Keegan-Michael Key was "chomping at the bit" to give Bumblebee a voice in 'Transformers One'.

The 53-year-old actor voices the Autobot in the new movie based on the toy line and was intrigued by the prospect of adding something different to a character who had previously been silent.

Keegan-Michael told Collider: "I was chomping at the bit, you know what I mean? Because there's no rules, right? Nobody can tell us what to do! This is the origin story.

"So it was so exciting and fun that Josh Cooley, the director and I, we just got to kind of build this together however we wanted to do it. And of course, you know, there's guidelines given the script and the story and the journey of his life and how it escalates and ebbs and flows.

"But I was just ready to tear into the steak of this role of what it was gonna be, the meat of it."

Keegan-Michael features alongside Chris Hemsworth and Scarlett Johansson in the all-star cast of the film and hailed the crew for creating a strong "chemistry" between the cast members even though the actors were working in isolation.

Discussing the process of voicing Bumblebee, the 'Super Mario Bros. Movie' star said: "It was in the booth alone. We didn't have an opportunity. I mean, especially everybody's schedules, you're talking about Chris Hemsworth and Scarlett Johansson here, you know, they're busy.

"So we never had the opportunity to work with each other, but so I say kudos to the editing team for the movie because it, I mean, our chemistry, I think is pretty great in the movie.

"But I worked a lot with Josh, you know, Josh Cooley and I spent a lot of time together and I'm sure he did with the other actors too, and he was my scene partner."