Bayonetta voice actress urges fans to boycott the new game after receiving an insulting offer

bayoneta voice actress featured

After the sudden announcement of Bayonetta receiving a new voice actress in the upcoming Bayonetta 3, fans were obviously saddened at the fact they won’t be hearing the witch’s classic, sassy voice in the new title. Jennifer Hale was cast as the new Bayonetta voice actress instead.

While Hale is just as talented and an incredible professional nonetheless, having taken part in franchises such as Mass Effect and Halo, people will always have that special appeal to her first voice, a very defining trait for her character. What has happened to Hellena Taylor?

Well, turns out that PlatinumGames reached out for her to voice the protagonist in the new title, but not as Taylor expected, as she has received, as in her own words, an insult to her talent. “What they did was legal but was immoral”, said Taylor.

Bayonetta voice actress asks fans to boycott upcoming title

During the videos posted on her personal Twitter, Taylor explained how she was cast to play her beloved character once more. While she passed the tests, she was faced with an “insulting offer” while not specifying the exact value.

But after texting Hideki Kamiya, the series creator himself, she now had a final offer of 4000 USD, meaning that the initial value was even lower. As she detailed her long, rich career, she questioned how much she was worth to a company that owns a game that sold millions of copies. 

She made this decision public and went for the boycott right after the company released a new trailer for the game. Instead of buying copies of the new title, the original Bayonetta voice actress suggests fans donate that money to charity.

bayonetta voice actress character
Credit: PlatinumGames

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What about the producers?

No official note or response was given by either PlatinumGames or Nintendo, as was expected due to their history when dealing with such controversies. However, another directly mentioned name in the whole story has actually responded to the whole drama.

Hideki Kamiya reacted to the controversy after many angry mentions in replies and new posts. His response was not taken very well.

After basically calling Taylor a liar (in a very polite way, I must give him that), Kamiya started to block users replying to this tweet in a negative way, as they pointed out in the comments.

He started to block so many people that it ironically led to the Twitter algorithm believing his account was fake due to repetitive actions. This is the message we see when going over his profile.

bayonetta voice actress profile
Credit: Twitter

It should be clear by now, but this problem has only happened with the English cast of Bayonetta, as Atsuko Tanaka still voices her in the Japanese version.

A recurring problem for Voice Actors.

This is sadly not the first time a similar case has happened, and will also not be the last. This situation with the Bayonetta voice actress is another symptom of the constant bad treatment those professionals have been getting in the industry.

Earlier this year, we had the release of Jujutsu Kaisen 0, a movie that quickly reached the status of one of the highest-grossing anime films ever. And yet, some of its voice actors went public to announce they have only received 150 USD for their contributions to it.

bayonetta voice actress jujutsu
Credit: Twitter

Independently of how little screentime those VAs had, this is insulting for anyone working on such a big franchise. The $4000 offer made to Taylor may seem way better in comparison, but she was literally the game’s face (or voice).

Fans pointed out that Nintendo would only need to sell around 66 copies of the game to pay what was offered to her, while she would need hours and hours to voice every line of dialogue, battle screams, grunts, and god-knows-what-else.

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These are more evidence of how the industry is handling some of its most precious professionals, as they have been working just as hard as every other person behind the scenes to bring you joy and comfort in the media you love. And even if you don’t care for dubs, every professional should at least receive a fair wage for their labor.

Bayonetta 3 is releasing on October 28 exclusively for Nintendo Switch.

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