Bayonetta actress refusing role over $4,000 deal
$4,000 is right up the alley of the game industry standard, which is about $300/hour spent in the studio. That's 13 hours. I have some experience recording voice acting with amateur and semi-professional voice actors for a 6-8 hour game, and those sessions have all taken <8 hours (for about 200-250 takes of 70-80 lines). I have no doubt that a professional studio and professional voice actress would be more efficient than that.
I would be really curious to hear how much she was paid for Bayonetta 1 and 2. That's something we don't know, so saying that $4,000 is low and they were only paying her that to get her out of the game is jumping the gun.
This is a longstanding issue though, voice actors feeling like they aren't getting paid enough for their work. The ones that actually end up making a lot of money from it are the ones who take a lot of gigs and go to conventions, doing a lot of work both in and out of the studio. I would not be surprised in the slightest if Jennifer Hale took the role for less money than $4,000. Silent Hill 2 remastered had a completely different voice cast of really popular VAs because the original ones wanted more money to have their voices in another release of the game, so there isn't any reason Konami would have paid other voice actors more money than what the original voice actors wanted. That situation just seems very similar to this one.
Unfortunately, it seems like Hellena has kind of dug her own grave. Complaining about being paid a certain amount means that no developer will be looking to hire her if they don't want to pay her more than $4,000. Instead of getting that amount of money, she's likely going to have a hard time finding work now. Devs are going to be hiring voice actors that are actually willing to do work for that money, ones that do a LOT of work so they are actually making good wages.
Say what you will about the game industry not paying voice actors enough or something, but this amount of payment is usually par for the course.
@beardalaxy
300 dollars per hour? That's amazing. Good luck trying to find that anywhere else.
Also, if your character becomes popular, you can expect every game the character is in to at least try getting the same voice.
I don't know. I might be missing something, but this seems like an amazing deal to me.
@LukeAlmighty that's because it is a good deal! especially for someone that hasn't done any voice acting for 8 years! imo they were being rather generous with that offer. i wonder how much krystal's VA was paid for that half life mod lol, which certainly has more lines than bayonetta would speak considering it is across all the episodes.
she's also trying to get the game boycotted and was lashing out against the new voice actress. what a class act!
