I’m pretty sure everyone is probably sick of hearing about this Hellena Taylor/Bayonetta 3 situation. And quite honestly I wasn’t planning on talking about it in depth because well, I had thought that everyone agreed that what happened to Taylor was an injustice and that the industry should do better when it comes to treating their workers like human beings.
Well that doesn’t appear to be the case, as I apparently found out that there were people trying to discredit Taylor’s claims. Now granted, they’re a vocal minority but it’s still jarring nonetheless.
The lengths some people will go to to defend Platinum and Nintendo are mind boggling in all honesty, some of my favorite arguments include.
“Taylor said this awful thing back in 2019, therefore I’m glad she’s not coming back.”
“This is a non issue for me because I play the game in Japanese.”
“4k doesn’t seem that bad of an offer.”
“4k is the industry standard. She’s mad about nothing.”
“She was only brought in to voice a cameo. And that’s why she was only offered 4k.”
“She talked shit about her replacement, which is unprofessional.”
Now, I’m not asking you to boycott the game, I mean if anything the game is gonna sell way more copies because of this controversy. My problem is that everyone knows the entertainment industry is notorious for pulling this kind of shit on a daily basis, but nobody with any major influence is willing to speak out against it because quote “That’s just how things are.”
Regardless of what you think of Hellena Taylor as a person, you can’t deny that it took a lot of fucking guts to do what she did. Not a lot of people in this industry are willing to break an NDA to speak out against an injustice because they know they’ll get blacklisted, but Taylor didn’t care. She already got fired and replaced, so it’s not like she has anything else left to lose at this point.
I guarantee you that what happened to Taylor happens all the fucking time, but again, you don’t hear about it because everyone is scared of being blacklisted for breaking NDA’s. And honestly, this type of shit needs to stop being the norm.
How do I know everyone is scared of being blacklisted? Take a look at Jennifer Hale’s response to the situation.
Now, at first glad it seems like a pretty reasonable response, but then you realize it’s not saying much. It doesn’t address anything, nor does it go into any detail over what happened when Hale was cast as Bayonetta.
It’s basically just a PR statement.
“Don’t boycott this game because a lot of people worked really hard on it.”
Okay, that’s cool but, why was Hellena Taylor only offered 4k to reprise her role? Why did Platinum lie and say that “various overlapping circumstances” were the reason why she didn’t come back? Were you offered the same rate?
And before anyone says anything, no I’m not saying it’s okay to harass Jennifer Hale over this whole thing nor am I accusing her of covering her own ass, I’m just pointing out that the statement she released only raises more questions.
I’m really hoping that when the game comes out and Hale is no longer NDA that she gives her side of the story, because I feel like there’s a lot more stuff that went on behind the scenes that has yet to come to light.
Also, the fact that Platinum and Nintendo have yet to put out an official statement at the time of writing speaks volumes to how little they value the English voice actors who bring a lot of these iconic characters to life.
Oh yeah, before I forget, fuck every single reactionary asshole on YouTube who is trying to profit off of this whole thing. You mother fuckers don’t give a shit about a lot of the stuff you talk about, so get the fuck out of here with all this clickbait nonsense.
At the end of the day, this is just an overall shitty situation and I do hope that more people end up speaking out against the injustices of the entertainment industry, because this type of shit needs to fucking stop.
