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Hellena Taylor (Voice of Bayonetta) Describes How She was Offered only $4,000 USD to Voice Her Again in Bayonetta 3.

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Resident Cheap Arse
I wonder how all of the developers, artists, directors and support staff who worked countless hours over a period of YEARS feel seeing someone, who was only asked to do a few hours of voice work over the period of a couple of days, go onto social media to call for a boycott and threaten their livelihoods because she feels entitled to a larger cut of the return for their hard work.

Entitled, selfish and showing no consideration all all for the people who actually put in the graft and made the series what it is.
 

Xellos

Member
It's probably not a good idea go on the internet and vent frustrations about negotiations. Also I'm very curious what an acceptable offer would have been. $4k seems low, but Bayonetta is certainly no MGS when it comes to cutscenes/dialogue.

I will miss her in the role. Hope she finds success in the future.
 

Alexios

Cores, shaders and BIOS oh my!
Lol, all the usual fantrolls just bashing Nintendo when it's most likely Platinum that decided who gets what from the game's allocated budget (and how to save money wherever they can, the budget probably affords everyone's wage to be higher, but Platinum's gotta fill the boss pockets first and its own as usual, they aren't gonna take less while being contracted by Nintendo than they take at any other time and they aren't gonna pay their janitors more while being contracted by Nintendo or Square Enix than at any other time either lol, plus everyone agrees that Hale probably got much more money than Hellena was offered so obviously there was budget for a better offer, duh). And no, Bayonetta is not an AAA franchise, DMCV is what an AAA game in the genre looks like and that high profile series was almost dead and buried too so of course a smaller niche IP is not with a huge AAA budget and would have been dead and buried past game 1 if it wasn't for Nintendo getting SEGA and Platinum together, so "signing exclusivity" was not "the worst thing for the series", there would be no series, does this really need to be retold in every stupid Bayonetta thread? You'd have a point if Nintendo meddled with the development in any way whatsoever but Platinum's got free reign and the games are consistently great at doing what they do. Your beloved Sony or Microsoft or whoever you stan would NOT have made it an AAA series, they would have let it die. They did. Get a grip. Reading through this thread there's barely any mention of Platinum Games, going by that you'd think it's an internally developed Nintendo game headed by Miyamoto or something if you didn't know better. Of course the fantrolls know better but they gotta say their bullshit piece anyway. Yikes.
 
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TheInfamousKira

Reseterror Resettler
That IS shitty, and VA work traditionally pays just enough to get to the next gig without starving, so I get it.

On the other hand

This chick has main character syndrome. Literally. IVE TRAINED FOR YEARS, THIS ISN'T THE VOICE OF BAYONETTA, *I* CREATED THAT VOICE

Like...come on, chick. It's a sultry, husky British accent. It's not some unheard of amount of work and skill that reduces grown men to tears or anything.
 

jorgejjvr

Gold Member
Yeah, I'm not gonna fully believe her 'just cause', there's probably more sides to this story.

And she's handling this awfully
 

Exede

Member
Haven't even noticed that the VA is different in 3 in the trailer. 4k$ for a few days of work? Not boycoting Bayo 3, i'm considering boycoting this VA couse a professionell shouldn't doxx like this ever.
 

VN1X

Banned
I'm about to "bayonut".
1x
 

Filben

Member
I was kinda torn between my usual sentiment that social media shouldn't exist in the first place and so you should not do your laundry in these platforms. Then I thought how shitty this offer might be and if fans kept asking it's the easiest way to answer. Then she went on to belittle the new actress and I'm already reminded of my initial response.
 
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Jaybe

Member
Calling for a boycott, lady you’re stupid. Good luck getting hired by the next company now that if they want to go another route for VA you’ll call for a boycott.
 

bender

What time is it?
Maybe, but she's right.

You know maybe if the VA community had followed Guy Cihi's example instead of throwing him under the bus this wouldn't have happened.

Good on Taylor for actually taking a stand. I was already boycotting it anyway but I like the donate to charity idea.

Fuck Troy Baker and Mary Elizabeth McGlynn forever.
 

Megatron

Member
A living wage? How long would it take her to record all the lines in the game? A week? A month? $4000 for a week or twos worth of work sounds like a ‘living wage’ to me. Get out of here with that nonsense.
 
You believe Kamiya? the guy is off his rockers, he just blocks everyone and says outlandish things without evidence or proof.

I really don't get why anyone has any respect for him anymore.

Do you have evidence to support the VA? Otherwise, you are talking out of your ignorant ass.

The reality is we don't know *who* is telling the truth and until evidence comes out, claiming one side or the other is more trustworthy is fucking retarded.
 
$4000 is a pretty shitty offer. That's like putting an item for sale for $1000 that's well worth it. You expect people to offer lower than asked and it's fine. But that $4000 is like someone offering you $20 for it. Straight up disrespect. Not saying her voice is worth a million, hell, even a hundred K, but $4000? Yeah, I kind of understand her.
 

radewagon

Member
Using social media for attempts at shaming. She should just be professional and move on.
Tricky thing to act like a professional when you aren't being treated like one. Professionals should be paid like professionals. She was offered less than what many people make in a month. Her speaking out about the poor compensation is her trying to express that her work wasn't being valued or respected.

Sadly, I don't think it's going to really have the desired effect. But yeah, 4k for voice work of a main character in a longish running series is an insult to her work as an artist.
 

Umbasaborne

Banned
I mean, thats pretty shite, but im still going to buy it. Lets be honest, all the white knights on era going “WeLl Im nOT bUyInG ThIs!!” Will absolutley buy it, just like they will by hogwarts legacy and then cry about it on twitter
 

Ceadeus

Member
Dear god I can't believe how cheap Nintendo and co. are. That's insulting like she says... Her voice is iconic by now.

I'm damn curious to know how much Charles Martinet gets when he does Mario. He's probably super rich just to say mamamia and other stupid one liner like this, while this woman works her ass off for ridiculous salary. That's really sad, I can feel how disappointed she is in this twitter video :(
 
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YCoCg

Member
Main characters in a video game us usually a six month recording job, this allows full script, ablibs, alt takes, etc, to be done, on average this should be paid at around $1.2k to $1.5k a month on a low end contract, increasing vastly if the VO is expected to do motion capture ranging on facial capture to full body work.

There's also been a lot of anti-union contracts going around recently either by low balling union workers or offering them more money to leave their union.
 
I would think going out of the way to break NDA is a very drastic course of action for someone to "lie" about the details.
You would think wrong, that's not proof.
I think she said something about a letter? She should show that instead of just trying to get people to boycott the game.
 

Ezekiel_

Banned
Without the full context, it's hard to take sides.

4000 USD for one day of voice recording? That's good.

4000 USD for 3 months? That's shit.

Good on her to take a stand though. Voice acting still requires training and talent. If she did participate in the creation of the voice, she deserves some credit.

I hope she doesn't get blacklisted because of this.

Reminds me of Terrence Howard being replaced as War Machine in Iron Man because he was asking too much.

This is why unions exist, so employers don't abuse their position. People deserve dignity for their work, especially when Nintendo is making bank.
 
$4000 to read some cringe dialog in a niche franchise? That's probably more than some of the actual developers of the game make in a month.

JK this is an outrage and she should be making as much as Chris Pratt does for voicing Mario.
 

Megatron

Member
$4000 is a pretty shitty offer. That's like putting an item for sale for $1000 that's well worth it. You expect people to offer lower than asked and it's fine. But that $4000 is like someone offering you $20 for it. Straight up disrespect. Not saying her voice is worth a million, hell, even a hundred K, but $4000? Yeah, I kind of understand her.
It’s not the same at all. When you sell that thing it’s gone. If you get paid $4000 for a week’s worth of work, you can still do other jobs. You haven’t lost anything. She shouldn’t cry about wanting a living wage. How the hell is $4000 to record some lines not a living wage?
 

Alexios

Cores, shaders and BIOS oh my!
It’s not the same at all. When you sell that thing it’s gone. If you get paid $4000 for a week’s worth of work, you can still do other jobs. You haven’t lost anything. She shouldn’t cry about wanting a living wage. How the hell is $4000 to record some lines not a living wage?
Do you know how many lines and how much work? Why guess? Do you expect voice actors to work 9 to 5 like any normal job, going from project to project in an instant or something to be able to do more than "survive" since you seem to believe that affording food and shelter is "living" enough? Different professions have different circumstances, she's not employed by a studio getting money day in, day out, regardless of the amount of work and has to be on the hunt for new projects constantly and taking one means not taking another, payments should cover all that and yes, the potential of not finding work for some time after finishing with that too since being there could well mean missing several other opportunities. And just because not paying royalties is the norm doesn't mean it should stay that way forever, it wasn't always so for movie actors either, it would be fine by me even if texture artists, modelers, programmers, got royalties based on the amount of input on top of their wage, not everything has to go to the suits. Would her getting more money affect you negatively, or other voice actors negatively? Would the project be cancelled over it? Why froth so?
 
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tmlDan

Member
Do you have evidence to support the VA? Otherwise, you are talking out of your ignorant ass.

The reality is we don't know *who* is telling the truth and until evidence comes out, claiming one side or the other is more trustworthy is fucking retarded.
What's more incriminating? you saying people are liars without any proof/an explanation and then blocking anyone who questions it or the person that came out to complain about wages being criminal?

Stop defending him, it's pathetic.
 

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
She has no obligation to accept the job offer if she feels is too little. But she also doesn’t have the rights to cause harm to another because she is unhappy about that.

Right to cause harm ? the fuck ?

$4000 for an iconic character's VA to reprise the role is a pathetic low-ball. But I guess this game must have a severely reduced budget compared to the second one if this is the extent they're going to go to.
 

Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
Even if she is completely right about how low the offer was but asking people to boycott the game is not a good solution because other people on the team who worked their ass off for this game?......fuck them?
 
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adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
When the voice is such a big part of that character and the character is such a big part of that game.... Why would you say fucking cheap and stubborn? Goddam $4000.

Imagine Naughty Dogs offering Troy Baker $4000 to reprise Joel for Last of Us Part 3.
 

Robb

Gold Member
I’m definitely not boycotting the game, she’s free to decline their offer if she’s not happy with it.

I’ll miss her voice for sure, but I’m pretty sure I’ll get used to the new voice after 1h of playing Bayo3.
 
How you massive lowball one VA and you instead hire a more famous VA (Jennifer Hale) which would 100% sure cost way more than simply paying what the original actor asked?

I wonder if they were planning to kick her out anyways and decided to pull that one to shoo her away, or they decided that Taylor was asking the same as a much bigger VA and replaced it.
Probably since she said she aced her interview for the role.
 
What's more incriminating? you saying people are liars without any proof/an explanation and then blocking anyone who questions it or the person that came out to complain about wages being criminal?

Stop defending him, it's pathetic.

Nah, you are pathetic mate. Immediately going to white knight for someone you don't know. I am not supporting either Kamiya or the VA - just that we need to wait for actual evidence to come out. Not accusations.

If you want to support accusations with no evidence, maybe Era is a better place for you.
 

Werewolf Jones

Gold Member
I was gonna day one this game... Now I'm not sure. I wanna see what happens with fans talking about it. Hopefully PG* sees sense and gets her back through a patch or something. Jennifer Hale isn't hurting for roles, she's HUGE compared to Hellena Taylor.
 
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