by Willem Burr » Fri May 18, 2007 3:08 am
I just found this article, so my commentary comes a bit late (well, okay, VERY late).
I was at Matsuri during this Q&A, and, in fact, I asked two of the questions posed in the article, though I was paraphrased. And that's somewhat unfortunate, as the “Q”s added additional humor to the “A”s. Verbatim quotes would've been great: one of my exchanges with Mr. Cullen was hilarious.
Anyway... I'm glad this was recorded for posterity. Mr. Cullen was an incredibly likeable and interesting person. Even my friends, who aren't devotees of TFs, thought he was awesome. Seriously. I'm 22 and I'd hang-out with this guy for fun. He also remains incredibly humble and gracious. That's a unique combination to see in such a confident and cool individual.
A friend of mine video-taped a portion of the Q&A, but exited the auditorium abruptly after embarassing himself by asking an inane and baffling question (something unintelligable about Mr. Cullen taking Will Smith's role in Bad Boys 2). Mercifully, that was omited from this article. He plans on turning the footage into a parody based on his faux-paux, mixed with footage of our group generaly doing insane things at the Con and elsewhere.
I'm going to attempt to get an unedited copy first and provide video of Mr. Cullen's Q&A (though he recorded only about half of it). Text doesn't do him justice; he was just fantastic. I overheard multiple anime fans say, after specifically stating only passing-interest in Transformers, that Mr. Cullen was the best part of the entire convention.
As an aside: I don't like anime, and therefore I can't judge the other aspects of the Con accurately. However, I was repeatedly told that the Con sucked and that Mr. Cullen was its only saving grace.