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Earlier this month, PlatinumGames confirmed Hellena Taylor would not be returning as the voice of Bayonetta in the third outing Bayonetta 3 due to “various overlapping circumstances“. In an update, the voice actor has now responded to this – taking to social media to explain in her own words why she didn’t voice the character in the third game.
Long story short, she feels the offer of $4,000 USD “to do the whole game…as a flat rate” was an “insult” to her, and the amount of time she took to work on her talent and everything she had given to the fans and series. She also notes how the “Bayonetta franchise made an approximated $450 million dollars” not including merchandise.
Taylor is now asking fans to “boycott this game” and instead spend the money on donations to charity.
“I was just asking for a decent dignified living wage, what they did was legal but it was immoral.”
In the second part of her video message, Taylor explains how she “decided to do it to stand up in solidarity with people all over the world who do not get paid properly for their talents” – further stating how it’s not acceptable, and also mentioning how she had been suffering from mental health issues, including depression and anxiety which led to much darker thoughts. She also may have breached an NDA agreement by the sounds of it:
“I am 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…goodluck to them. Bayonetta always stands up for those with less power and stands up for what is right, and doing this you stand with her. Thank you”.
Taylor added some more context in the third part of her message – mentioning how she auditioned for the role and “passed with flying colours”. She was then sent the offer and instead decided to contact Hideki Kamiya to apparently ask him what her talent was “worth”, and that was when she was offered $4,000 USD by the company. And this, in her words, is how Platinum’s response came about earlier this month:
“Platinum had the cheek to say that I was busy, that they couldn’t make it work…well I had nothing but time.”
In one final comment in the same segment, Taylor wished the new voice actor (Jennifer Hale) “all the joy in the world” and “all the jobs”, but said she had “no right” to step into the spotlight as Bayonetta. She also mentioned how Platinum would “probably” try and do a spin-off, but advised fans not to buy the game.
“I created that voice, she has no right to sign merchandise as Bayonetta…they’ll [PlatinumGames] probably try and do a spin-off with Jan, don’t buy that either.”
Below are Taylor’s four video uploads on social media, where she also called out Nintendo and its presidents:
Related:
Bayonetta 3 arrives on Nintendo Switch October 28th. If we hear any further developments, we’ll let you know.