Original Bayonetta VA calls for boycott of third game over "insulting" pay offer

Hellena Taylor, the original voice actor of PlatinumGames' Bayonetta, has called for a boycott of the game after alleging she received an "insulting" pay offer for the role.

It's been known for a little while that for whatever reason, Taylor would not be reprising her role as the now pretty iconic witch, as she essentially said as such last year. Earlier this month it was confirmed that prolific voice actor Jennifer Hale would be taking over the role, with the game's director Yusuke Miyata saying that, "various overlapping circumstances made it difficult for Hellena Taylor to reprise her role." But now Taylor has posted a series of videos on her personal Twitter where she claims that she ultimately had to decline returning due to only being offered $4000 for the performance.

"I am asking the fans to boycott [Bayonetta 3], and instead spend the money that you would have spent on this game donating it to charity," Taylor asked of fans in the first of four videos she posted on Twitter yesterday, October 15. "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."

Going into some more detail about the "back and forth," Taylor explained that she did audition for the role again, noting that "sometimes voices change with time," but said that she "obviously passed with flying colours." However, according to Taylor, following the audition she was then sent an "insulting offer," though didn't disclose what that amount was. Which led her to write to Hideki Kamiya, director of the first Bayonetta, and having worked on the story for all three titles, to "ask him for what I'm worth."

Taylor says that Kamiya responded to her by saying "he values greatly my contribution to the game, and that the fans really want me to voice it over," and that the "memory of first meeting me as Bayonetta was a memory he holds dear." Taylor then thought that this would help, but only led to the offer of $4000.

Kamiya responded to the allegations on his own Twitter, writing "Sad and deplorable about the attitude of untruth. That's what all I can tell now. By the way, BEWARE OF MY RULES [sic]," that last line being a reference to how liberal he is with the block button. Kamiya's account is temporarily restricted at the time of writing.

PlatinumGames has yet to offer an official response on the matter, and neither has publisher Nintendo.