We learned the reason why Troy Baker (whose voice you might know from many games – for example, he voices Joel in The Last of Us) did not return to reprise his role of Rhys.
„So they came to me, and they were like, ‘Do you want to do this?’. I said, ‘Absolutely.’ And then they made it impossible for me to do the role. It had nothing to do with money, it had nothing to do with money. They just simply would not go about doing it the way that we needed it to be done. So then it was like, I never said no. No, it was simply a matter of [Gearbox] wouldn’t go union. And I can’t do a non-union gig. And without getting too deep into the weeds of that, we had long conversations about this. We always knew going into it, that this was going to be the thing. They were going to take these characters, and put them from the Tales from the Borderlands series from Telltale, into Borderlands proper. I’ve been waiting for this call. They were like, ‘Do you want to do this?’ And I said, ‘Yes’. They never, because they would never move from that position. I’m not mad. It’s invariably a completely different character, but it still stings,” Baker told VG247 in an interview. The union he referenced is SAG-AFTRA, which he is a part of.
Gearbox has responded to this with a statement: „Troy Baker is an exceptional talent and we were disappointed that he declined to partner on Borderlands 3 after being offered the part. We wish him the best and hope he knows the offer to collaborate with him still stands. Gearbox is a Texas company and is bound by Texas law – which means that a person cannot be denied employment because of membership or non-membership in a labour union or other labour organization. As a talent-owned and talent-led organization, Gearbox enthusiastically works to ensure our pay and working conditions meet or exceed union standards. We also believe strongly in hiring local voice actors whenever we can which is why we’re thrilled Troy’s career really took off after working with us.”
They do have a point: one of the first voice acting roles in gaming for Baker was with them in 2005 with Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30 and Earned in Blood as Sgt. Matt Baker.
Source: Forbes
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