A Bloomberg article published yesterday contradicts voice actor Hellena Taylor’s account of being offered only $4,000 to reprise her role as Bayonetta in the upcoming game in the series.
The report, which references documentation reviewed by Bloomberg and anonymous sources at developer PlatinumGames, says that Taylor was offered $3,000 to $4,000 for at least five four-hour sessions, making for a minimum of $15,000. In response to this offer, Taylor reportedly asked for a six-figure sum and residuals, which PlatinumGames denied. After further negotiations, they eventually went with Jennifer Hale for the role. This account was further corroborated by VGC, who said they had also spoken to sources inside the company. Taylor has stuck with her initial statement, saying that this version of events is “an absolute lie.”
In Taylor’s original statement, she drew attention to her replacement, saying, “I wish her all the joy in the world, I wish her all the jobs, but she has no right to say she is the voice of Bayonetta.” Jennifer Hale, who is the new voice of Bayonetta, received harassment online and put out a statement on Twitter saying “I am under an NDA and am not at liberty to speak regarding this situation. My reputation speaks for itself.” Hale was involved in previous unionization attempts for the voice acting industry. She has since retweeted the Bloomberg and VGC articles, as well as a thread which said, “If you only hear one side (or part of one side) of a story, you haven’t heard the whole story.”
While Taylor’s portrayal of events has been cast into question, her original video, which received almost ten million views, reignited outrage over low voice actor pay. In 2016, videogame voice actors partnered with the SAG-AFTRA union and went on strike, eventually resulting in an agreement that improved bonuses and transparency when working with many game companies in the US. However, despite this effort, voice actors still do not receive residuals for their work. Additionally, pay has been described as low at companies that don’t offer union contracts and is still sometimes considered unsatisfactory even with these contracts.
Similarly, practices around English dubbing in the anime industry have come under fire, such as how a Jujustu Kaisen 0 voice actor was allegedly only paid $150 for a prominent role in a high-grossing film, and how Kyle McCarley, the former lead for Mob Psycho 100, will not reprise his role because Crunchyroll refuses to even negotiate potentially working with SAG-AFTRA union contracts.