Voice actor Jennifer Hale wants little introduction, having gained fame taking part in characters like Metroid Prime’s Samus Aran, Bastila Shan from Knights of the Previous Republic, and naturally Mass Impact’s one true Commander Shepard. She’s additionally recognized for Konami’s Metallic Gear Strong sequence, through which she’s performed the shifty geneticist Naomi Hunter for the reason that sequence’ inception in 1998. However in a current podcast look, Hale revealed that her first MGS gig voicing that necessary character paid solely $1,200.
Beforehand, Hale prevented naming Metallic Gear Strong straight in interviews, solely saying in September {that a} “sport made $176 million” and paid her an hourly wage that was “manner lower than [what] I needed it to be.” However in this week’s episode of the My Good Console podcast, at the moment out there in early entry, Hale responded shortly to host and critic Simon Parkin’s query as to what that $176 million sport was: It was Metallic Gear Strong.
She agreed with Parkin that her authentic MGS pay, $1,200, is at a “grotesque disparity” with $176 million, saying “it’s indicative of what’s taking place in fashionable tradition. […] For each greenback that the workaday particular person makes—and [voice actors] are workaday folks; all actors, on-camera, voice-over, who should not celebrities are workaday folks—we make a greenback for each $399 [executives] make.”
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Nonetheless, “I really like [Metal Gear],” Hale stated. “It was such a loopy departure from something I’d performed earlier than. I beloved it as a result of it was sensible, and since it was simply so distinctive. […] And it’s darkish, and it’s mysterious, and it’s intense, and […] I beloved all the pieces about it.”
Presently, Hale is certainly one of many online game voice actors ready to strike over what they inform Kotaku is “an existential battle to be sure that they grasp on to the rights to their very own voices, their very own photos, as a result of that’s what they make their residing with, in addition to obtain wages that can sustain with inflation in order that they’ll proceed to be professionals on this house economically.”
Throughout her podcast look, Hale bolstered this final level and stated she desires voice actors to obtain residuals for sport work “on a versatile construction that honors the indie builders, that honors the budgets and capacities of groups. I wish to see that.”
SAG-AFTRA members approved a online game strike with a 98 p.c “sure” vote on September 25.