Keegan-Michael Key wants to be a boat. Confused? Okay let’s back it up.
On September 20, the new animated film Transformers One will be released in theaters. Long before Optimus Prime and Megatron took their war to Earth, they were simple mining bots known as Orion Pax and D-16 and though they lacked the ability to transform, they dreamed of a better life for themselves. Faced with a planet-wide lack of their precious Energon life source, Orion searches for the lost Matrix of Leadership which would restore Cybertron’s flow of the precious substance.
Okay cool, but what does this have to do with boats and beloved comedic actors? I’m getting there.
In the film, Orion and D-16 team up with a garbage worker bot named B-127. This bot, who likes to call himself “Badassatron,” later becomes the warrior known as Bumblebee, whom audiences might be familiar with from films like Transformers, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts and Bumblebee. Though fans of the series and these previous films are used to the character being silent or speaking through the radio, in Transformers One he is fully voiced by Key.
“I was really excited by this clean slate that we got because this is the origin story, so we can do whatever we want with B-127, make him sound any way we want,” Key said. “I was ready with choices and maybe we could go this direction or that direction, and what was interesting is that the director [Josh Cooley] said, ‘I don’t want any affectation, I just want it to be your voice and I want people to actually identify B-127 with Keegan-Michael Key.’
“It was a little freeing in a way because I didn’t have to focus on any technical aspects of affecting the voice in some way. I now identify with the character on a really personal level because it’s just me out there saying my words, my way.”
One of the vocal affectations that Key brought to the table is the low, gravelly voice B-127 shifts to whenever he says his self-bestowed nickname, “Badassatron.”
“My favorite transformer from when I was a kid was Soundwave, because Soundwave had the little mini Transformers in his cassette shoot, because he transformed into a boombox,” Key said. “When his shoot would open, there were two spies that would come out. And I thought, ‘Well, you get three Transformers in one. How you gonna beat that?’ So he was my favorite transformer.
“He also was very different than all the rest of the transformers. He had a robot voice, which is what inspired Badassatron. Where I got the vocal energy for that word is from Soundwave.”
That’s cool. So tell me about this boat.
Hold on, I’m not there yet.
Key and Cooley previously worked together on another animated project, Toy Story 4. Like in Toy Story, some of the comedy of Key’s character comes from references to his precious work, like the viral substitute teacher sketch. According to Key, these nods and callbacks all came from Cooley.
“The easter eggs and the inside jokes, that’s all Josh. I think he gets that from his Pixar days, where you can find elements of every world of Pixar in every other world in Pixar,” Key said. “It just gives it more texture and makes it fun and hopefully…people will go back and see the movie again.
“That was what made me…excited about it, and I felt like his writing was so clever in this movie. I just wanted to honor his words. Tthere was ad libbing and there was improv improvising, but mostly the story that he conceived of is intact.”
Matt. Explain. Your. Boat. Sentence.
Okay, fine!
When I asked Key what second form he would take if he was a Transformer, he said he’d like to be a watercraft.
“I don’t know why, but I’ve thought about this. I’d want to be a boat,” Key said. “I’ve never seen a Transformer boat. I would run off of the land and jump in the air and do a somersault [makes Transformers sounds], and turn into…a speed boat from Miami Vice.”
I’m just saying, “Boatassatron” would be a pretty cool name for a Transformer.