Transformers Voice Actors to Testify Over Controversial DC Robot Statues

According to reports in US media on Thursday, Peter Cullen, the voice actor behind Autobots leader Optimus Prime in the Transformers films and television series, is set to appear alongside Dan Gilvezan, who voiced one of Prime’s allies, the transforming robot Bumblebee, in the witness stand.

The two appeared on the list of witnesses for a Thursday hearing of the DC Public Space Committee, which handles permit applications and other business pertaining to the use of public space in the city.

The hearing is just the latest episode in a years-long battle playing out in Georgetown, an affluent riverside neighborhood that has retained a degree of autonomy and identity after being absorbed into the larger capital city.

The two statues flank the door to the home of billionaire Newton Howard, an influential neuroscientist. They are at least 10 feet tall, made of metal car parts, painted in bright blue and yellow, and sit atop two brick square pads that once held planters.

Newton, who erected them in 2021 and has done major research on how the human brain can help pioneer artificial intelligence, said he was inspired by the franchise "because the Transformers represent human and machine living in harmony, if you will."

But for Newton’s millionaire neighbors, the robots attract unwanted attention to the community and set a dangerous precedent for what could one day become statues of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin on the block. No, really.

"What’s to stop someone from putting up a statue of Joseph Stalin and saying well this is provocative, it’s art, it speaks to me," NBC journalist Luke Russert, who lives next door, told a city media outlet. "They are a nuisance, they are an eyesore and they detract from the spirit of the neighborhood. I think a lot of us were perplexed how quickly they went up."

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Newton has countered Russert’s assertion, saying that the statues "bring joy to children and other people in this rough time of people being cooped in their house. I’m going to fight for them because it really fundamentally hits me at the 'freedom of expression' nexus."

That's where Cullen and Gilvezan come in: they’re going to testify before the committee in favor of keeping the statues up, and they’re going to do so in the personae of their robot characters.

"Bumblebee is going to testify and hopefully turn some heads," Gilvezan told a local paper. He offered two things Bumblebee might tell the committee: "Some of my best friends are human” and “I would hate to think I wasn’t welcome in Georgetown."

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Gilvezan said he thinks the statues offer up a kind of joy that children need in an “awfully bleak” world.

"I love the idea that somebody is driving by with their kids and suddenly it’s, 'Oh, its Bumblebee and Optimus Prime!' It's going to make their day, and to think that opportunity wouldn’t be afforded to them makes me sad," he said. "And it makes Bumblebee sad, too. I can promise you that."

Paul Strauss, an attorney who represents Howard, quipped that the captcha used by the online registration system, which asks users to "prove they’re not a robot," was “a little bit discriminatory. We may have an equal protection challenge there."

However, he indicated he intends to make a real legal argument on Thursday, pointing out that owners should be allowed to do something on their property if it doesn’t hurt anyone else.

He added: "Are we going to try to have some fun with this? Absolutely."