The English actor who stars in the hit Bayonetta video game series has asked fans not to buy the latest release in the franchise, after revealing that she was offered just $4,000 (£3,500) to reprise the role.
In an emotional series of videos posted to social media, Hellena Taylor, who voiced the title character of Bayonetta,said she had been replaced in the forthcoming third game in the series because she the proposed fee was an “insult”.
“The Bayonetta franchise made an approximated $450m,” Taylor said, “and that’s not including merchandise. As an actor I trained for a total of seven and a half years – three years at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts with voice coach Barbara Berkery, and four and a half years with the legendary Larry Moss in Los Angeles.
“And what did they think this was worth? What did they offer to pay me? The final offer to do the whole game – as a buyout, flat rate – was $4,000. This is an insult to me, the amount of time that I took to work on my talent, and everything that I have given to this game and the fans.
“I am asking the fans to boycott this game and instead spend the money that you would have spent on this game, donate it to charity.”
Neither Nintendo, which is publishing the forthcoming third game in the series, nor Platinum Games which develops the titles, has responded to Taylor’s allegations. In a Twitter post sent shortly after Taylor’s allegations, Hideki Kamiya, the auteur developer behind the series, wrote “sad and deplorable about the attitude of untruth. That’s what all I can tell now.” Hideki did not respond to a query about whether he was directly disputing Taylor’s claims, but later tweeted implying that he had blocked so many people he was frozen out of his Twitter account.
In the Bayonetta series, the title character, a highly sexualised “Umbra Witch”, goes to war with the forces of heaven and hell, fighting a series of balletic action set-pieces and eventually killing God. The first two Bayonetta games garnered praise for their gameplay and its empowering, if hypersexualised, treatment of its main character.
But in the third edition, due to be released later this month, the title role will be taken over by veteran voice actor Jennifer Hale. Taylor wished Hale all the best, but added: “She has no right to say she is the voice of Bayonetta. I created that voice.”
