Unfortunately I'm not sure he has much choice in the matter. It's the direction he's given, pretty hard to deviate and make the role your own when you're literally being directed not to.

 

They need to stop forcing him to talk like cullen's Optimus. I don't know how many times he had to say "I... PAUSE" or "We... PAUSE" when watching the Netflix show.

 

I thought he was alright and agree that writing/direction really hurts most TF fiction (and especially portrayals of Optimus Prime). But...I can't say that I agree with people saying new actors should make a role their own. They are taking on established characters and should be true to past portrayals. If somebody wants to do something new and different, they're free to not lean on an established property.

 

Honestly considering his age, I don't think he's too too bad. Yeah most of the direction he works under isn't super amazing, but I'd like to see what someone like Sue Blu or Jamie Simone could do with him in the role.

I think he genuinely has the potential to age into the role over time. That said they need to stop having him do it the way Cullen would do it and let him do it how he'd do it, I think it'd be interesting if they gave him a more Animated styled Optimus to work with.

I'm probably being too generous in regards to Jake but the guy isn't even 25 years old yet, that said he needs to branch out and do other characters, otherwise he is just a one trick pony.

 

Not exactly his choice, he's gotta play the part the way he is directed to

 

Saw this on reddit.

 

I said this a while ago in another thread, so I'll say it here.

Peter Cullen is still alive and well. Peter Cullen still loves to play the role and wants to play the role. So if you're going to hire a less experienced actor to impersonate Peter Cullen, why not just hire Peter Cullen? (The answer, of course, is MONEY)