This week has been interesting in regard to the latest Hellena Taylor drama. Over the weekend, the voice actor revealed that she turned down the role to appear in the upcoming third game due to a low salary offer by Platinum Games. She claimed that the developer promised her a measly $4,000 to reprise her role in Bayonetta 3 and urged fans to boycott the game.
Jennifer Hale, who stepped up to the role instead, issued a statement saying that fans should still consider buying the game because passionate devs worked on it. It seems that Hellena Taylor wasn’t all that truthful in her statement regarding the $4,000 offer.
A new report from Bloomberg claims that the actress was actually offered $3,000 – $4,000 to attend each voice recording session and there would have been five in total. This would have brought Taylor’s offered package to $15,000.
MORE BAYONETTA 3 – New Bayonetta Voice Artist Jennifer Hale Responds to Ongoing Controversy
The report claims that this $15,000 offer was also substantially higher than the second game. However, Hellena Taylor asked for a six-figure sum as well as residuals on the game sales. Both of these claims have since been denied by Taylor herself. She says that the offered $15,000 didn’t happen and her asking for residuals is a “complete joke”.
In a statement to VGC, Hellena Taylor expressed her frustration with the situation saying that she “spoke the truth” and that she would like to “leave the whole bloody franchise behind”.
In her original statements, Hellena Taylor mentioned how the discussions for Bayonetta 3 led her to depression and suicidal thoughts. People close to the project have indicated that during the negotiation phase for the game, Taylor indeed suffered depressive episodes. Sources claim this also happened during the development of both previous entries in the Bayonetta series too.
Platinum Games has yet to issue a statement regarding the ongoing controversy. The report from Bloomberg has been put together by a collaborative effort of staff at the studio who want to remain anonymous. Bayonetta 3 launches on 28 October only on Nintendo Switch.
