Josh Keaton is a voice-over actor who has played a wide variety of superheroes, like The Flash, Aquaman (Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths) and Peter Parker in the critically acclaimed Spectacular Spider-Man. Currently you can hear him as Hal Jordan in Bruce Timm's Green Lantern: The Animated Series, and as Jack Darby on the Emmy Award-winning Transformers Prime on The Hub TV network.

Starring in Transformers Prime gives Josh Keaton the opportunity to work with the two legendary actors who have been voicing Optimus Prime and Megatron for decades: Peter Cullen and Frank Welker, respectively.

Transformers Prime also gives Josh a chance to explore what's it like to be a teenager, and what it sounds like to take a punch.

In an interview, Josh Keaton graciously talked about Transformers Prime, as well as other cartoons has has worked on.

Transformers Prime

Is it a coincidence that Jack Darby looks just like you, or did the animators draw him like that on purpose?

"The character design was pretty much completed before I even auditioned. Usually when I go in to audition for a role, there's the audition script and a character model for you to look at and Jack was pretty much already done. It was a coincidence. The thing that's funny is that every now and then I'll notice something that Jack does, a motion that he makes that is very similar to something that I would do, and that's definitely a coincidence. They don't videotape us for reference and that just comes out of the minds of the storyboard artists and the animators and directors, so maybe somebody in the room saw me do something and forwarded it along.

I'm positive it was a coincidence, but quite a cool one."

How is it playing a teenager?

"You're at that point in one's life when their discovering themselves. They're really, for the first time, seeing outside of themselves and seeing the world in a different way. That's a great age to explore."

How is it working with legends Peter Cullen (Optimus Prime) and Frank Welker (Megatron)?

"I can't believe I get paid to go and hang out with people like Frank Welker and Peter Cullen and Steve Blum and so many great people in animation and a lot of great actors, not just from animation and voice-over. It's really cool to see their approaches to the character and watch it come to life. I used to watch the original Transformers when I was a kid. Seeing the new take on a lot of the characters is pretty awesome. Seeing the old greats reprise their roles is really, really great, too."

What do you think of the new characters and stories for Transformers?

"I think it's cool because it really fleshes out a lot of the backstory and gives you a more in-depth look at the lore. It brings back a lot of the classic Autobots. I think it goes more in-depth. You see that in a lot of animation. We try to explore in much greater detail and flesh out a lot of the character relationships. That's the aim anyway.

"Visually, I love a lot of the original characters designs but when you watch Transformers Prime on high def, it is amazing. You get to really see how the robots take beatings. Over the course of a season they get more and more dinged up. I'm constantly fascinated by the technology we have. When I was a kid... there's nothing wrong with hand-painted, but [Transformers Prime] is approaching a level of realism that's pretty awesome."

What's it like in the booth to record so much action for Transformers Prime?

"We wing it. I do everything short of punching myself. There's a way to do it, because you need to make it sound as realistic as possible, but they can't hear the noise of you making the sounds. If you're punching yourself or doing any of that kind of stuff, you're going to hear clothing noise and impact. You really kind of have to picture the fight. You have to imagine how it's going to go, because it's going to sound very different if I'm getting hit in the stomach, versus getting hit in the face or if I'm picking something up that's really heavy versus something that's not. There are so many variables and you have to account for all of them. I've gotten hurt a lot of times in my life so I have a lot to pull from. If you see me during a recording session I'm moving around, I'm recoiling from punches that didn't really happen. I"m sure it looks pretty silly. But if you were to animate somebody during that session, then it would look right."

What kind of scenes or scripts get you excited?

"It really depends. There was one episode that just played where Ratchet basically comes in and saves the day. You've never really seen him, up until that point, get up and fight. What he does is incredible. I remember when I read the script, it was so descriptive that I actually cheered in my office. I was like, "Yeah! All right, Ratchet!" Usually you get the stereotype of the actor where it's like, "B.S., B.S., B.S., my line, B.S. B.S." There's none of that at all, I enjoy reading the stories, and I can't wait to see what they look like once they're all done and animated."

Have you visited Comic-Cons, and what is your experience like? Are you pushed aside since you play a human and not an Autobot?

"I try to go to as many conventions as I can. And yeah, there is a bit of that, but it's Transformers. It's not Humans with Robots. I think it's a normal thing for them to be the stars of the show because they are the stars of the show. The humans definitely lend a good supporting role to it, but it's really a show about the 'Bots."

What's been your favorite episode?

I really liked "Predatory," which was one of my big episodes. [Laughs] It was an episode that focused a lot on Arcee and Jack and their relationship and Arachnid, the spider robot who is really, really mean, and doesn't get along very well with Arcee. I love the tone that was set with it. You got a really creepy vibe from the outset and there were a lot of really high stakes. I really enjoyed a lot of the M.E.C.H. episodes. I like how it doesn't discount humans as a threat. Just because the humans don't have that big shell and other stuff doesn't mean that, with bad intention and bad motivations, they can be every bit as dangerous."

Do you watch every episode?

"My wife and I are huge gamers, huge movie buffs. We've set up our rec room area to make it as cinematic, like a theater, as possible, with a big TV and surround sound. That's what happens. Trying to bring back the Saturday morning cartoons, with a bowl of cereal and all that. I grew up on He-Man. I had three sisters so I ended up having to watch Strawberry Shortcake, My Little Pony. You gotta bring back the Saturday morning-ness of it. It's an institution and I'm sad to see it fade away a bit, but I'm glad that there are people like myself that won't let go and do the Saturday morning thing, because it's fun. It's a great way to start the weekend."

With so many cartoons on TV now, do you feel the quality of TV animation is better?

"Without a doubt. I think that a lot more budget is allocated to things like that, speaking as an actor who knows nothing about such things. With everyone having to step up their game, more money is allocated to it. You're getting much more fleshed out story arcs and fewer stand alone episodes and more big, inter-woven stories that deal with a lot of real world problems.

"I think that's one of the really awesome things about Transformers Prime is that there's something in there for everybody. You got robots fighting and a lot of action, but at the same time you're seeing some very complex story issued come up. They're dealing with war and suffering and with betrayal, and bigger themes of survival and all kinds of very, very human problems. And how the robots have that in common with us. They're totally different from us but they face the same problems. It's fascinating to see that in animation, to see that level of sophistication. For one, I think kids are a lot smarter than people give them credit for. It's nice to see a show that doesn't talk down. It also makes it something that parents and older brothers and sisters can also sit down and enjoy because it's not so kiddie that you're like, 'Oh, do I have to watch this?' It's like, 'No! Let's watch this! This is awesome!'"

Recording Transformers Prime

Do you record with the other members of the cast or are you by yourself in a booth?

"Usually they have us all record together. I call it radio drama style because everybody's together and you're basically reading it. You're reading it in chronological order so you go from the beginning of the script to the end and just read it out like a play. The only time that we ever are not in a group is if there's a scheduling thing where somebody's working on something else or somebody's out of town or a lot of times we'll have a really, really big episode with a lot of people in the cast and in that case the studio's just not big enough to accommodate everyone so we'll split it up into two groups. So half of the cast will go in to record and then they'll have the other half come in."

As an actor, do you prefer recording as a group, or would you rather record alone?

"I love having everybody there whenever possible because it's one thing to go into a session and have all your choices made and have an understanding of what's going to happen in that episode and go in there and play it, but when you have someone opposite who is going to throw their choices at you.. now you're going to respond to that and... I call it the magic. That's how the magic happens. One person can only think of so many things. When you get the meeting of the two approaches that's when all the unexpected stuff comes out. That's where the really great moments are."

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