The original voice actor of Bayonetta, Hellena Taylor, was reportedly offered between $3,000 to $4,000 per recording session to work on Bayonetta 3. The report comes after Taylor claimed she was offered a flat $4,000 to reprise the role, in a series of videos calling on fans to boycott the upcoming game.
According to Bloomberg, Bayonetta 3 developer PlatinumGames was going to have Taylor reprise her role as the character for at least five studio sessions. Each session was reportedly going to pay between $3,000 to $4,000, which would amount to at least $15,000 total. However, Taylor reportedly asked for a total sum of six figures as well as residuals for Bayonetta 3. PlatinumGames declined Taylor’s offer and after negotiations, the developer began to look for a new voice actor.
PlatinumGames reportedly did offer Taylor a cameo afterward in Bayonetta 3 for one session, which would net her $4,000. If the report is accurate, that offer may have been what Taylor was referring to in her initial videos over the past weekend.
Last weekend, Bayonetta's former voice actor called for fans to boycott the new game, saying she was offered just $4,000 to work on it. Her Twitter videos went viral and stoked a debate over voice actor wages. But the full story is much more complicated… https://t.co/qPa8grfCtq
— Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier) October 18, 2022
When reached out for comment, Taylor told Bloomberg that this sequence of events is “an absolute lie” and that PlatinumGames is trying to save face. “I would like to put this whole bloody franchise behind me quite frankly get on with my life in the theatre,” Taylor says.
Bloomberg also reports that Bayonetta 3 had higher acting costs than other games because Nintendo relied on unionized voice actors. That resulted in a minimum of around $900 per four-hour recording session as well as bonuses.
Yesterday, Bayonneta’s new voice actor, Jennifer Hale, took to Twitter and said she was under a non-disclosure agreement and couldn’t comment on the situation at the moment. However, she wished that all parties would reach a resolution amicably.
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