[UPDATE 10/16/22 at 1:00 PM] PlatinumGames vice-president Hideki Kamiya has either deactivated or deleted his Twitter account, following backlash to his response to Hellena Taylor’s statements.

[UPDATE 10/15/22 at 12:09 PM] PlatinumGames vice-president Hideki Kamiya has seemingly responded to Taylor’s claims with a nebulous tweet:

“Sad and deplorable about the attitude of untruth. That’s what all I can tell now. By the way, BEWARE OF MY RULES,” Kamiya wrote on twitter.

[ORIGINAL STORY] When Bayonetta 3 first got a trailer, fans noticed the voice behind the titular witch sounded off. Later when the game got a release date and another trailer, it definitely seemed like the witch had been recast.

Now, original actress Hellena Taylor has confirmed not only has she been recast, her pay offer was an “insult,” considering how popular the series has become.

Here’s the original message from Hellena Taylor:

Hello, my name is Hellena Taylor, I am the voice of Bayonetta and I would like to explain to you why I did not voice Bayonetta 3. The Bayonetta franchise made approximately $450 million dollars, that’s not including merchandise.

As an actor I trained for a total of seven and a half years. Three years at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, with voice coach Barbara Berkery and four and a half years with the legendary Larry Moss in Los Angeles.

And what did they think this was worth? What did they offer to pay me? The final offer to do the whole game as a buyout, flat rate, was four thousand US dollars. This is an insult to me, the amount of time that I took to work on my talent and everything that I have given to this game and to the fans.

I am asking the fans to boycott this game and instead spend the money you could have spent on this game by donating it to charity. I didn’t want the world, I didn’t ask for too much, I was just asking for a decent, dignified, living wage. What they did was legal, but it was immoral.

Now those of you who follow me on Twitter know that I am more of a lover than a fighter, and sometimes think I’m very much not like Bayonetta at all but I guess I am a little bit more like Bayonetta than I thought.

I understand that boycotting this game is a personal choice and there are those that won’t and that’s fine. But if you’re someone that cares about people, who cares about the world around you, who cares about who gets hurt with these financial decisions, then I urge you to boycott this game.

I decided to do it to stand up in solidarity with people all over the world who do not get paid properly for their talents. Fat cats cream off the top and leave us the rotten crumbs. You know in England right now there are nurses going to food banks to feed their children? This is not right, this is not acceptable.

It impacts mental health, because of it I suffered from depression and anxiety, I worried that I was going to be on the streets. That terrified me so much that once I was suicidal.

I am not afraid of a non-disclosure agreement, I can’t even afford to run a car, what are they going to do, take my clothes? Good luck to them.

Bayonetta always stands up for those with less power, and stands up for what is right. In doing this you stand with her.

For those of you who are interested I’d like to go into a little more detail about the back and forth. The first thing is that I was required to audition again, because sometimes voices change with time. So I auditioned for the role and obviously passed with flying colors.

They then sent me an insulting offer. So I thought ‘You know what? I’m going to write to Hideki Kamiya. I’m going write to him and ask him for what I’m worth.’ So I got a friend who has been in business in Japan to write in Japanese to him.

I know he read it because I got a reply! I got a reply saying that “(he) values greatly my contribution to the game and that the fans really want me to voice it over, and the memory of first meeting me as Bayonetta is a memory I hold dear.”

So I thought ‘Great, thank God.’ That is when they offered me four thousand US dollars. You know Platinum had the cheek to say I was busy, that ‘they couldn’t make it work with Ms. Taylor’s schedule.’ Well I had nothing but time.

They now have a new girl voicing her over, and I love actors I wish her all the joy in the world. I wish her all the jobs but she has no right to say she is the voice of Bayonetta, she has no right to sign merchandise as Bayonetta, any more than I have the right to sign as Eva Green even though I was her parrot on the video game The Golden Compass.

That portrayal is hers and hers alone. They’ll probably do a spinoff with jam, don’t buy that either.

So to Kamiya, presidents of Nintendo, and all other fat cats around the world – I would like to quote to you from the greatest moral teacher who ever lived, Jesus Christ, from his parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man.

Lazarus was a poor beggar with sores all over his body and he lived outside the house of a rich man who banqueted and feasted every day and wore purple. Lazarus hoped for even a scrap off the rich man’s table, which he never gave Lazarus. Only the dogs pitied him and licked his sores.

Lazarus died and the angels took him straight up to Heaven, to the bosom of Abraham. Meanwhile the rich man went to hell and suffered torment. And in his torment he cried out to Abraham, “Abraham please save me, take me up to heaven.” To which Abraham said “You had your joy in life. Now this is set for eternity.”

So he (Lazarus) said “Please tell my brothers who are living like I was. Send them a messenger so they can repent.” To which Abraham said “We’ve sent you Moses and the Prophets.”

“Ah but if you send Lazarus, if a man comes back from the dead, they will listen to him.” To which Abraham replied “If you did not listen to Moses and the Prophets it’s unlikely you will listen to a man who’s risen from the dead.”

I would like to thank you, the fans, who have followed me on Twitter, commented kindly and liked my work. Bless you. I wish you all the joy and luck in the world.

Bayonetta 3 is set to launch on October 28th for Nintendo Switch.