The third Bayonetta game is almost here after years of silence, but before its release, it faced quite a bit of controversy surrounding its lead actress – or rather, former lead actress.
The original Bayonetta
The original actress for Bayonetta, Hellena Taylor, recently released multiple videos discussing the circumstances surrounding the reason why she did not return. Platinum Games stated that she was simply unavailable, but Hellena Taylor recently disavowed such claims.
Taylor was visibly angry in these videos, expressing how insulting the pay she was offered was. In total, Taylor was offered $4,000 to film all of Bayonetta’s lines. While the pay for voice acting in this industry is not spectacular, $4,000 is not especially high, especially for someone with a lot of credentials. In that same video, Taylor requested that people boycott Bayonetta 3.
One question that people are asking is whether she violated a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) in bringing this up. Bayonetta 3 is being released by one of the largest video game companies, Nintendo, which is not exactly keen to allow for loose lips like this.
If she did violate an NDA, this could hurt her in multiple ways, though even if she didn’t, she may suffer for criticizing the low payment due to blackballing. Despite this, Hale has said she does not feel fearful of violating her NDA over Bayonetta 3, due to being in poor financial straits already.
Who is portraying Bayonetta in Bayonetta 3?
Bayonetta is currently being portrayed by Jennifer Hale, whom Hellena has made a point of dissuading people from targeting her over this. Despite this, she still felt like Hale had no right to replace her.
Hale herself has not contributed to the discourse, possibly due to a non-disclosure agreement, though her Twitter likes seem to imply certain perspectives. For instance, she liked two tweets regarding her possibly being under an NDA, as well as a tweet calling to people to direct their ire toward Platinum Games rather than Hale. She has, however, also liked a tweet that was critical of Taylor for causing Hale to be put in the crossfire.
Hideki Kamiya becomes involved… temporarily
Things heated up in the surrounding discussion once Hideki Kamiya, the Vice President of Platinum Games, began to post vague tweets surrounding the incident.
The tweet was not exactly warmly received, to put it mildly. Many people dragged Kamiya for his comments, as the public response was siding with Taylor more so than not.
Kamiya is noted for not only insulting people on Twitter, but especially blocking him. So many people responded strongly to Kamiya’s Twitter, and because Kamiya blocked so many, his account was actually restricted temporarily. He briefly deleted his Twitter account as well, perhaps in order to reduce the heat he was receiving.
Are you boycotting Bayonetta 3?
The popular consensus has been that $4,000 is too low of pay for such a role, but whether Bayonetta 3 should be boycotted is a different story altogether. So what about you? Are you planning to get Bayonetta 3, or are you skipping it? Sound off in the comments below!
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