It's a good thing I waited for more information and didn't immediately jump on the bandwagon to defend her. I knew there was much more to this story, because in her "coming out video" she provided so few details and immediately just tried to call-to-action. For such an audacious act as breaking an NDA (a critical act), she barely revealed anything. She basically lied that she was only offered $4k for the game, when it was $4k per session... talk about slimy, and I bet studios are putting her on blacklists now. Putting aside Hideki Kamiya's... choice approach to handling this situation online, there is some more analysis we can do.
Assuming what Jason Schrier said is correct, $3k-$4k USD per session for 5 sessions is $15k-$20k USD, ONLY for Bayonetta 3. We also have evidence regarding how
difficult the work is, and paraphrasing Hellena's own words: It took her four 4-hour sessions, over 4 days to fully voice Bayonetta 2 (EDIT: Link to
UK Interview). Here's something RagingGoldenEagle mentioned that I think makes a lot of sense: If you look at the work ethic between her and someone like Vic Mignogna, Vic busts his ass to find MORE voice acting gigs for more pay, and doesn't pull publicity stunts that would put him on blacklists. He also markets himself to find more work, leading to more jobs and garnering a bigger audience. For this one game -Bayonetta 3- that takes multiple years to develop, Hellena wanted more pay when it would have taken her at tops 5 recording days to make (let's low-ball Jason Schrier's reported numbers) $15k USD. That is a dream situation to be in. She should then be going out to find MORE things to voice. As Bep pointed out, her rate with Bayo 3 at $4k USD per session means regular work would be $1k USD per session. So another game, show, or whatever at the standard rate would yield $5k USD.
So if Hellena Taylor actually took the Bayo 3 contract, she would make $15k USD in 5 days (low-balling with $3k USD per session). She would then have to find -at the minimum- 17 more voice acting gigs at the standard rate of $1k per session, taking 5 days each to accomplish, to make $100k USD. This means she does
actual voice work a mere 4 hours on only 90 days out of 365 days of a year (~24.65% of a year, a bit less than a quarter). Factoring in potential usage of her track record on Bayonetta, she could premium her costs and cut down on that time. Now, sure, she has to spend time marketing herself in order to find more gigs and that may incur costs (tickets to cons, partnerships, flight tickets, etc.), but that's part of her job as a contractor, unless she finds an agency to market her (I think Hellena is part of a union, which probably holds her down even more).
Let this be a lesson to the YouTubers and social media guys... there was more to the story, and now look where she is. She tried to use the court of public opinion, but the truth broke through to reveal what she did not. Well, if all else fails, she could try moaning into a microphone really well to find voice acting gigs in the adult-only scene. I don't think she will be very welcome in many other studios after pulling this stunt.
EDIT2: According to
this article on videogameschronicle.com, they put quotations around wording "at least" when talking about 5 sessions of recording. So she could have actually made
more money voicing Bayo 3.