‘I’d love to play her again’: Bayonetta actor Hale says she’d return, despite online ‘hate’ storm
Jennifer Hale says she feels like she was “thrown under the bus” after replacing longtime actor, who called for boycott
New Bayonetta voice actor Jennifer Hale says she’d love to voice the character again, despite the storm surrounding the events around her hiring.
In 2022, longtime Bayonetta voice actor Hellena Taylor called on fans to boycott the Bayonetta 3 ahead of its release, after she was replaced in her role as the lead in the third game by veteran actor Hale.
In a series of video messages, Taylor criticised developer PlatinumGames and publisher Nintendo for allegedly offering her just $4,000 to return for Bayonetta 3 – a claim denied by Platinum vice president Hideki Kamiya.
Series creator Kamiya later locked his social media accounts after he said he was “flooded with messages”. “I just called them ‘messages,’ but they were hate posts. Just tons of verbal abuse pouring in,” he later said.
New Bayonetta actor Hale released a statement at the time attempting to address the situation, stating that she “support[s] every actor’s right to be paid well” and noting that she could not say more due to being under NDA.
Now, in a new interview with Gaming Bible, Hale has shed more light on the incident. The actor says she feels she was “thrown under the bus” at the time and insists that she “checked everything thoroughly” before accepting the role.
“I’d love to play Bayonetta again,” she said. “But I definitely got thrown under the bus by that whole thing, and I was unable to speak on my own behalf because I was under not one but two NDAs. Eventually, I was allowed to make a statement, which I appreciated, and I was able to present the facts.”
She continued: “There were some things said [that were] presented as facts, but were false. I would have never taken a role otherwise. Before I accepted the audition, I checked everything thoroughly, and I trust the director.
“Thankfully, playing Bayonetta was so much fun, and the community was so welcoming to me, especially after the fiasco had passed and the facts came out. But it was not fun getting thrown under the bus like I had, but I was happy to come out on the other side.”
Bayonetta 3 will be released as a Switch exclusive on October 28, 2022. Bayonetta creator Kamiya has since left PlatinumGames to form his new studio, Clovers, which is creating Okami 2.
