A few weeks ago, Platinum Games announced that Jennifer Hale would be taking over voiceover duties on Bayonetta 3 from Hellena Taylor, the original voice of Bayonetta. But over the weekend, things escalated when Taylor released a series of videos claiming Platinum Games only offered her $4,000 to reprise her role in the third installment.
Here’s a video compilation of her Twitter thread.
But there are new reports that are making people take a second look at Taylor’s story.
Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier claims to have seen a document that contradicts Taylor’s payment claims. According to the document, Platinum Games wanted to hire Taylor for “at least” five sessions that would last around four hours and would pay $3,000 to $4,000 for each session. This means Taylor would have been paid a minimum of $15,000 for the voice acting on the Bayonetta 3 project. Bloomberg also states that Taylor responded to the offer by asking for a six-figure sum and residuals on the game.
Taylor has rejected the claims. Speaking with VGC, Taylor says the suggestion that she could have earned $15,000 is “an absolute lie, and a complete joke.”
Since posting her payment claims online, other voice actors have responded with their own low-pay stories. Bryan Dechart was the voice of Conner in Detroit: Become Human, and he has also posted to Twitter about his experience being lowballed to voice an entire game at $4,000.
