Ex-Bayonetta Hellena Taylor turned down 15k to reprise her role, then turned down a 4k cameo offer

It seems the facts are finally coming to light. Ol Lying Hellena didnt tell us the whole truth. The 4K she turned down was a cameo to just play as one of the Bayonettas out of respect for her after she tried to demand 6 figures and residuals to reprise her role as Bayonetta. A bold demand for a person who hasnt had a VA job since 2014. This sounds like a very greedy request. 15K was well above what she earned for Bayonetta 2, but yet she had the balls to demand an even higher pay than Jennifer Hale who is a legend in the VA community. Then had the gale to start a boycott campaign and insult Jen for taking the offer. How dare you.

" A new report by Bloomberg, which has since been corroborated byVGC, cites documentation as well as two people familiar with the negotiations who say that Platinum attempted to hire Taylor for five sessions lasting four hours apiece, each of which would have between $3,000 and $4,000. According to VGC, this would have been a "significant increase" on Taylor's fee from the second game. "

" According to the report, Taylor rejected these terms, asking for a six-figure sum and residuals instead. After "lengthy negotiations," Platinum subsequently hired Jennifer Hale to take on the role of Bayonetta. Taylor reportedly declined a subsequent offer of a cameo for the fee of one session. "

Source

It's always fascinating to watch these outspoken feminist crowds so quick to take a woman's side just for being a woman without even taking the chance to understand the full story when shit like this comes out. It happened with Amber Heard and it's happened with Hellena Taylor.

People who "boycotted" this game likely weren't planning to buy it in the first place. Just a bunch of keyboard warriors on Twitter always looking for something to be outraged over.

@jaydan: Before the boycott started, Bayonetta 3 was sitting at 48 on the best sellers. Now its sitting at 18. gotta love when a hater gets rektd.

So, crocodile tears huh?

@jaydan: Oh comeon now. The idea of a noname VA getting lowballed in favor of someone more famous is a very believable story. You don't need to be a feminist to buy that.

But yeah, if Hellena Taylor turned down $15,000, she can take the gloriously sensual voice of hers and **** right off.

Now Nintendodude doesn't need to worry about boycotting it 🤭

Playing video games is so much more fun than what happens behind the scenes. I don't know much about the going rate for voice actors in games, but six figures seems awful steep for that kind of inconsequential work. Her voice doesnt increase my enjoyment of the game or the character, the gameplay does.

You know what's dumb? The amount of clowns that were quick to take her side without hearing the full story, and the ruthless attacks it brought to the new voice actor and the production team.

People can take concern of her account without having to be a piece of shit to other people about it. Kinda ruins her cause that's already been exposed to be mostly bullshit.

From what I understand, she wasn't getting much voice over work since Bayo 2 in 2014. So if she truly asked for six figures, then that to me comes off as desperation.

I'm not getting into this as I'll still play Bayonetta 3 sometime next year once I'm all caught up with everything.

Rhyme or reason doesn't matter to those kinds of people.

Maybe voice actors for games want to be recognized on the same level as voice actors for movies.

This is personal opinion, but I think it's a case by case thing, whether the voice affects any enjoyment.

I know when Solid Snake's voice actor was replaced I was very disappointed and it did significantly decrease my enjoyment, even though it had enjoyable gameplay.

For Bayonetta it won't affect me though, I don't identify the voice that closely with the character. In that game I don't pay attention much to the story, just the spectacle.

@mesome713: How did you manage to find the strangest picture of Bayonetta?

Usually I don't care about this type of thing but I know the character didn't use to look like that? Did they turn up the nose slider 200%?

Something is different...

@girlusocrazy: That’s the new Bayonetta.

@mesome713: It's not Cereza?

Yeah, it's not like Nolan North in Uncharted where it envelopes you into the story and overall character.

@girlusocrazy: Not sure, but the new game has multiple Bayonettas.

Hellena Taylor comes off to me as a young professional football player who wants to be paid $20 million a year but does not have extensive work experience and is not a star performer. If she had extensive voice work experience and in high demand (like her replacement Jennifer Hale), she can ask for a six-figure fee.

You mean multiple Umbra Witches? Bayonetta is Cereza...

At least that's what I understand, sometimes there is a distinction between Bayonetta and Cereza being two different entities and sometimes they are the same. Bayonetta doesn't seem to be a title given to a character... So how could another character "be" Bayonetta?

Is it like Venom?

Should I even care?

$15k USD is insulting especially considering this is the third entry in a series where the last title sold over 1 million copies

Doing the math, 15k USD for voice acting divided by $60 USD for a copy of the game is only 250 copies sold. That is 0.00025% if Bayonetta 3 sells 1 million copies.

@girlusocrazy: I dont know her name. But shes a new Bayonetta. Jen plays her voice too.

@mesome713: Ok I guess I will just accept it, it probably will not make a difference to understand it

I knew there would be more to this story when it first came out.

That said, I think VO artists should be paid more than 15k in certain games. These games sell millions and some of these people become the voice of the franchise.

Bayonetta isn't a story driven game or RPG though so I wonder how much VO was actually needed from her that she thought it was worth 6 figures.

No need to do the math as it isn't germane.

@navyguy21: Her VA Union that shes apart of states $250 an hour is their minimum wage. So her offer is WAY above that at almost like $750 an hour.

Everyone I have met in person has been emotionally driven rather than intellectually. Gut reactions rather than listening to the evidences provided to make a solid conclusion. This seems to be the issue with America today. :(

This is just a symptom of the huge discrepancy in how people get rewarded for a game’s success. Top executives getting obscene bonuses while everyone else gets scraps. It’s pretty disgusting actually.

She's a liar. She was offered more than enough and wanted more. So they went to someone with a better resume who had no issue with the pay.

@jaydan:

I'm not sure you're making as great of a point as you think you are by trying to blame this one on feminists while ignoring the image Nintendo has and how many will pick any reason to hate on the company as being lazy, cheap, and uncaring about fans or the product they put out because it all sells well enough as is. Not to mention how low ball offers, no residuals, and all that are common practice in the industry it didn't seem that farfetched that this might have occurred.

And before you work yourself up on the feminists again go back and check the original thread where I call a bunch of shit into question including how long she had to work for in order to get paid, how much Jennifer Hale has been making, why Taylor hasn't done any voice or acting work since 2014, and what are her talents truly worth if for the last 8+ years she's had zero work in the industry which suggests she doesn't have much bargaining power at all cause there's no demand for her talent.

Then to compare it to someone who claimed they were being physically abused by their spouse, faked evidence, and more just feels extremely dumb.

We also still don't know the full story, which is something everyone seems to be missing here. We've got one person involved claiming the situation they dealt with played out one way, we have a third party saying they've seen documentation that says otherwise, but we haven't heard the full specifics from both parties actually involved and what happened throughout the entire negotiating process.

@kejigoto: Who knew that making a generalized statement can work with someone.

Let me highlight the words you missed: feminist CROWDS. By that I don't mean feminism as a whole but certain corners that behave this way.

Again: a generalized statement I'm fully aware of and not much to dispute. It turns out, way more than just feminists are guilty of halfhazard critical thinking in situations like this as well.

Amber Heard is an example, not about the case whatsoever, but the public response that some people made out of it.

I think it's important to point out to simply prove how underpaid she was going to be.

@mysticaldonut: Shes putting 16 hours of work on the game while 300 devs and publishers are putting 5-7 years worth of work. Thats 2,000 hours a year. Times 7 years thats 14k hours. Times 300 employees, thats 4,200,000 hours. Whats 4,200,000 times her $750 an hours pay rate she turned down? Remember the game sold 1 million copies and that retail takes about half that price. So 1 million copies at $30 is 30 million in revenue. But now we have to take money out from what we pay our 4m hours at $750.

So our employees are gonna cost us 3 billion on this one game. But we only made 30 million. We facked!

@girlusocrazy: "even though it had enjoyable gameplay."

That should be the only thing that really matters in games.

A six figure sum? Platinum were right to look elsewhere. No way in heaven would they wanna hire a voice actor who last did work 8 years ago (according to imdb) asking for six figures.

If she was so desperate for cash, she should have worked part-time at a coffee shop or something or done some side hustle during that 8 year gap. It ain't Platinums fault.

Tell that to the herms in SW

But seriously, the cutscenes are part of the entertainment, and don't involve gameplay. It's fair to have an opinion about them. If that part didn't matter, they wouldn't even be in the game at all.

And Kamiya stans want me to apologize. lol NO! He still contributed to the problem. The JK Rowling incident (yes, affects gaming too) taught me that (although in her case, Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson are spared) the leading face of their creation takes the whole thing down with them.

No, I will not apologize because Hellena turned out to be a scumbag too.

As for Hellena... if she wanted to be done with this affair and the franchise, then WHY DID SHE CALL THE BOYCOTT?

The thousands of dollars offered was based on the amount of work/time rather than any revenue (potential or actual) of said franchise. Beyond the opinions of the community, she made accusations and her feet should be held to the fire to produce proof of her claims rather than some poppycock about how she's done and moving on to other things.

Oh yeah. Twitter mob needs to chill, and Jennifer Hale should have been left alone for sure. But the idea Taylor was lowballed to push her out for a bigger name reeked of David Hayter and Kiefer Sutherland all over again. And saying she was lying about her pay, thinking the real amount would not be revealed also seemed too stupid to be true. But here we are, turns out she may just be that dumb.

As Cup once said after everyone dog-piled on Kallee Plagge for giving Cyberpunk a 7, "There's a lesson here, but no one cares".

The Internet never learns.

15 grand is still kinda low for a full game for a main protagonist.

In the US, 15k are peanuts. My rent alone is 2800.

@mesome713: I think your math is wrong. No game cost 3 billion to make 🤣

@ivangrozny: My math is right, you just can’t pay employees as much as Hellena wanted was my point. His team had been working on this game since 2014. It was announced in 2016.

15k isn't a lot for what this game would generate in revenue either. She has a right to be angry.

I keep thinking Multiverse Shenanigans are in play with the game. Different versions of Bayonetta.

@blackacezero777: They need to invent new characters for the next SSB because all the existing ones are already in there

@girlusocrazy: Off-topic: have they talked about a new SSB? For real? I just feel like they need to continue pumping content into Ultimate.

Back onto topic: I think if I remember the lore correctly, the series already dabbles into the Multiverse, so this isn't a surprise. I hate to say it is lazy, I feel that is such a grotesque word for the development that goes into games, but it feels....Like such an easy route because it is so common in entertainment right now.

The series is niche af. The last game sold like MAYBE a million copies.

Wait, I just saw this tweet lol

15k? Is this seriously what voice actors make in this industry? That’s beyond pathetic.

There are no current plans or even rumors about a new Smash Bros. game. Ultimate only just wrapped up its run a year ago. Don't expect a new game until at least next gen.

Also, there's only one Bayonetta character in Smash. Not sure where you got that they used every character already in the Bayonetta series in Smash Bros., but that is also not true.

@jaydan: Pretty much, look at the comment between me and @girlusocrazy. I interpreted it as such, though the second part was about the lore of Bayonetta and how it could possibly contain multiverse versions of her. Or this comment isn't even directed to me, idk at this point.