Bayonetta OG Voice Actress Calls For Boycott of Bayonetta 3

[theRepublic]

mZuzek said:

Kakadu18 said:

About the other part, 4k may have been to low, but that still depends on the number of hours she was expected to work.

And this is exactly where your point falls apart. You're basing your entire argument on the idea that, for 16 hours of work, $4000 is a standard pay rate (based on an outdated source referring to non-main characters). I highly doubt that she'd record the whole game in only 16 hours, given how long this game has been in development and how it has multiple Bayonettas, she'd probably have way more work than in the first one.

GoOnKid said:

I wonder what all other actors in that game got paid and if they got even less than Taylor. I never imagined that voice actors are paid so little. But then again, I always assumed that they need to be in a studio for several weeks. Guess I was wrong. Of course that always depends on the game. I'd imagine Charles Martinet would be in the studio for half an hour at best and that's all there is needed for the next Mario game. But a big RPG like Xenoblade Chronicles requires a whole lot of work and time to record all the lines.

It really seems to vary wildly. I didn't think something like Bayonetta (the first one) would've taken only 4 days to record in its entirety, either way I still think Bayonetta 3 would've taken longer. The closest I've followed the behind-the-scenes of voice actors was with the cast of Guardians of the Galaxy, all of whom worked on the game for several years (albeit with mo-cap, not just voice acting, but still).

Hellena Taylor literally gave an interview in 2018 where she said she did the entire recording for Bayonetta in 4 4-hour sessions.  So yes, it was 16 total hours.  It was posted in this thread already.  Based on what I know, that is pretty common for voice acting.  They come in near the end of the project, do all of the recording in a couple of days, and are done.  Mo-cap work is completely different.

I already posted the current SAG-AFTRA rates.  Nothing outdated about them.  They basically wanted to pay her scale, and no more.  She thought she was worth more, so she turned it down.  The theories I've seen floating around on that are basically they wanted to switch to Hale, and this was a "go away" price.  For a live action example, look at what happened with Terrance Howard between Iron Man 1 and 2.  They wanted him out, so they low-balled him.

The one piece we are really missing in all this, is what Hellena Taylor was paid for Bayonetta 1 and 2.  I want to know why she didn't give that information.

Last edited by theRepublic - on 16 October 2022