Having watched all three parts of Taylor's statement, I encourage others to do the same.

This is sad and bizarre. Sad because of such a dirt-ball offer for the main character in the third game. Bizarre because I can't imagine that freaking Jennifer Hale would take that pay. Then again, I don't know anything, so maybe Hale was okay with that pay and can knock out the job quick.

I don't know enough about the voice acting industry, union vs non-union rates etc. to have an informed opinion on this. Per some cursory googling:

From Video Game Voice Actors: How Much Do They Get Paid?

From the "Video Games / Toys, Games, & Mobile Game Apps" section on Global Voice Academy (I cleaned this up because the info is in a table on the website)

Both websites above track with the rate mentioned in the article.

I couldn't find any info on whether Taylor is a union actress, but the offered rate appears to be on the low end of the non-union rate. Minimum, $4000 is 20 hours of work. I also don't have enough information regarding whether an entire character, especially the main, can be recorded in 20 hours or less.

From what I have gathered (which again, may be missing some critical info due to my limited knowledge on the subject), $4000 is insulting for an actress of Taylor's experience and pedigree who had voiced Bayonetta in four games and a movie. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate likely reused Taylor's recordings from For Wii U/3DS. I digress.

Nickel and diming gig industry workers is nothing new. I support Taylor breaking NDA to shine a spotlight on a problem that has persisted for decades. This likely blacklists her from voicing the character ever again and potentially from the voice acting industry as a whole. Not sure of the impact on her live action performances on stage and screen. Taylor's last credit on IMDB is from 2014. If you take low-ball offers, that will be the expectation moving forward. She may be struggling financially, but she'd be struggling with that $4000 so might as well fight the good fight.

My dilemma with boycotting Bayonetta 3 is that it punishes the actors (and everyone else) who worked on the game without actually doing the thing we want it to do: Tell Nintendo/PlatinumGames to treat their actors better. I fear the message conveyed will be "Oh, people don't want Bayonetta" which is total bullshit, but here we are.

Not sure who gets final say. Nintendo, as the publisher, foots the bill, but PlatinumGames may simply submit a budget over that Nintendo then approves/denies. Either way, PlatinumGames' statement that Taylor was unavailable is colossally fucked up in hindsight. Y'all just straight up lying to people now? It likely wasn't even that much considering how much money the game will make...

Jennifer Hale is a more prolific voice actor so I can't imagine she'd take a pay cut. I wonder if Nintendo/PlatinumGames was willing to pay Hale her asking price due to her industry standing but not Taylor (which would be gross).

EDIT: Included PlatinumGames in accountability.

It sucks what happened to her, but that's not going to make me boycott what looks to be a pretty awesome game.  At the end of the day the gameplay is what comes first.  I'll just set the voices to Japanese when I play the game so that way I won't have to feel guilty every time I hear Bayonetta talk, since her Japanese voice is still the same woman who voiced her in the previous games.

I'm not gonna boycott a game just because someone was bitter over getting fired. She doesn't like the pay they offered? Fine, she doesn't have to take it. But that is no reason to not buy the game and this is very unprofessional of her. I actually wasn't planning to buy the game, but I might buy it now just to spite her.

LOL, that's farther than I was willing to go.

I'm not consistent enough with boycotts to feel especially strongly one way or another. For this situation, I understand the solidarity aspect but am unsure of impact. And like, I just f-ing bought Bayonetta 1 again. Collectively, if we want to make a real impact on what's actually a really serious issue, we'd have to hit the next Zelda or Pokémon (or other companies' bigger IPs) which would never happen because coordinating that would be a logistical nightmare and not enough people care anyway.

And Nintendo historically just waits out controversy until it just goes away. This happens all the time. I still think we should be angrier that Nintendo copyright strikes YouTube channels that uploads Nintendo music yet won't offer the soundtracks on streaming let alone sell them internationally themselves. I understand the concept of protecting its IP, but like, y'all won't even let me pay you for the ability to listen to the music.

The funny thing about the Youtube channels is how inconsistent they are.  They'll shut down some channels but not others.  It's like NCL gives someone a quota on how many video's they need strike each month and then that person stops once they make it, despite there still being several other channels with the same songs out there that anyone can still easily find.

I have some fundamental problems with Taylor's video, as someone who does NOT have any emotional attachment to the character or her performance as said character.

To be frank, her response comes off as incredibly unprofessional, and the more I hear of her the more I understand why Platinum recast the role. Setting aside her coming out of her own accord to likely shred an NDA she certainly signed, she provides no proof of her claims as she defames her former employer. I have no doubt that Platinum cuts corners wherever they can, but without proof I'm inclined to believe Kamiya on this one.

On top of that, she goes out of her way to attack Jennifer Hale, who did absolutely nothing wrong. She auditioned for a role, and she got the part. Yes, Taylor, you originated the role. You do not own it, any more than any actor in the history of human performance art has ever owned a role. Actors get re-cast all the time, so to come out and essentially say "Jennifer Hale doesn't have the RIGHT to say she's the voice of Bayonetta. I'm the ONLY voice of that character" is, once again, incredibly unprofessional. You do not attack a colleague, especially unprovoked.

I also have severe doubts that Jennifer Hale, one of the best-known and most prolific voice actors in the last 30 years and apparently a champion of higher VA pay, was cheaper than re-hiring Taylor.

This video comes off as a rant from an entitled actor who's pissed that she didn't get a part, something you would think someone her age would be beyond at this point.

I always change the voices to Japanese since I can never stand the typically bad English VA in games/anime so I couldn't care less if the voice changed.

I personally find the pay rates for actors disgustingly too high in entertainment even if VAs are at the bottom compared to other actors. She's making well over double what the nameless unknown programmers who are actually making the game make; who work 28hr days, sleep in their cages cubicals, and have long since forgotten what soap smells like let alone their family.

Not even getting fired, but not getting hired at their desired salary. Plenty of other actors and TV personalities ask for more money for a new season/movie/reboot, don't get it, and get recast. I've never seen them call for a boycott to make it seem like they alone were what made it a success. I was going to wait for it to go on sale for ~$40 next year but I'm buying it day one now to spite her too.

It's beyond unprofessional, Nintendo and Platinum's legal teams are surely typing up legal action against her right now. With all the people on twitter posting images of canceled pre-orders, it's a slam dunk case for damages. If she has a lawyer, they're probably screaming at her for not consulting them first and to never speak in public again.

A woman claims bad faith negotiations, and you're demanding proof? Do I really have to explain how problematic that is?

Taylor could release the email from Kamiya. We really should be past this though. She has nothing to gain from this besides shedding light on a decades old problem.

Taylor got the part. Her issue is the rate of pay. She stated the original offer was insulting without mentioning how much that actually was. Here's the thing: we can still extrapolate some details here, assuming she was offered the lead role again. Taylor is a union actress and Bayonetta 3 is a union production. The minimum a union actor can be paid is ~$975 per session of up to four hours and three characters, meaning they get paid the same for four hours or two (fewer hours likely involves a lot of DBZ-esque screaming). In a 2018 interview, Taylor stated Bayonetta 1 took four sessions and 16 total hours.

If Bayonetta 3 required a similar amount of hours, Taylor's original offer couldn't have been fewer than ~$3900 due to union rules. The final offer of $4000 after directly appealing to Kamiya is barely more. Taylor makes a fair point when it comes to compensation. For someone who helped shape the character over the course of 13 years, anything close to the minimum Nintendo/PlatinumGames can pay an actor without getting sued is insulting though not surprising considering this is a regular occurrence in a gig industry.

It's easy to say that about actors until you hear a bad one. Acting is an art not everyone has the talent, skills, or training for. By your own admission, you switch to the Japanese track. Now imagine if this happened to any Japanese cast. And my understanding is seiyuu are celebrities in Japan. This nonsense would never fly over there.

Actors are paid by the gig that they constantly have to audition for; programmers are full time whether they're contracted or salaried. Their circumstances are not the same so the comparison is unfair regardless of how much you want to devalue the actors' contributions. More importantly, your argument is a strawman. It's irrelevant how much each gets paid compared to the other. Both actors and programmers can be (and often are) under-appreciated and underpaid for the work they do. Each is a problem and should be viewed and addressed as such. No need to pit them against one another.

I don't see the "bad faith negotiation" here. In Taylor's scenario and using your math, Platinum wanted to hire her, so they made an offer that complied with Union standards. She tried to negotiate a higher salary, so Platinum made a 2nd, higher, offer that she declined so they decided to go with a different actress. There's nothing "bad faith" about that. You can argue that gamers and game developers should value the contributions of voice actors more than they do (and I would agree with you), but she just flat out lost the negotiation. Taylor makes no claim that Platinum deliberately low-balled her in an effort to get someone else to play the part, just that the pay they offered was not to her liking.

Yes, I am asking for proof of her allegations, something I would also ask for if someone like Troy Baker had made a similar claim. This is a business negotiation, not a sexual assault claim. She could provide a copy of the offer contract likely in her possession. She's already breaking NDA and possibly committing defamation by airing all this in public, so the damage to her career has already been done.

This matter is something that Taylor should have kept behind closed doors. She has a union and probably an agent that handles situations like this on her behalf. Development costs are rising across the board, and everyone has less money than ever thanks to sky-rocketing inflation. She didn't help her career and she certainly didn't help her fellow voice actors by putting all this into the public eye in such an unprofessional and, frankly, petulant manner.

Incidentally, I noticed you side-stepped her comments on Jennifer Hale, which also wouldn't win her any favors with her colleagues and prospective employers.

I kind of wonder if she even has an agent.  Either that or that agent is terrible since according to her profile, she hasn't done any voice work since 2014.

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0773321/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1

In comparison Jennifer Hale has not only done tons of videogame work each year, but is also heavily involved in TV series including a lot of Disney properties. 

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0354937/


Even though I feel bad for Taylor, I do have to wonder why she hasn't done any voice work in 8 years.  It's kind of like how some times there's actors that were all over TV and movies for a few years and then just disappeared.  Then you read years later this person was so difficult to work with eventually all the studio's had enough.

Not saying that's the case here, but people need to be careful about just taking one person at their word, since we don't know if Taylor is telling us the whole story.  Especially when I see so many post on other sites and Twitter saying fuck Nintendo for be so cheap, when in reality Hale is probably costing way more then Taylor would have.  Someone with the resume of Hale certainly has an agent and that agent isn't agreeing to the union minimum when she can easily get larger roles that pay better.

According to her website, Hellena Taylor previously lived in Los Angeles but moved to London. If you want English voice work, you live in Los Angeles; New York; or Austin/Houston Texas. You don't live in the United Kingdom. I suspect her unwillingness to live near production studios has a lot to do with how little work she's done. Some productions will go the extra mile to get a voice actor they really like to do remote work (such as the case with her 1 episode role of Hellsing Ultimate, a dub that had several UK actors), as a lot of high-profile voice actors have their own personal recording studio, but most of the time you have to live where the work is.

https://hellenataylor.co.uk/bio/

If she lives in the UK, she should have tried getting a role in the Xenoblade games.  NOE must pay pretty good if they were able to get Jenna Coleman to come back and voice Melia again for the Future Connect part of Xenoblade: Definitive Edition a few years ago.  I doubt she would come back for only $4000.

Yeah, I wondered about the Xenoblade games as well when I was typing that. Someone more knowledgeable about NoE would have to answer this, but does NoE create its own English dubs very often? I feel like the most common scenario would be NoE just using whatever English dub NoA created, with maybe callbacks to some of the actors to re-record a handful of lines that were changed in the British localization.

Even Xenoblade hasn't been altogether consistent when it comes to localization. 1, 1 DE, 2, and 3 all used British actors at NoE...but X used American voice actors with 8-4 Ltd.

I think that was because X was doing something different and being a more realistic sci-fi that takes place in what's suppose to be New LA using American actors was considered better fit.  But since 2 and 3 all go back to a more fantasy based world like the first game they wanted to keep the more British feel that game had.  If we ever get an X2, then it will probably use American actors again.

Actors with Taylor's experience are not offered the minimum union fee for lead roles, and in this instance, one they've held for over a decade. Everything about that was done in bad faith.

Notoriously pro-union Hale would never be offered the minimum union fee for a lead role. Ever. The only time she would entertain an offer for the minimum at this point in her career would be for background roles. If an ADR director already has a good working relationship with her, why not see if she has four hours free on a random day? Otherwise, the minimum fee is typically reserved for new actors trying to build their resume.

Sheesh. Where to even begin? You demand proof from Taylor yet are "inclined to believe Kamiya on this one" when his response *checks notes* didn't provide any proof refuting Taylor's claims. You're not even attempting to be objective about this.

And this is, in fact, not a business negotiation. It's a woman airing her grievances about an industry that attempts to takes advantage of people at every turn and a company she feels disrespected her, both in the hopes that it will help her colleagues get better working conditions.

1. Why? That's how this and other industries got so bad in the first place. Corporations don't want this out in the public so they can continue low-balling talent.

2. That's not what a union does. Also, Taylor appealed directly to Kamiya, and she was given a final offer. Her agents weren't going to change that.

3. By the eye test, Taylor decided her voice acting career was over as soon as got her final offer for Bayonetta 3. If she can't even be properly compensated for a role she's held for over a decade, there's no point in dragging this out. And no, she absolutely is helping her fellow actors by bringing this issue to light. Most won't speak out for fear of being blacklisted especially if voice acting is all they do. It's the same reason it often takes decades for certain people to be held accountable for malfeasance. Someone has to go scorched earth in order to merely be heard, not even believed, but it's hard to be the one who does it. If Taylor isn't going to pursue voice acting anymore, she decided she might as well try to be the agent for change.

No, I simply disagreed with your assessment while understanding that it's possible to have different interpretations. If you truly believe in your bones that Taylor was being unprofessional, well, I'm not here to argue with you over it. I am, however, willing to give Taylor some leeway when talking about a situation she's obviously still emotionally raw about. My reading of Taylor's statement was how strongly she feels about her personal contributions to Bayonetta rather than aggression toward Hale who Taylor even wished well. Had she straight up said, "Yo, fuck Jennifer Hale!" I'd sing a different tune.

Additionally, your assertion that Taylor's comments wouldn't win any favors with her colleagues doesn't track with the responses from industry vets who have largely corroborated her statement that $4000 was a lowball offer and/or shared similar stories about their own careers. Since you're all Proofy McEvidence over here, do you want to back up your claims?

Taylor is primarily a stage actor. She was living in Los Angeles and likely received a casting call for someone who has or can do a British accent. In a gig industry, you often have to take the auditions that are available to you.

That's fair. I am more than willing to hear different perspectives, and I reserve the right to adjust my thoughts as more information is presented. Currently, in my view, it's important to consider who has more to gain here: an actor making a claim that aligns with countless stories about gig work, or corporations that have and want to continue taking advantage of workers.

Everything I've read tends to implicate PlatinumGames more than Nintendo. However, it isn't as if Nintendo hasn't pulled similar shit in the past. Nintendo thoroughly screwed actor and radio host, John Hulaton (short version from DYKG: 3:21 to 4:11). The full interview can be found here (starts at 14:30).

"Her experience?" WHAT experience? She's played mostly one character with very little vocal range for a minor series from a failing developer in a handful of projects for 13 years. You can like her performance all you like, but she does not have the work history to justify the kind of clout you assigned her. You mentioned she has stage experience, so I'll stipulate to that, but just going by her IMDB she is a minor-tier voice actor at best and seems to be quite content not pursuing voice-over roles besides Bayonetta.

I spent the better part of an hour going back and forth adding and removing parts of that post before I submitted it. That was a remnant of that, but since you asked I'm inclined to side with Kamiya (despite the lack of proof on his end) because the man has no filter and he has very little reason to lie about this. In fact, him coming out and admitting they didn't have the budget for Taylor would raise eyebrows considering Hale, but most fans would probably be inclined to be understanding. The poor financial condition of Platinum Games & their constant string of failures (Nier Automata notwithstanding) is well-known.

Kamiya shouldn't have said anything but "no comment" if he wasn't prepared to back up his own claims. That was unprofessional of him, not that I suspect any expects more of him these days (no, I'm not a Kamiya fan, either). That said, he is not the accuser in this situation. Taylor is. The burden of proof is on her.

The situation she was discussing was literally a business negotiation.

The low pay that Voice Actors accept for their roles is not the industry secret you apparently think it is, especially if you follow the anime industry (which has their own controversy going on right now with Mob Psycho 100 Season 3).  Remember the SAG Aftra strike from a few years ago? #PerformanceMatters

I was specifically referring to Taylor's comments about Hale not winning her any favors with her colleagues, not the failed negotiation altogether. That said, from what I've heard it sounds like Hale herself is being a professional and largely ignoring those comments.

Taylor has been acting for 30 years. In that first Twitter clip, she detailed over seven years of training. She's had numerous lead roles including and especially Bayonetta, a performance she has been praised for. We currently don't know how much Taylor considered to be fair compensation to reprise the role, only that the offers she recieved were so close to the minimum union fee she was insulted by them. With three decades of acting experience under her belt, she should never be offered the minimum union fee for a lead role. Her IMDB voice credits are irrelevant here. What did you think she was going between those IMDB credits?

Seriously? As a founder and current employee of PlatinumGames, Kamiya has every reason to lie about this.

A little over a week ago, Bayonetta 3 director, Yusuke Miyata, stated: "Various overlapping circumstances made it difficult for Hellena Taylor to reprise her role."

This reads like scheduling conflicts prevented Taylor from returning, a claim she refuted. PlatinumGames shot first so the burden of proof is on the company to provide evidence that "overlapping circumstances made it difficult" for Taylor to provide like 16 to 20 hours of work at some point in the last what, five years.

Granted, there's nothing stopping Taylor from releasing Kamiya's email or the communication of her original offer. However, I really don't see how that's anything more than a footnote given what else is known about this industry, and I haven't heard a compelling explanation of why Taylor would lie about this.

Miyata's comment appears to be the impetus that set this whole thing off. Before that, Taylor was a good soldier and mostly kept her mouth shut aside from what, this Tweet over a year ago. I can't blame her for wanting to defend herself when it certainly looks like PlatinumGames decided to lie about why she didn't return. Kamiya, as a rep of Platinum Games, easily could have backed up Miyata (assuming they can prove the original claim) instead of putting his foot in his mouth, as usual.

On a separate note, it's so weird that you're digging your heels in about this while acknowledging on record the low pay for voice actors.

I'm being pedantic, but these clauses don't make sense together: "This is a business negotiation, not a sexual assault claim." Why would a sexual assault claim be compared against the payment negotiations themselves rather than Taylor's claims that PlatinumGames disrespected her and conducted those negotiations in bad faith?

Don't put words in my mouth. I've said repeatedly it's a problem, not a secret. The unfair treatment is known and documented yet nothing has been done about it. Considering how much this story blew up, the average person clearly did not know about this so it's good that this is getting some traction. That was one of the main reasons for Taylor speaking up.

Sure, and I replied that Taylor's colleagues have so far focused on her main points about being disrespected and lowballed which implies to me that they did not read into her comments the same way you are. Again, feel free to back up your claims if you really believe Taylor's colleagues took umbrage about any references to Hale.

It is extremely common for voice actors to have normal day jobs between roles, office and restaurant work being the most frequently cited. Just about every article I've ever read or podcast I've heard about the North American voice acting industry mentions that. So no, there was no reason to just assume she was doing theater acting during the large gaps in her IMDB listing, especially since trying to find her theatrical biography online appears to be somewhat difficult. Even the Bayonetta Wiki lists roles without a timeline or cited references.

What's there to assume? You literally posted a link to Taylor's website which has her CV on it.

Once again, there are no dates on that page, and the details are slim. Like, I know from the Bayonetta Wiki what her "Guest Star" appearance on Stargate Atlantis was as, but that's not listed here. How many episodes was she in? What season of Atlantis was the episode(s) in? How long did she play these various theatrical roles, and when were the shows playing?

Now, this is a CV not a wiki so just having vague information listed is somewhat expected, but you can't just point to that page and say "well that explains all the gaps in her IMDB history". Because as far as as that page is concerned, those roles could be 2 years ago or 40 years ago. And I fondly remember the role of "Lead" in Barcelona, but it just couldn't compare to the tour de force that was "Day Player" in The Sweetest Thing.  ;)

Her CV Voiceover page is at least far more detailed when it comes to the names of the roles and the nature of them, though it's still largely lacking in dates.

Jennifer Hale is one of the few voice actors that has some name value.  She almost certainly would command a higher wage than what Taylor claims to have been offered.  I wonder if they wanted to go with Hale and making a low ball offer to Taylor was their way to "fire" her in a way where there was still the appearance of trying to continue with the same actor and they can claim that negotiations didn't work out.  Perhaps they always wanted Hale for the part but when the Bayonetta IP was brand new they couldn't get the budget to go with a higher profile actor.  Now they're on the third game and probably have a higher budget to work with so they can get the more expensive actor.

Or perhaps in negotiations with Taylor it got to a price point where it's like "we can pay this much for Hellena Taylor but only this much more for Jennifer Hale."  Like Taylor's asking price was still lower but the gap between her and Hale was smaller than it was at the original $4000 offering so they figured it they were going to spend more money they might as well splurge.

This is a bummer for Taylor but a boycott for it seems ridiculous.  It's a gig style job.  No one has any obligation to hire the same actor for each new project.  What if they didn't even approach her for an offer and just went to a different actor?  Would she call for a boycott then?  And they went with a prominent voice actor so they didn't low ball Taylor and then use inexperienced family members of the devs to cheap out on the voices.

Dude, all five people left on the forums can see what you're doing here. You don't need the dates; you're moving the goalposts again. You have repeatedly dismissed the most important detail about the payment claim: Hellena Taylor has three lead credits in the Bayonetta IP alone. Full stop. That on its own should put her out of the conversation for a near-minimum union fee. I linked to a game director, J.E. Sawyer, going on record to state he has never seen this kind of lowballing for a protagonist role in two decades for union AND non-union voice actors. That was still not good enough. Sure, a company legally CAN offer the minimum union fee to veteran actors; that is NOT common practice.

Full disclosure: I saw this post last night, and I waited 18 hours to see if you'd edit it and address more than three cherryicked sentences in my previous-previous post. Nothing. At this point, I can only surmise that you were forced to confront your own biases and flawed logic, decided you didn't want to do that, then pounced on the part you could continue moving the goalpost on.

Seriously? How bonkers is this? You demanded proof from the actor while being so willing to accept the word of a man who said almost nothing, not even backing the previous statement by his coworker. And you've done this while making incredulous claims that you have yet to provide a shred of evidence for. Everybody is a hypocrite about something; most people are this brazen about it.

I knew what you were doing for several replies now, and I've played along because I'm genuinely curious what your endgame is here. Are you simply being contrarian? Do you have an ax to grind about Taylor? Or can you just not take the L? Again, I have no idea why you're digging your heels in about this. It's okay, encouraged even, to change your opinion when presented with new information.

And not for nothing, but this is gross:

You want to clutch your pearls about Taylor supposedly throwing shade at Hale but also insult Taylor and diminish her talent, skill, training, accomplishments, and body of work to what, try to prove a point (badly, I might add). surejan.gif

1. Be better than this.
2. That's a strawman. None of what you said is relevant especially when Taylor passed the audition and won the role then was kept on four additional times and almost a fifth. I know what you were trying to do, but don't.

That said, it is clear that you are not approaching this discussion with any notion of good faith or objectivity. This has been yet another painful reminder of why I don't stop by the forums as often.

I've seen this take, and I don't buy it. If this was Jennifer Lawrence, sure. You can market that casting because the general public knows who she is. Hale isn't earning the game more sales, and only voice actor nerds like me care about the casting. Grey DeLisle portrayed Jeanne in the series, and she's just as prolific as Hale.

Most likely not. Taylor's issue isn't that they hired another actor as she stated in one of the Twitter clips that she had to audition for the role because people's voices change after years. There was always a possibility during the whole casting process that she could be replaced. According to her, she passed the audition, won the role again, then PlatinumGames lowballed her pay. She only spoke out after Bayonetta 3's director made a deliberately vague if not straight up dishonest statement about why she didn't reprise the role. It's like, guys, just don't do that last part, and this would have went away almost immediately.

I encourage everyone to watch at least the first three clips (that fourth one can be skipped). Taylor was insulted by the offers but kept quiet about it. The additional indignity of Miyata's "various overlapping circumstances" statement was, in my mind, the straw the broke the camel's back.

It's been a while since I've witnessed a company have this many self-owns. The latest one is kind of hilarious. Way to whiff the easiest public relations layup. "We decided to go in another direction" or hype up the new actor without acknowledging the elephant in the room entirely. Either way, wait for the fervor to die down and move on.

"You're moving the goalposts again" says the person who claimed the CV would detail everything that Taylor had been doing during her long IMDB absences, when my previous post was that her CV was vague, childishly written, and didn't provide sufficient information to determine who; what; when; and where so you could not use it on its own to patch in the IMDB holes. I literally stated in a previous post that I stipulated to your assertion that she had years of theatrical experience that wasn't reflected in the IMDB page, something that you just refuse to just accept and move on from.

Or maybe I determined that this wasn't worth the time (especially considering my original response post literally cost me most of an hour), and mine was better spent doing anything else. I'd said my piece, I addressed what I cared to, and I was content at leaving it there. I don't particularly care for the Bayonetta franchise, nor Platinum Games in general. I don't have a horse in this race. I just found Taylor's actions questionable and briefly voiced my opinions on it considering she decided to attack a voice actress who's voiced a lot of characters I very much enjoyed. At this point, I'm done caring what you think about that. It's a public forum. The half dozen people who make up this community now are free to post or not post as they please.

I find it especially ironic your comment about me "digging in my heels" on this when you are the one who just won't let it go, and you've made it very clear from your 1st post that it's because it's "problematic" to do anything but nod in agreement every time someone who just happens to be a woman makes an accusation, with or without proof.

Taylor is a public figure, and I am not a colleague in her field. I can criticize her all I want, and I'm sorry that you apparently take that very personally. I already admitted previously that I was unaware of her work history outside of voice work in previous posts, but her work is seemingly universally poorly sourced and inconsistently recorded so it's difficult to track.

Have a nice life. I'm sure the forums will still be right as you left them the next time you're feeling bored.

The way I see it Platinum for sure is in the wrong on some level based on what we know. Even if they were lowballing her to try and get rid of her there are more respectful ways to let someone go. I get Platinum is a Japanese company and Japanese companies supposedly aren't into firing people they are still working with a western voice actress who does not understand Japanese business norms. Lowballing her just gives her fuel to use against them if she decides to lash out, which she did. When your company operates on a worldwide scale that kind of thing becomes less acceptable.

Kamiya has also grossly mishandled the situation in general so far but that's neither here nor there.

The only exception to this is if Hellena is lying about why she isn't in Bayonetta 3 and we will likely never know if this is the case so for now I'm inclined to believe there is some truth in her statements but at the same time to take it with a grain of salt. I definitely think calling out Jennifer Hale in her whole thing and saying that she has "no right" to sign merchandise as Bayonetta even though she's voicing the character for Bayonetta 3 was unnecessary either way and distracts from the rest of her statement. It just comes off as a bit toxic on her part and that isn't what her statements needed.

I wasn't buying Bayonetta before this and I won't do so now. Platinum has proven that their style of game just isn't for me. I enjoyed Star Fox Zero more than what I've played of Bayonetta 2 and Astral Chain.

Also, it is worth noting since it came up earlier in the discussion, London may not be as good for VA work as somewhere like LA but there is a company called the BBC in the country that you might have heard of that could always use some voice work between their documentaries, stuff for their TV channels, and just dubbing over someone in a rubber alien suit or some CGI thing for the next episode of Doctor Who. The BBC also runs a company called Big Finish Productions which is based in Berkshire (which google claims is an hour and a half drive from London) and produces these really good audio dramas.

If she was still interested in voice work outside of Bayonetta there were definitely opportunities for her but she may also putting her talents elsewhere, such as theater which won't show up on her IMDB.

She also says the Bayonetta franchise has generated 450 million in profit which is a huge exaggeration on her part as well.  The series would have had to have sold over 7.5 million copies at full price to generate that much money, and we know from sales it's no where close to that.  Even VGcharts which is notorious for inflating numbers and saying certain games sold more then they did, only has the overall series a little over 3 million copies.  We know the first game on the 360/PS3 was overshipped by Sega and the price was already in the bargain bins a few months after release, which is why Sega refused to fund a sequel.  So even if the 3 million figure is accurate, many of those copies where not even full price.  Now Bayanetta is in Smash Bros, with the most recent Smash Bros Ultimate has sold well over 20 million copies.  But she would not have access to how much money Nintendo payed Sega to have Bayonetta in Smash, and I doubt it was a couple hundred million.

Bayonetta is the biggest character Taylor has played in her career so it's easy to see why it's so important to her.  But the problem in this situation is she let that love cloud her judgement to the point she feels the character is way bigger then it actually is.  Not saying that her being offered the union minimum was right, but if she had a more realistic view on how big the Bayonetta franchise actually is, maybe she wouldn't have viewed the offer as a huge insult.

I mean this is an article from back in 2008 where the main voice actor for Grand Theft Auto IV, Michael Hollick, complained about only being paid 100K for his role as Niko. 

https://www.gamesradar.com/niko-voice-actor-earned-only-100000/

Keep in mind he had to work over 15 months on this role, while Taylor would have probably worked for about 4 days.  The Grand Theft Auto franchise is also lightyears bigger then Bayonetta.  So her being payed about 4K for her work on Bayonetta 3, technically wouldn't have been that insulting compared to what the industry standard for union pay has been.

Platinum Games can barely pay to keep their own lights on, so boycotting this game won't exactly change much when much larger studio's are basically doing the same thing.  At the end of the day the voice actors really need to start demanding more from their union or else this kind of stuff is going to stay the norm.

Oh hey, look at that: It seems Taylor was at least being misleading, if not outright lying about the situation. The offer was apparently $3,000 - $4,000 PER SESSION, not in total. Taylor wanted a 6 figure salary & royalties.

Source: The Press Sneak **** himself.

https://t.co/qcW0g0z2hm

Ugh, that's hugely misleading but not entirely surprising considering how you've conducted yourself in this thread. For anyone who is not going to click into the article, here are the important bits:

Jason Schreier spoke to two people who asked not to be identified (which is normal).
Claim #1: Platinum Games sought to hire Taylor for at least five sessions, each paying $3,000 to $4,000 for four hours in the studio.
Claim #2: Taylor asked for a six-figure sum as well as residuals on the game which PlatinumGames declined.
Claim #3: PlatinumGames then offered Taylor a cameo for one session which she also turned down.
Schreier contacted Taylor by email who denied this account.

It's important to note that Schreier spoke two people who were willing to corroborate each other's story. This is still one side's word against the other.

Taylor absolutely could be lying. This would be both stupid and hilarious considering how easy her account would be to disprove. Obviously, I'm pro-worker which is why I was more willing to side with the actor. I'm definitely more skeptical of her account than before. As stated earlier, I'm more than willing to hear different perspectives, and I reserve the right to change my opinion as more information is presented. I encourage others to do the same.

Also, it should be reiterated that it is still true that gig industry workers are frequently mistreated and given lowball offers. Regardless of who is lying, don't let that distract you from this fact. It has been known well before this story blew up.

I don't like Schreier personally, but he has an excellent track record of vetting his sources and accurate reporting. If that's what his sources are saying, I see very little reason not to trust that his depiction of events is accurate. If Taylor was demanding a 6 figure salary + royalties for a series as relatively small as Bayonetta, that would finally clear up the longstanding Jennifer Hale question. Very few, if any, game developers could afford that, and certainly not Platinum.

One thing I do want to stress is that you and I have always agreed that voice actors should be paid more than they are. Taylor's story just never made sense to me. That said, this shouldn't deter voice actors from pursuing reasonable salary increases. Because this is such a high profile story, though, it probably will.

Even though it's still one side vs the other, this new story does make it more believable why they had no problem replacing her with a bigger name actress.  Someone like Hale isn't taking this job for only 4k, but if Platinum was will to pay up to 20k, that seems more like what they'd have to pay to get someone of Hales status.  Plus Taylor did say the franchise has made over 450 million in profit when she has no access to those numbers so she already has exaggerated some of her claims.

I wouldn't be surprised if NCL sent their lawyers to Platinum first thing Monday morning to look over every document related to this case.  If she is outright lying about this, I suspect she's about to get a huge lawsuit from Nintendo.  No way is NCL going to let someone call for a boycott of a game they publish if they have solid evidence this person is making false claims.

That's fair. It made sense to me mainly because I've seen worse with my own eyes, straight up clients asking for free labor in exchange for the "exposure". That shit can GTFOH. Pay the talent.

So... Like... Hale's version doesn't seem to fit with this new report at all...


....unless.... Could there have been a translation issue?  Japanese $4k/session became English $4k total?  Because that would suck for everyone involved if it were the case.