Bayonetta Voice Actress Accuses PlatinumGames Of Low Pay For Role, Urges Boycott
Hellena Taylor, the voice actress who previously starred as Bayonetta in the character-action series, issued a statement about why she won’t be returning for Bayonetta 3. In a series of videos on Twitter, she explained that after successfully re-auditioning for the role, she received a final offer of only $4,000 for the entire part.
She described this offer as an “insult” and said, “I didn’t ask for too much. I was just asking for a decent, dignified living wage. What they did was legal, but it was immoral.” Taylor detailed how she had trained for more than seven years in voice and acting training to prepare for these types of roles. In response, she has asked fans to boycott the upcoming game and donate the money they would have spent on the title to charity instead. She justified the call for a boycott as an effort to “stand up in solidarity with people all over the world who do not get paid properly for their talents.”
Revealing her struggles with anxiety and depression due to difficulties finding work in the acting industry, she said, “I’m not afraid of the Non-Disclosure Agreement. I can’t even afford to run a car, what are they going to do, take my clothes? Good luck to them.” Earlier this month, it was announced that Jeniffer Hale, a well-known voice actress who played Command Shephard in Mass Effect, would be taking over as the star of the third game. PlatinumGames had said this switch was partially made by ”various overlapping circumstances,” such as scheduling, which Taylor has refuted.
