Original Bayonetta voice actor Hellena Taylor has released a series of four scathing videos calling out PlatinumGames and Nintendo for the reason she has not reprised her role in Bayonetta 3, which is that she was offered only $4000 to return. Taylor called the offer an “insult,” explaining that it would have been a flat rate that covered her work on the whole game. She stated that the Bayonetta franchise has made approximately $450 million, not including merchandise. In response, Hellena Taylor is asking fans to boycott Bayonetta 3, requesting that they instead donate their money to charity.
“I didn’t want the world. I didn’t ask for too much,” Taylor said. “I was just asking for a decent, dignified living wage. What they did was legal, but it was immoral.”
Friends, Worldlings, Bayonutters. Hear ye!#PlatinumGames #Nintendo #Bayonetta #Bayonetta3 #Bayonutters #Boycott #NintendoEurope #NintendoAmerica #NintendoJapan pic.twitter.com/h9lwiX2bBt
— Hellena Taylor (@hellenataylor) October 15, 2022
Taylor elaborated on the “back-and-forth” that took place when work on Bayonetta 3 began. After successfully auditioning for the role in the third installment, she was sent “an insulting offer.” After receiving this first offer, Taylor wrote a letter (translated into Japanese through a friend) to PlatinumGames vice president and Bayonetta creator Hideki Kamiya.
“I’m going to write to him and ask him what I’m worth,” she said.
Taylor continued: “I know he read it because I got a reply. I got a reply saying that he values, greatly, my contribution to the game and that the fans really want me to voice it over, and the memory of first meeting me as Bayonetta is ‘a memory I hold dear.’ So, I thought, ‘Great. Thank God.’ That was when they offered me four thousand US dollars.” (Kamiya has since weakly and vaguely refuted this claim, stating, “Sad and deplorable about the attitude of untruth. That’s what all I can tell now.”)
PlatinumGames cited “various overlapping circumstances” as the reasoning for the departure of Hellena Taylor as the voice actor of Bayonetta during an interview with Game Informer earlier this month. The interview also confirmed that Mass Effect and Metroid Prime voice actor Jennifer Hale would take over the Bayonetta 3 role in Taylor’s place.
“Platinum had the cheek to say that I was busy. That they ‘couldn’t make it work with Miss Taylor’s schedule,’” Taylor said today. “Well, I had nothing but time.”
Regarding her move to ask fans to boycott Bayonetta 3, Hellena Taylor said that she understands that some fans will still purchase a copy. She said that “that’s fine. But if you’re someone who cares about people, who cares about the world around you, who cares about who gets hurt with these financial decisions, then I urge you to boycott this game.”
Bayonetta 3 launches for Nintendo Switch on October 28.
