A week ago, news broke out from the former Voice Actress for Bayonetta, Hellena Taylor, sharing her story about her departure to continue voicing the titular character. The departure came with a explanation of several videos over at the actress' Twitter account, where she comments on the main issue being solely on under-payment towards voicing the character for the 3rd installment.

However, other reporters and insiders from the industry delved into the issue and have mentioned an omission in her statement.
The reporters were tipped from anonymous veils due to the legal issues that might arise from disclosing contract negotiations in a public matter. The mentioned amount by Taylor of $4'000, which according to her was the offered amount for voicing the character's lines for the game, was allegedly an offered amount for a different, one-session recording, and not the final offer for the whole game.

The 4k sum she mentioned in her original tweets was an offer made way past her departure, as a simple cameo in the game.
Meanwhile, several reports and insiders allegedly mention that the actual offer for the main game was way higher than the one she disclosed, nearing $15'000 as minimum. This 15k sum came from what Platinum originally offered her for at least five 4-hours sessions, with each one being paid from 3k to 4k, with a possible maximum amout of $20,000, if the reports are to be believed.

Hellena Taylor confirms said sums in a series of tweets on October 24th, where she specifically mentions that the initial offer she deemed too low was of 10k, which she was unhappy with, and contacted superiors. They offered her an additional 5k in return. Taylor declined and refused to voice the character. Platinum then contacted her months after for the voice cameo of one-session, this one being a 4k offer.

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One of the original tweets which brought this upfront has since been removed, but it's available under the Wayback Machine.

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It is still unknown whether or not all of this will have any legal repercussions to her due to the usual NDAs that are now the status quo within the entertainment industry.

 

[RedColoredStars]

The Bayonetta 3 controversy is an invention of the company to do mass marketing and make the game better known. where have we come to.... Obviously it's a marketing strategy. I see that none of you are aware of how the digital market works these days, you will see that bayonetta 3 will sell more than all previous installments thanks to this 'real' case... Obviously.

 

[duwen]

you will see that bayonetta 3 will sell more than all previous installments thanks to this 'real' case... Obviously.

Unlikely, considering that Bayo1 is available (and sold very well) on at least half a dozen different platforms and Bayo3 is locked to just (the weakest) one.

It may be the highest selling Bayonetta title on Switch, but overall? ...nah.

 

[DoctorBagPhD]

Then what exactly do you care about then in this situation?

I think you misunderstood my post. I care about this topic to some degree and I'm glad this grifting arsehole has been exposed as the attention seeking dickhead she is. What I, and I'm presuming everyone else, don't care about is Soraiko's supposed indifference and oxymoronic comment.

 

[JuanMena]

The Bayonetta 3 controversy is an invention of the company to do mass marketing and make the game better known. where have we come to.... Obviously it's a marketing strategy. I see that none of you are aware of how the digital market works these days, you will see that bayonetta 3 will sell more than all previous installments thanks to this 'real' case... Obviously.

Wonder how much Hellena will get paid for this!?!?1

Thanks for opening our eyes! Now we're free from the spell evil digital market casted upon us.
My heart is free now!
And I can fly and dance with the sky elves once again, because you has set us free.

 

[tabzer]

Probably the union, and if needed involvement in politics inside the union.

Not that I am in the position to agree or disagree, but aren't unions vulnerable to political shenanigans. Some may take to twitter to influence unions, though this is obviously not the case here.

 

[isoboy]

I really don’t know how to feel

Bayonetted?

 

[RedColoredStars]

Unlikely, considering that Bayo1 is available (and sold very well) on at least half a dozen different platforms and Bayo3 is locked to just (the weakest) one.

It may be the highest selling Bayonetta title on Switch, but overall? ...nah.

Wonder how much Hellena will get paid for this!?!?1

Thanks for opening our eyes! Now we're free from the spell evil digital market casted upon us.
My heart is free now!
And I can fly and dance with the sky elves once again, because you has set us free.

My post was a joke. Those comments were originally made by @eduall in another topic, insisting that it's "obvious" the entire thing was staged to promote the game.

 

[supergamer368]

I wonder why she did this, did she really think the truth wouldn't come out? Also I love how in her tweet she's all "some of you horrible mean people are calling me a liar " and then proceeds to confirm that she did indeed lie. The shade she threw at the new VA didn't help either, she's just being a dick for no reason.

 

[ChanseyIsTheBest]

I'm surprised she ended up responding to the report and ultimately ending up validating more of it digging herself into an even deeper hole. This is why you need a PR person people.

 

[Deleted member 194275]

My theory is that she took a single little dumb decision, that was cry on twitter. She refused to step back, you know, like humans usually do and the thing is snowballing badly since then.

She stated that have mental health issues, and, if it is not yet another lie, she will suffer a lot.

So lesson learned: if you are angry with your boss, don't cry on twitter.

The real life have places where you can take care of labor issues, do use those.

 

[BlusterBong]

And with that, Helena managed to make any social media criticism related to Nintendo or their associates (you know the ones) that much more immune to what negative thing the internet says about them. Great job, Helena, you made "Big Corpo took down Little Timmy's Fangame/Tournament" and "Big Corpo won't resell old shit" look like actual points.

 

[DarkCoffe64]

Welp, I'm disappointed, I'm just so used to seeing them game corporation screwing over their employees and customers that, when for once the scummy one ends up being the employee, it comes quite as a surprise, uh.
Still, suppose also with nowadays, how easy it is to fake proof and since nobody backs down from "no u" arguments, well... it's hard to figure out who's saying the truth and who's not.

Still, what a fucking shitshow this has been.

 

[urbanman2004]

This is just some old bitter resentful has-been attn seeking wh0r3 whose 15 mins of fame expired 216 hours ago . Why is this even being talked a/b still when she said she wanted to move on ‍♂‍♂. She's a nonstarter who should be banished to the shadow-realm for her intentional deceit, entitlement and non-accountability.

 

[LightBeam]

I hope that everyone who followed like sheeps and spammed « Pay your VAs » to Kamiya and Platinum feel fucking dumb now, because they are

It was fishy from the very beginning. Who would have thought that Platinum was cheaping out on their VAs when after Taylor rejected their offer, they hired Hale which is absolutely a higher-class voice actress, there's no doubt in that. There's no way she would have taken just 4K$.
Yet, people followed a story because a woman who have a voice they like said something and their need to feel like they are righteous kicked in and forgot to think about what they were doing and thinking.

Again, I hope it'll serve as a lesson for some people and understand that they were beyond stupid. It was already VERY obvious that something wasn't right and we needed more infos to pick a side.

 

[VartioArtel]

And Jason Schreier's back with new ways that Taylor reveals she's an inhuman monster.

 

[ShadowOne333]

And Jason Schreier's back with new ways that Taylor reveals she's an inhuman monster.

Eh I prefer that kind of stuff to not be brought up front, it draws the attention of the politics section regulars, I don't want this thread to become another echo chamber for either side. Besides, anyone is free to donate to what they believe, so yeah.

 

[subcon959]

Just a quick note, I played a bit of this game last night and I could easily tell the difference in Bayonetta's voice. It sounded fake and nowhere near as good as the original. It didn't ruin the game or anything but it's a shame this all happened.

 

[auntnadia]

Feeling the need to stick up for this lady after all these posts claiming that she misleads people for financial gain… I mean she was nice enough to selflessly promote the hot young girl in her profile pic.

 

[tabzer]

Feeling the need to stick up for this lady after all these posts claiming that she misleads people for financial gain… I mean she was nice enough to selflessly promote the hot young girl in her profile pic.

Who is claiming she mislead people for financial gain? Are we reading the same thing?

 

[subcon959]

Who is claiming she mislead people for financial gain? Are we reading the same thing?

I think @auntnadia was being sarcastic about the fact that she even has a misleading photo of herself from years ago.