Jump to content
Awoo.

The industry’s utter disrespect for voice actors


Perkilator

Recommended Posts

Recently, Hellena Taylor, the original VA for Bayonetta, sent out this tweet:

This isn’t even the first time this is happened within the span of a month, what with Crunchyroll deciding to move ahead with the Mob Psycho 100 Dub without Kyle McCarley, the original VA for Mob, instead of discussing unions with him.

I think between all this and the over-abundance of celebrity VA’s in animated movies, this just feels like complete disrespect for professional VA’s in the entertainment industry at large.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Part of it's due to marketing, atleast in movies. VAs simply don't catch the public's attention like big name celebs do. Kinda doubt the Mario movie would have gotten the attention that it did when the cast was announced if Charles Martinet and the rest of the game cast were doing the movie. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Fucking wow. Massive, massive props to Taylor for speaking up here and my out the absolute bullshit treatment she's getting. Unfortunately we know just how common this all is. 

  • Thumbs Up 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I’m still getting the game because I waited 4 years to play it but I’m 100% in support for her and people are definitely within their right to boycott the game. 4K is insulting so good on her for speaking up 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

16 minutes ago, Soniman said:

I’m still getting the game because I waited 4 years to play it but I’m 100% in support for her and people are definitely within their right to boycott the game. 4K is insulting so good on her for speaking up 

I've read some comments elsewhere in which people say that $4k is a lot of money. $4k itself as a lump sum is fair but of money, but that's literally all she would ever get for Bayonetta 3. No royalties for sales or re-releases in the future.

She goes on to explain that actually she won't be able to afford to run her car for very long, implying that she doesn't have much more work ahead of her. Presumably recording all of the dialogue for Bayonetta 3 would have taken weeks if not months. When you look at it with all those considerations, $4k isn't much. And for the third original  release in the series (plus re-releases of the previous games on PC, Wii U and Switch), it's an even bigger testament to how undervalued her performance is.

Each Bayonetta game has been a success. She deserves better post for a character she helped make a success. 

And let's be clear about something here: Taylor is not a very prolific voice actor. Bayonetta was her only big role. She gave Bayonetta an incredibly unique voice that everyone noticed was missing when the first trailer dropped, long before it was officially confirmed that Jennifer Hale had taken on the role. No shade to Hale, because I'm sure that she's had her share of hard times as a VA too. It's just that the lack of value and the level of disrespect from Platinum to the artist here is palpable. 

  • Thumbs Up 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Bayonetta director Kamiya says she’s lying and that’s it.

unsurprisingly, he’s getting massively ratio’d 

  • Absolutely 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

48 minutes ago, Blue Blood said:

I've read some comments elsewhere in which people say that $4k is a lot of money. $4k itself as a lump sum is fair but of money, but that's literally all she would ever get for Bayonetta 3. No royalties for sales or re-releases in the future.

She goes on to explain that actually she won't be able to afford to run her car for very long, implying that she doesn't have much more work ahead of her. Presumably recording all of the dialogue for Bayonetta 3 would have taken weeks if not months. When you look at it with all those considerations, $4k isn't much. And for the third original  release in the series (plus re-releases of the previous games on PC, Wii U and Switch), it's an even bigger testament to how undervalued her performance is.

Each Bayonetta game has been a success. She deserves better post for a character she helped make a success. 

And let's be clear about something here: Taylor is not a very prolific voice actor. Bayonetta was her only big role. She gave Bayonetta an incredibly unique voice that everyone noticed was missing when the first trailer dropped, long before it was officially confirmed that Jennifer Hale had taken on the role. No shade to Hale, because I'm sure that she's had her share of hard times as a VA too. It's just that the lack of value and the level of disrespect from Platinum to the artist here is palpable. 

This is the worst part. Helena Taylor made Bayonetta into the icon she is today. There was no JP dub originally.

So the fact that she's never received any royalties for any prior game nor for Bayonetta 3 despite how profitable the IP has been is appalling. And Platinum are only able to get away with because Taylor has little clout to speak of in the VA community.

Because I know for a fact they paid Jennifer Hale more simply because of her name alone. The fact that companies care so little for the iconicity of these characters to not pay them their worth is disheartening to say the least.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's honestly a shame it even had to happen, actors aren't replaceable, at least without a good reason. I think basically everyone should be paid what they deserve. Especially when you're playing a character that has headlined several games like in the case of Bayonetta and also was in Smash! It's not really fair to just chuck them out of the door and offer them less than they deserve. Sometimes, recasting is unavoidable or even preferable but, in this case, it seems rather awful. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, Blue Blood said:

I've read some comments elsewhere in which people say that $4k is a lot of money.

I can make $4K in month with just a regular job. Believe me when I say it not a lot a money, but it is a lot to owe.

Regardless, that’s beyond insulting that I can outearn a voice actor working in a billion dollar industry. She deserves far more than that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't think this was entirely Kamiya's decision to start with. On the off chance that it was, the game is too far along for a major change like that. Even if he gets tarred and feathered for this it's not going to change anything. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, The Great Egg Emperor said:

Kamiya has gotten so much backlash, that he will have no choice but to bring Hellena back and pay her more money.

Hey, it happened to Byleth in Fire Emblem: Three Houses when Zach Aguilar replaced Chris Niosi. It can happen again.

Not really, at this point the game is either gone gold or very close to, so whats done is done. The best case scenario for a resolution is them MAY offering a patch or free dlc to add her voice to replace all lines but I doubt that'll happen.

And Chris Niosi was replaced because he breached NDA, not because people demanded for him to be replaced.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Kamiya’s poor reaction and handling of the situation as the face of the company whether he’s directly or responsible or not, puts him close to the center of this mess, and honestly, makes it seem like he knows more than he’s letting on. People not involved in these decisions, don’t aggressively throw “liar!” out at people coming out about their worker treatment and proceed to have a meltdown resulting in their account being taken down.

 

God the AAA game industry fucking. Sucks.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Platinum is crashlanding HARD, they need to do damage control immediately or its gonna get worse.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ok wait if THIS is true then I’m now extremely skeptical because that’s a substantially better offer than what was claimed 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Mind you, that may still come off as paltry.

Though, this begs the question as to why Taylor would feel the need to omit this information, as it's certainly not a good look for her if she really did lie.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon said:

Mind you, that may still come off as paltry.

Though, this begs the question as to why Taylor would feel the need to omit this information, as it's certainly not a good look for her if she really did lie.

$3000 for 1 days work... Is pretty damn amazing. 

For 5 sessions... 

Holy shit sign me up!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 minutes ago, Badnik Mechanic said:

$3000 for 1 days work... Is pretty damn amazing. 

For 5 sessions... 

Holy shit sign me up!

Some are arguing that $20K (the max off those sessions, assuming she was paid $4,000 per session) was still small.

I'm not really sure on the matter. I do some voice acting myself, but not that caliber.

What my main concern is, is the possibility that she was definitely offered more than she said she was offered. If 20K for this session is considered small still, I wonder why she felt the need to lie. Cause if she did lie and went off on Hale based off that lie, this is a terrible look for Hellena Taylor.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

To me it looks like Taylor just wants the attention, but that shouldn't take away from the issue of voice actors being treated like dirt. Looking at you Chris Pratt.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 10/21/2022 at 1:06 PM, Fireluigi1225 said:

To me it looks like Taylor just wants the attention, but that shouldn't take away from the issue of voice actors being treated like dirt. Looking at you Chris Pratt.

I don't recall Chris Pratt ever directly being involved in the mistreatment of voice actors.

  • Thumbs Up 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

15 hours ago, Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon said:

I don't recall Chris Pratt ever directly being involved in the mistreatment of voice actors.

Think they meant how Hollywood replaced Charles Martinet for Chris Pratt, and Hollywood's overall disrespect towards the profession by treating it as something they can just toss celebrities at while treating Voice Actors as second class and lesser.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 minutes ago, SenEDDtor Missile said:

Think they meant how Hollywood replaced Charles Martinet for Chris Pratt, and Hollywood's overall disrespect towards the profession by treating it as something they can just toss celebrities at while treating Voice Actors as second class and lesser.

Much as that is a problem (and personally I don't buy Pratt as Mario either), I don't think it's wise to point the blame at the actors themselves though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 5 weeks later...
On 10/23/2022 at 7:55 PM, SenEDDtor Missile said:

Think they meant how Hollywood replaced Charles Martinet for Chris Pratt, and Hollywood's overall disrespect towards the profession by treating it as something they can just toss celebrities at while treating Voice Actors as second class and lesser.

We've seen it happen before with Space Jam 2 and how Kath Soucie got replaced as Lola's VA at the last minute for Zendaya.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

You must read and accept our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy to continue using this website. We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.