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.

 

[Valwinz]

Cancel culture

she canceled herself

 

[ombus]

very disappointed.. that platinum got people to look the other way from the real problem wich is the VA pay in general.. either 4k or 15k in a millions dollar game.. wow... i guess i know if i want a game from them i know where to find it... wink yuzu wink.

 

[Delerious]

I think YongYea actually did a pretty good job summarizing everything:


Frankly, she's the one who decided to stir the turd, so any criticism of her for this little ploy of hers is warranted, as far as I'm concerned. If she really can't afford to live pursuing her passion of theater, then the way I see it, it's time for her to consider a career change, especially since she's not really been pursuing VO acting aggressively. Even if she were to though, I think this may very well have left a bad mark on her reputation.

very disappointed.. that platinum got people to look the other way from the real problem wich is the VA pay in general.. either 4k or 15k in a millions dollar game.. wow... i guess i know if i want a game from them i know where to find it... wink yuzu wink.

I don't think that's so much Platinum's doing in this case. People started looking the other way because of the stunt she pulled, and others have criticized her for ruining the case for better pay for VO actors.

That said, I myself am still very much in favor of giving VO actors a good pay -- especially for a lead role. The sad reality is that this isn't Hollywood. Even then though, VO actors need to realize that in the current state of the market, you can't just make it on VO acting alone. It should only be treated as a side-gig, if anything, unless you're regularly taking on projects that are ongoing and not just a total of 20 hours worth of recording. Art, in most forms, is not a fiscally lucrative career to pursue, no matter how much we value it on a personal level.

 

[impeeza]

remember that supposed 15K (I can bet is lots less) are not a wage, she had to afford from her pocket health and benefices. Here at my country that payments are called "integral" and when you compare with a normal wage is like you really receive 15% or less of the original payment, if you discount the legal costs of no receive wages.

 

[pedro702]

very disappointed.. that platinum got people to look the other way from the real problem wich is the VA pay in general.. either 4k or 15k in a millions dollar game.. wow... i guess i know if i want a game from them i know where to find it... wink yuzu wink.

it was a 16 hour job... she was almost paid 1000$ per hour.

bayonnetta games are not open world rpgs that have 100 hour content, they get afew cut scenes here and there and afew action lines for combat.

Why would she be worth more? what has she done besides bayonett to be worth even more than that?do codders or animators get paid more if a game succeeds?

For that logic everyone working on a GTA game would need to be paid like 10 million dollars an hour because the gta ip s3.95 Billion? makes no sense at all.

1000$ an hour is preety good wage for a VA.

 

[Jayro]

Welp, that settles it.. I'm gonna buy a copy afterall, to support Jennifer.

 

[sarkwalvein]

Welp, that settles it.. I'm gonna buy a copy afterall, to support Jennifer.

Twitter drama would not change my decision of buying or not buying the game, that was the case before this all started, during it and after.

Twitter is not the right channel for this type of complain, even though the complain is justified. Coercion, drama, manipulation and "social pressure" from Twitter can go fuck themselves, it's not the right channel.

 

[Jayro]

Twitter drama would not change my decision of buying or not buying the game, that was the case before this all started, during it and after.

Twitter is not the right channel for this type of complain, even though the complain is justified. Coercion, drama, manipulation and "social pressure" from Twitter can go fuck themselves, it's not the right channel.

Twitter is one of the best ways to reach people globally when you've got that checkmark next to your name. But yeah, none of this should have gone public, it should have stayed between emails or something.

 

[duwen]

1000$ an hour is preety good wage for a VA.

Even if she'd been paid the $4000 that she originally claimed to have been offered she'd have still been on a higher hourly rate than almost everyone else working on the game.

Presume that everyone that simped for her and pledged support to boycot the game now feels pretty shitty... coz you should.

 

[Maximumbeans]

She basically cancelled herself lol
I don't see any company even wanting to come close her anymore due to this.
Besides, it's not like she had an impressive resumee, at all, with only 24 credited works on IMDB with only Bayonetta being her only prominent role, compared to Jennifer's 400+ works on IMDB with an incredible backlog of great games and other things she has worked on.

It might just be me, but this really seems like the fame got over her head and wanted more because of it, but now she basically just nose-dived into oblivion.

This is the problem with this 'seeking justice over social media' with these 'TRASH COMPANY X-POZED' campaigns. They can be genuinely a force for good if the victim has no other way of getting the true story out in the open, but when they're from a place of anger and revenge they become these ugly situations that just snowball way past the point of sanity. Like you say, it's likely trashed her reputation with fans and within the industry, so in this case it's been kamikaze at best.

 

[tabzer]

Twitter drama would not change my decision of buying or not buying the game, that was the case before this all started, during it and after.

Twitter is not the right channel for this type of complain, even though the complain is justified. Coercion, drama, manipulation and "social pressure" from Twitter can go fuck themselves, it's not the right channel.

What is your opinion on the correct channels?

 

[Purple_Heart]

I don't care....never cared FOR Bayonutta

 

[zandatsu]

Maybe her ego was hurt, or maybe she's just broke.

 

[YuseiFD]

So much drama over an english voice actor, can this get any cringier ??

 

[whitesword7]

Burn baby Burnnn!!!

this whole situation is just hilariously entertaining, I love it

 

[64bitmodels]

man and i was one of the people repping for her too.... i feel like a massive moron

 

[DoctorBagPhD]

I don't care....never cared FOR Bayonutta

We don't care.

 

[James_]

Hellena Taylor logging back onto Twitter later:

She got what she deserved, tbh. Trying to get fans to boycott a game they were waiting 8 whole years for was never a good idea to begin with, and the fact she also straight up lied to her fans has basically ruined her entire career.

Kamiya still sucks tho so I'll just pirate the game too lmao

 

[sombrerosonic]

We don't care.

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

Hellena Taylor logging back onto Twitter later:
View attachment 334053

She got what she deserved, tbh. Trying to get fans to boycott a game they were waiting 8 whole years for was never a good idea to begin with, and the fact she lied to her fans has basically ruined her entire career.

She kinda got what she deserved, i bet sega pretty pissed after that with the sonic origins fiasco

 

[sarkwalvein]

What is your opinion on the correct channels?

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