Bayonetta’s former voice actress reveals the low salary Platinum Games is allegedly offering

by Arthur · October 17, 2022

What you need to know:

Bayonetta is an action-adventure hack and slash game developed by Platinum Games.
After being backed by Nintendo, the series was exclusively brought to Nintendo’s consoles.
For the third game in the series, Platinum Games chose to hire a different voice actor to play the titular Bayonetta.
Bayonetta’s original voice actress, Hellena Taylor, claimed she turned down the role because of the meager salary offered by Platinum Games.

Bayonetta as a franchise has had a bit of a rocky journey, almost fading into obscurity before being revived by Nintendo, who brought Bayonetta 2 to the Nintendo Wii U as an exclusive, along with the port of the first game.

Bayonetta 3 was announced in 2017, but no further information was given until the Nintendo Direct in September 2021. Scheduled for an October 2022 release, the third installment in the series features the Umbra Witch with two pigtails this time, and lots of gun-slinging action.

However, Bayonetta 3’s development was not without problems either. It was revealed that the original voice actress who played Bayonetta, Hellena Taylor, would not be returning. Although the reasons for this change were not revealed initially, the voice actress recently opened up about her reasons for turning down the role.

Friends, Worldlings, Bayonutters. Listen up! #PlatinumGames #Nintendo #Bayonetta #Bayonetta3 #Bayonutters #Boycott #NintendoEurope #NintendoAmerica #NintendoJapan pic.twitter.com/h9lwiX2bBt15 October 2022

In his Tweet, Taylor explains, “The Bayonetta franchise grossed approximately $450 million; that doesn’t include merchandise.” She gave a summary of her 7.5 year educational history, three years of which were spent at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, and the other 4.5 years spent in Los Angeles training under Larry Moss.

After auditioning again for the role and passing with “flying colours”, Hellena Taylor says she received an “insulting offer” from the studio. She ended up writing to Hideki Kamiya, the executive producer of Bayonetta 3 after the initial offer of a figure she deemed worthy of his expertise. Kamiya reportedly sent an apparently supportive reply. Taylor claims that Platinum Games’ final offer ended up being a fixed price of $4,000 USD to voice Bayonetta throughout the game, which she was also unhappy with and subsequently turned down.

While Platinum Games has not publicly commented on the matter, responses to Taylor’s tweet from fans of the franchise show empathy for the established actress, and disappointment with the developer’s alleged offer.