Hellena Taylor, the voice of the title character in Bayonetta (2009) and Bayonetta (2014), is calling for fans of the series to boycott the launch of Bayonetta 3 after she was seemingly offered $4,000 to reprise her role in the upcoming title.
Taylor took to Twitter Saturday to post four videos describing her dispute with "fat cats" Nintendo and PlatinumGames, mentioning that she's "more of a lover than a fighter," but now realizes she's "a little bit more like Bayonetta than I thought."
"The Bayonetta franchise made an approximated $450 million, and that’s not including merchandise," Taylor said. "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 I took to work on my talent, and everything that I have given to this game and to the fans. I am asking the fans to boycott this game and instead spend the money that you would have spent on this game donating it to charity. I didn’t want the world. I didn’t ask for too much. I was just asking for a decent, dignified, living wage. What they did was legal, but it was immoral.
"I am not afraid of the non-disclosure agreement, I can’t even afford to run a car. What are they going to do, take my clothes? Good luck to them. Bayonetta always stands up for those with less power and stands up for what’s right, and in doing this, you stand with her."
In her third video, Taylor revealed that she did re-audition for the role as required, acknowledging that "sometimes voices change with time." On her account, she passed with "flying colors" to which she was sent the "insulting" offer shortly after. Taylor then said that she wrote to Bayonetta creator and executive director Hideki Kamiya to ask him for "what I'm worth," to which Kamiya seemingly rebuffed PlatinumGames' desire to bring her back, but for $4,000.
After initially being announced during the Game Awards in 2017, Bayonetta 3 is set to release exclusively for Nintendo Switch on Oct. 28, 2022. On Oct. 4, PlatinumGames Yusuke Miyata revealed in an interview with Game Informer (H/T Nintendo Everything) that because of "various overlapping circumstances" that "made it difficult for Hellena Taylor to reprise her role," Jennifer Hale (Mass Effect, Metal Gear Solid, BioShock Infinite) has stepped into the lead voiceover role.
Taylor said that although she loves all actors and wishes her "all the joy in the world," Hale "has no right to say she is the voice of Bayonetta."
"I created that voice," Taylor said. "She has no right to sign merchandise as Bayonetta any more than I have the right to sign as Eva Green, even though I was her parrot in the video, the Golden Compass. That betrayal is hers, and hers alone. They’ll probably try to do a spin-off with Jen, don’t buy that either."
About an hour after Taylor posted her thread, Kamiya tweeted "Sad and deplorable about the attitude of untruth. That's what all I can tell now. By the way, BEWARE OF MY RULES."
This article was originally published on dbltap as Bayonetta Voice Actor Says PlatinumGames Offered Just $4K to Reprise Role, Asks Players to Boycott Threequel.