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Hellena Taylor (Voice of Bayonetta) Describes How She was Offered only $4,000 USD to Voice Her Again in Bayonetta 3.
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kiphalfton
Member
Is this like when Mia Khalifa was only offered $12k for her work?
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Topher
Identifies as young
That is until I figured it out and went to grad school for Computer Science. Somehow that English Literature degree wasn't cutting it.
HiFiVideogameMusic
Banned
I mean....I took part in the boycott of bayonetta 2 for being on the Wii U
I ended up buying a Wii U just for that game
dugdug
Banned
And as we all know, switching from Hayter to Sutherland was a great idea and everyone absolutely loved it.
SSfox
Member
I mean 4000 sounds like a joke, but can't really speak, depends also on how much she got in first 2 games, and how much actors got in paid in general. But yeah 4000 doesn't seem that much specially considering how much she brought to the character and it's a 3rd game of pretty successful franchise.
Dr. Wilkinson
Member
I don’t think her voice is like intrinsically tied to the identity of the series. It’s not like Charles Martinet and Mario.
Nintendo gave Platinum a set amount of money to make Bayo 3. Given series sales historically, I think they probably just had to prioritize their costs and make choices. I don’t see it as very newsworthy
Nintendo gave Platinum a set amount of money to make Bayo 3. Given series sales historically, I think they probably just had to prioritize their costs and make choices. I don’t see it as very newsworthy
SSfox
Member
Fuz
Banned
Topher
Identifies as young
The call to boycott really rubbed me the wrong way. That's not doing her any good. And what about the other people working their ass off to get the game done? Entirely disrespectful to her piers.
Speaking up is fine. Let her grievance be known. No need to shit on Jennifer Hale or make grand calls to boycott like she is some martyr.
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Onironauta
Member
I hope they also include the Japanese voices option
LordOfChaos
Member
What's the budget of this game compared to the first two?
Fuz
Banned
Topher
Identifies as young
AetherZX
Member
Some of the idiots posting here are sending me too, lmao. "HoW mUcH wOrK?!" I would think after two games and other appearances in different media, she knows exactly what she's accustomed to receiving for her work.
Kazekage1981
Member
It is very odd that she is using these strange, exaggerated examples to support her victim complex:
-Nurse going to pantry because she can't afford food for herself (Helena is not a nurse who saves lives, and UK's economic conditions has nothing to do with Nintendo)
-She spent years majoring in theatre and perfecting her craft. If anything, her star voice role in bayonetta would have propelled her in other cartoon, video game, movie roles. Is she not auditioning?
-Her depression, anxiety and suicide attempt was based on Nintendo not giving her enough money on the bayonetta 3 role?
-It was her choice not to accept the low pay and walked away
-Could not infuse or include royalties for her role? How was this not put on the table?
I would wait and hear from the other side before making a solid opinion on this matter
-Nurse going to pantry because she can't afford food for herself (Helena is not a nurse who saves lives, and UK's economic conditions has nothing to do with Nintendo)
-She spent years majoring in theatre and perfecting her craft. If anything, her star voice role in bayonetta would have propelled her in other cartoon, video game, movie roles. Is she not auditioning?
-Her depression, anxiety and suicide attempt was based on Nintendo not giving her enough money on the bayonetta 3 role?
-It was her choice not to accept the low pay and walked away
-Could not infuse or include royalties for her role? How was this not put on the table?
I would wait and hear from the other side before making a solid opinion on this matter
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hemo memo
You can't die before your death
Nintendo is not the one handling how the studio split the budget. So this is not a good look for Platinum.
brian0057
Banned
It has nothing to do with Kamiya or some hero worship strawman.
Jennifer Hale is the more prolific voice actress of the two and, more than likely, far costlier to hire than Hellena Taylor.
The latter saying that money was the dealbreaker sounds like an excuse.
ReBurn
Gold Member
You're not the only one. My BS in Behavioral Psychology wasn't cutting it. My Computer Science degree has taken good care of me.
That is until I figured it out and went to grad school for Computer Science. Somehow that English Literature degree wasn't cutting it.
Topher
Identifies as young
ReBurn
Gold Member
How did you get this video of me I'm confused
abacab driver
Banned
Fuck nintendo.
Self_Destructive
Member
I'm going to Boyacotta and Emuletta this shit 
Reizo Ryuu
Member
I don't think she's being "petty" here, she was alluding to not returning as the voice a year ago.
Her "side" is coming in after platinumgames said: "Various overlapping circumstances made it difficult for Hellena Taylor to reprise her role."
Sounds like this pissed her off since (from her pov) it's not "various overlapping circumstances", but just a lowball offer, and then moving on to hire someone who's probably more expensive.
Her "side" is coming in after platinumgames said: "Various overlapping circumstances made it difficult for Hellena Taylor to reprise her role."
Sounds like this pissed her off since (from her pov) it's not "various overlapping circumstances", but just a lowball offer, and then moving on to hire someone who's probably more expensive.
Yeah, that's what it seems like. She was handling it professionally until Platinum and Nintendo lied about her absence.
I'd be pissed off at that too.
kiphalfton
Member
Just like the rest of us, even those who went through however many years of post-secondary schooling. I feel so bad for her.
Going off that $50 per 100 words number recorded, that's 8,000 words she was paid for. Or conversely 2,000 words (at $200 per 100 words).
I just checked "all cutscenes" on YouTube for the first Bayonetta, and it's around three hours. If the typical person speaks 150 wpm, then that would be 27,000 words spoken continuously throughout that entire span. There's going to be dead air, other characters speaking, etc. so you can apply some factor <1.0 to that, to whittle it down a bit. I wouldn't doubt it if the actress has like 5,000 words max, all inclusive with random one liners.
Even if you look at it from the hourly rate, as you mentioned that's roughly 12 hours (at $350/hour) or 20 hours (at $200/hour). Like I said there's only 3 hours of cutscenes for the first game. So obviously she had enough time to do multiple takes/etc. when recording.
People overreacting to this obviously couldn't care less about breaking the numbers down, or looking into how much that should roughly equate to. What should I expect though, people are idiots, shit with mone,y and have no idea WTF they're talking about in general, half the time.
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AtomicStarving
Member
Disgusting
brian0057
Banned
Yeah, I'm sure the voice of Fem Shep, Naomi from MGS, and Samus Aran in the Prime series is cheaper to hire than the actress from a series that Nintendo had to save because no one else wanted to make new games for it.
dugdug
Banned
Are you guys implying they offered Hale the exact same amount of money? Of course she got a bigger check that she was comfortable with.
Nautilus
Banned
Oh yeah, for sure. Sutherland was so good as Snake that Kojima only gave him 2 lines to speak.
Chukhopops
Member
Shame as the voice acting was one of the things that made Bayonetta a cool character (especially in 1).
I thought they were pulling a MGS5 where it’s actually a different character compared to previous games but it’s not the explanation apparently…
I thought they were pulling a MGS5 where it’s actually a different character compared to previous games but it’s not the explanation apparently…
Timberwolf25
Member
She's was an employee contracted to do work. She has no right to future work nor is she in any position to "own" the character.
Low ball offer or not, she has the option to accept or not accept the offer, which she declined.
She also has the rigth to complain about it as well.
Based on the number of people who have no idea who she is, she probably hasn't built up the following or rep to be demanding high payouts yet. It's probably not a great idea to roast your previous employers on social media. I know I'd be wary on hiring her now. I guess it works for some people though.
Edit: I loved the OG Bayonetta. She definitely brought that character to life. So not hating on her at all if that's how it came across.
Low ball offer or not, she has the option to accept or not accept the offer, which she declined.
She also has the rigth to complain about it as well.
Based on the number of people who have no idea who she is, she probably hasn't built up the following or rep to be demanding high payouts yet. It's probably not a great idea to roast your previous employers on social media. I know I'd be wary on hiring her now. I guess it works for some people though.
Edit: I loved the OG Bayonetta. She definitely brought that character to life. So not hating on her at all if that's how it came across.
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Nautilus
Banned
While not a bomb, Bayonetta was never really successful.
Punished Miku
Human Rights Subscription Service
Ever. Sega owns it and wouldn't fund a sequel.
Flutta
Banned
I'm going to Boyacotta and Emuletta this shit
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Slothbeing1209
Member
Japan company pay their artist low salary is really common thing.
Salary of animator artist for anime is even lower than a student part time job.
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Timberwolf25
Member
My PC is probably too poop to be able to do this...lolI'm going to Boyacotta and Emuletta this shit
SSfox
Member
It's successful enough and made a lot of money. You don't have to sell COD level to be success.
brian0057
Banned
No, we're implying that money wasn't the only reason for not hiring her.
If Platinum isn't willing to pay the long time voice of Bayonetta, why are they hiring an even more expensive and more prolific voice actress?
It can't be solely about money. They could've and would've payed Hellena if that were the case.
It's Jennifer Hale's involvement that makes us question her monetary explanation.
balls of snow
Gold Member
Draaama. How much disdain you have to call Jen the 'new girl' on the block.
Nautilus
Banned
No, it never was. Every gane has its own budget and level of success, sure. But the budget of the original Bayonetta was big enough that the 1 million or so it sold in the first year wasn't enough to make the game a success. So much so that Sega never funded a sequel and NOBODY was interested in it, Sony and MS included.
The only one that was was Nintendo, and even then we all guess that the only reason they do so is because of good press(Bayonetta is beloved after all, just look at the ammount of responses this thread is getting) and variety to its line up. Bayo 2 took 5 years to sell 1 million on Switch, and the Wii U must be around 700k. That's not a bomb, but considering how much the game must need to develop, that's nowhere near enough to be successful.
I REALLY hope Bayo 3 changes this, but I won't lie to myself or anyone about the real situation Bayo is in.
Hot5pur
Member
Voice comparison HERE.
In many ways the Bayonetta character was given life by the initial voice actress, though it's not clear if she was written to be so sassy or that evolved when they started working together.
The new voice actress seems to have a very solid background and she's similar but the original is definitely noticeably better and has more impact.
Boycott the game? Nah. Platinum just didn't think her voice was worth more than that, and that's the reality because it's a silly action game not a deep touching drama.
Voice actors get paid $200-300 per hour (of work not recorded dialog) or $50-$200 per 100 words. Pretty sure bayonetta 1 (and let's assume 3 will be similar in length / dialog) had less than 2 hours of cutscenes total, and then about 50 lines/phrases like grunts and things she does during combat.
One hour speech has about 9000 words, and in cutscenes which are mostly action I'd imagine Bayonetta speaks 5% of the time, and usually it's 1 liners. So I estimate about 1000 words for cutscenes.
Order of magnitude for that amount of work is in the thousands range. Perhaps my estimates are way off. So maybe it's an industry problem and not a Platinum problem.
A good voice actors who knows what they are doing can likely crank out many of these contracts per year and make bank.
In many ways the Bayonetta character was given life by the initial voice actress, though it's not clear if she was written to be so sassy or that evolved when they started working together.
The new voice actress seems to have a very solid background and she's similar but the original is definitely noticeably better and has more impact.
Boycott the game? Nah. Platinum just didn't think her voice was worth more than that, and that's the reality because it's a silly action game not a deep touching drama.
Voice actors get paid $200-300 per hour (of work not recorded dialog) or $50-$200 per 100 words. Pretty sure bayonetta 1 (and let's assume 3 will be similar in length / dialog) had less than 2 hours of cutscenes total, and then about 50 lines/phrases like grunts and things she does during combat.
One hour speech has about 9000 words, and in cutscenes which are mostly action I'd imagine Bayonetta speaks 5% of the time, and usually it's 1 liners. So I estimate about 1000 words for cutscenes.
Order of magnitude for that amount of work is in the thousands range. Perhaps my estimates are way off. So maybe it's an industry problem and not a Platinum problem.
A good voice actors who knows what they are doing can likely crank out many of these contracts per year and make bank.
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Nintendo nor Platinum owns the Bayonetta IP, Sega does. Capcom or Bandai Namco couldn't come in and bid for it.
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