this interview we speak to David Kaye, the man behind the mighty Megatron from Beast Wars and Beast Machines. Read on and find out his takes on voice acting and the Transformers experience.

1. What would you offer as advice to someone wanting to break into the voice acting industry?

I didn't know anything about voice acting when I started out. To be honest none of us really did. We gathered what tid bits of info we could from those already doing it. The only thing I've learned is if this is what you really want to do then you've got your homework to do. First, you have to be in LA, New York, Toronto, Vancouver, etc etc..... Major centers where agents,casting and above all cartoons exist. You've gotta be where the action is...taking acting classes (reputable ones....ask around) -- Get trained and familiar with the entertainment bizz and be prepared to have life suck for a little while until agents, auditions, etc start coming your way. And to be honest, It has a lot to do with being in the right place at the right time.

2: Do you prefer animation to other forms of media and what are the pros and cons of each?

Animation is alot more fun to do. No make-up and wardrobe only paper airplanes to hurl at one another during the record session !

3: From what research I've done on becoming a voice actor, I've concluded that it all comes down to one of two options: acting (be it animation or live performances) or doing advertisement. Is it better for someone who wishes to enter the field to do voice-overs in all its incantations or could someone make it if all they wanted to do was strictly animation or strictly advertisement?

You forgot about the preverbial .."being at the right place at the right time..." scenario. Be very good in as many fields of the industry as you can. Most of us are running around tryin' to squeeze in a cartoon session in the morning, blasting away to audtion for a radio/television commercial voice over after that, learning lines for an on camera movie of the week for CBS, and heading off to classes at night. Then if there's a home studio, recording radio and television imaging for stations around the country. Words of advice, always be doing something, whether it's writing or live theatre. Work begets work !

4: Having played both the ultimate good guy (General Hawk) and the epitome of evil (Megatron), do you have a preference of playing a hero or a villain, and what are some of your personal likes/dislikes of portraying both?

I have to admit the evil ones are fun. We all have a dark side and as an actor it's fun to play in the swamp once in awhile.

5: How do you create a voice for a cartoon character, and specifically, how did you create Megatron?

Going into the audition I had a picture of the character and a description of the character. To be honest, I didn't know what I was going to do until I got behind the mic. And then this mix of Anthony Hopkins, Alan Rickman, Sean Connery and a lizard came forth.

6: Probably the most famous line in Beast Wars is "Excellent, yessss......." Did you come up with that or was it a running gag with the script writers?

The writers placed it there and I took some liberties with it. Stretching some out, throwing a "yessss" in where it wasn't written and it just became his "thing".

7: Over the course of the Beast Wars, Megatron underwent 3 distinct physical changes. What did you as an actor have to do to help Megatron evolve as a character so that each change was more than mere "cosmetics"?

In the Beast Machines episodes, they did pitch him down a tiny bit to make him more god-like. They also wanted him to lose a bit of the dark humour we were all so fond of. They wanted to serious him up a bit -- more maniacal.

8: Similar to the above question. In Beast Machines, it was obvious with each physical change the voice could be heard to change as well. Were most of those changes just the original voice with computer backup or did you actually change your voice to further shape Megatron's changing appearance?

see above

9: A lot of fans were rather vexed with the direction Beast Machines took our beloved Beast Wars characters. It occurred to me that from a fan perspective it is easy to develop a firm opinion as to where the direction of a story arc should go, and therefore can be let down or overjoyed as the arc pans out. However, from an actors perspective, I'm assuming a story arc is just a series of gigs. Has there ever been a time you became so engrossed portraying a character that you developed your own idea of where you felt the story arc should go, and if so, how does it affect your acting when you don't agree with either the direction of the story arc or what you know is going to happen to your character in the course of the arc?

Mostly it's a series of gigs and more importantly they're cartoons. The only time I'd really throw in an opinion would be if a line didn't make sense or I was clever enough to catch a continuity error from an earlier episode.

10: What are some of the differences/similarities between Beast Wars Megatron and Beast Machines Megatron and what were some of the challenges in doing both characters?

see question 7

11: Though I'm sure you are partial to Megatron, who was your favorite character out of all five seasons, what was your favorite episode and why?

My fav has always been tarantulas. He's just a FREAK !!! I always enjoyed the episodes where Tarantulas tried to take over. Actually Inferno was kinda funny, callin' me his queen and all. That was a little warped.

12: Have you ever worked for an ongoing series with such a large fanbase as the Transformers and what is your reaction to us, the Transformer fan community?

We knew after seeing the early rendering of the very first episode that this was going to be big. No one had any idea how big, really. You see I'm a big fan of cartoons and an action figure collector so I was totally stoked when I saw the toys. I've been to fan conventions and met the fans and it's been awesome. All we can say as a collective is "THANKS !!"

13: Were you a Transfan before actually being a Transformer and if not, are you now?

Never paid much attention until I was cast -- definitely a fan !

14: What was it like working with the other voice actors of Beast Wars/Machines and have any of you worked together before/after the project?

These are the people I could spend every day working with. They're my friends and a tremendous amount of fun being around. They're all just as warped as I am !

15: Overall, what are your thoughts concerning your involvement with the Beast Wars and Beast Machines project?

It's been a great ride and I hope we can squeeze a little more life out of the Bots. So keep buying the toys and writing Hasbro. They listen !