The Lowdown On Lockdown w/ Transformer’s Mark Ryan

ASSOCIATE EDITORJune 27, 2014

Since it’s debut in 2007, Mark Ryan has been an essential part of Michael Bay’s summer blockbuster series, Transformers, without ever actually appearing on screen. The English actor has lent his voice talents as both Autobot and Decepticon for all films to date, most notably rolling-out as Optimus’ right-hand man, Bumblebee. This Friday, Ryan will be playing the robot-to-Lamborghini bounty hunter, Lockdown, in Bay’s 4th installment, Transformers: Age of Extinction.

Interview: Michael Nelson | Images: Paramount Pictures

How did you first get involved with the Transformers series?

My agent called and said he had put me up for a job and that the casting people wanted to see me. It was so hush-hush he couldn’t even tell me what the name of the project was, or indeed anything about it. They were going to send me five or six pages of dialogue which they didn’t want me to learn but they did want me to do all five voices in one go, as if I was having a conversation between the four others and myself. I went along to the meeting at the casting office and there was no one there but me. A very nice lady called Michelle Lewitt was looking at my CV and she said: “You just worked with Antoine Fuqua. What was that like?” I told her it was fine, that we got on really well, and that he trusted me with the sword and stunt guys. She asked me why I thought that was? I said, “Because he’s the director and gets what he wants.” To which she replied, “So you work well under pressure”. I said, “Its not really pressure if you’re prepared. I like to be ready for any eventuality when we step out onto the set in the morning”. She said, “Well this is for Michael Bay”. I think she was looking at me to see what my reaction was to what she had just told me, and said something like, “What do you think about that?” I said, “I treat people as I find them, and if they’re professional, it’s my job to make things work for them”. We left it at that and I recorded the scene that was eventually used in the film where all the robots are talking to each other at Griffith Park Observatory. I did all the voices, and at one point I did the character of Jazz with a Sean Connery voice. Michael filmed it and about a week later I got a call that I was going to be working on Transformers. That was the start of this whole amazing journey!

How does Lockdown differ from other Transformers you’ve played?

I think Lockdown is a very interesting character and quite unusual in the Transformers universe. He’s cool and detached and a mysterious and complex bounty hunter who roams the galaxy freely. He’s focused and dispassionate about his calling and he doesn’t want to take sides. To him it’s all just business. He has absolutely no interest in the future fate of humanity whatsoever which gives him a weary and amoral attitude and yet he’s aware of the legendary history and epic backstory of the Transformers.

In the past, you’ve actually performed voices on set, so that live-action actors could have a presence to interact with. Was this done in Age of Extinction?

Yes. During filming I get direction and cues from Michael as we’re riding the dialogue and camera moves. I’m usually watching Michael’s monitor and Amir’s to see the actor’s close-ups and where the cameras are going. I’m listening to the actors through a sound link and doing the dialogue through a radio-mic. It’s very live and kinetic and we’ve reworked and refined the actual “on-set” process quite a lot over the last seven years and have it down to a fine art now. Michael was very smart to have a live “reactive” element to the acting process on set and I’ve usually gotten to work with all of the actors during shooting.

There are a slew of other remarkable voice talents joining you: Ken Watanabe, Peter Cullen, and John DiMaggio to name a few. What was it like to collaborate with these guys?

It’s an amazing honor to be associated with this legendary group of actors. Peter is a gentleman and a lovely bloke but we rarely see one another when we’re recording. He did come down to the set once and we talked about his brother who is in the Marine Corps. He watched me running around like a madman, taking in the camera moves and the actors lines, watching the ILM poles, doing two or three robot lines I had to perform, being wired up by Peter and the sound team and taking direction from Michael, changing and adjusting to the set-ups and ad-libs. He looked at me with a smile and said, “I don’t know how you’re doing this.” I think I said, “Neither do I, mate. I improvise adapt and overcome.” We both shared a chuckle.

With Mark Wahlberg replacing Shia LaBeouf as an entirely new principal, Cade Yeager, AoE acts as a sort of reboot as well as a sequel. Does this change in the universe affect your performance?

It gave the franchise a whole new breath of life. Mark is a very well grounded and professional actor. He comes in prepared and brings his best game. He’s very calm and professional and a real pro. He’s also a family man and I think this helps him bring a grown-up sensibility to the character and anchor the human storyline in the film’s framework. It was a pleasure to work with him and he also does a wicked Ray Winstone impersonation…We joked about that!

You’ve worked with Michael Bay on several projects now; he even produces the Starz show, Black Sails, which you currently star. What’s your relationship like?

Michael is a very loyal man and I was very happy to be called back to do the job. It’s a uniquely creative situation and exciting to be on a Transformers set. The crew and production staff are the best in the business and working with them and with Michael is a real honor and a continuing education. Black Sails is what you’d expect from a Michael Bay show; production values that are rich, beautifully shot and on an epic scale. The production built one full size boat and a half a ship, so you could see into the decks. They were fully rigged with gun decks and storage areas. It was quite an amazing set to work on. It was in a couple of acres of water that were fifteen feet deep. The town itself, Nassau, where a lot of the action takes place looks amazing. Gates is a blue-collar guy who is in a position of power with the crew. Gates is juggling all the different cultural, racial and spiritual elements within the crew, and trying to focus that energy to put it behind Flint. The role offered a whole array of different facets to a character that Gates has to have. You have to be funny; you have to be charming; you have to be able to be a disciplinarian. You have to understand different cultures and the drives of human beings. It was a great part to be able to bring to life.