Interview by Michael J. Lee, Executive Editor for RadioFree.com
March 14, 2013

With the debut of the third season of The Hub's award-winning animated series Transformers Prime, fans are given a bit of a "good new, bad news" situation. On the upside, the drama and action are poised to be in overdrive, and the stakes are as high as ever: Megatron and his evil Decepticons have devastated the Autobots' home base and the surrounding city of Jasper, Nevada, and Optimus Prime and his team, already vastly outnumbered, have been split up and forced into hiding. To make matters even more dire, Optimus has been critically injured, and the villainous Shockwave has returned to supply Megatron with possibly his most lethal creation: Predaking, a monstrous beast that lives only to hunt and destroy Autobots. The introduction of this pivotal character has given the show an overarching theme and subtitle this year, similar to what was done in the sophomore seasons of Young Justice: Invasion and American Horror Story: Asylum.

The aforementioned downside to all of these engaging storylines is that Transformers Prime: Beast Hunters marks the conclusion of the series, and this third and final season will feature only 13 episodes, down from the 26 of its predecessors. Our silver lining amidst this sad development is that, in speaking with many of the creative individuals responsible for the show, the general consensus seems to be that this is not truly the end of the road, and that the possibility exists for another series set in this world and held to the same high standards.

Transformers Prime has arguably been the best incarnation of the decades-old "robots in diguise" franchise, with more opportunity for storytelling and characterization than the classic G1 series and the live action films, the latter of which have had to focus on visual spectacle targetted at a more general audience. But Prime delved into the mythology of the Transformers universe with some top-notch scripts, and, in an obviously brilliant move, reunited veteran voice actors Peter Cullen and Frank Welker in the respective roles of Optimus Prime and Megatron--roles that they originated, and roles that (fans will rightly point out) belong to them.

In this exclusive interview, actress Sumalee Montano talks about being a part of the world of Transformers and bringing to life the character of Arcee. A female Autobot who was introduced to fans in the 1986 animated movie, Arcee was re-envisioned as a lean, mean, fighting machine for Prime--as a combat veteran who has lost more than her share of friends and partners, she is a front-line battlefield soldier who is regularly haunted by the ramifications of war. And while she usually projects a serious, by-the-book demeanor, she is, perhaps, the most emotionally driven of the members of Team Prime.

Our love for the character prompted us to kick things off with a very to-the-point question...

Win the newly released Transformers Prime Beast Hunters: Predacons Rising on Blu-ray/DVD!

RadioFree.com: So...Arcee is bad-ass, right?

SUMALEE: Yes! I love her!

Back when Transformers Prime first went into development, it seemed that she represented some unique challenges: you don't want her to be just the token "girl robot," and a lot of young boys in the target audience might not embrace such a character. How did you originally navigate and approach her going into the series?

Well, I think I'm very fortunate that she was written so well that it wasn't about "How am I going to navigate her?" so much as [the fact that] the writers gave her such depth and such toughness--I think that that kind of supersedes any [of the challenges]. As an actor, I look at what I'm given and the character that they've built for me, and I feel so grateful to have gotten to be a part of Transformers and to play Arcee. It's so much deeper and has more facets, I think, than previous iterations of Transformers.



I've always thought of Arcee as having a lot of heart, even though she is very prone to violence to safeguard her friends. How do you view her role as a protector/warrior? (I'm not even sure I'm articulating this properly...)

No, I think you are. And I actually think there are some times she has been a little [recklessly violent]. Optimus has had to pull her back and rein her back, especially when she found out that Starscream was the one that killed [her partner]. She is very passionate. But I think you phrased it really well: she's fiercely loyal, she does have a lot of heart, and there is that kind of...I don't think I can even say "nurturing" part of her... [laughs] But it's a protective side.

So if the war was over and she could retire from all the fighting, do you think she would actually be a real softy?

No! NO! [laughs]

What would she be doing?

I think she'd be training...

Always prepared!

I think she'd be training others to get ready, to be ready, and giving them the sense that Optimus gave her about what's right, what's wrong, and "This is what we do and this is how we protect our family." You know, there may not be a war now, but it's about that loyalty and the family.

Now that Transformers Prime is entering its final season, what would you say are some of the most gratifying experiences you've had with the show, in retrospect?

Well, I said this from the very beginning, too: getting to work with the legends Peter Cullen and Frank Walker has been just...I mean, still blows my mind! You know, I work on camera, too, and I feel like getting to play a robot that gets to travel to all these human, emotional places as well has been the creme de la creme for me. I think they wrote her so well in this series. They gave her so much depth, and for me as an actor, it's like, "Oh my gosh, you give me so much to work with!"

Given the sheer scope of the Transformers franchise, is there any chance you could reprise the role of Arcee in another capacity, like a video game or spin-off?

Well, there have been rumors, but I can't...say...anything! [laughs] I can't say anything. But I feel so grateful to have been cast as Arcee in this iteration. I love working with everyone on the show. Everyone's been great.

Well, I'm very much looking forward to see the third season unfold...

Thank you. I'm so excited to see the premiere!

Congratulations on all the great work, and thanks for your time.

Thank you very much, I really appreciate it.

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