Troy Baker didn’t say no to reprising his role as Rhys in Borderlands 3. It turns out, Gearbox just made it impossible to hire him.
Way before Borderlands released earlier in September, we found out that Troy Baker, the voice of beloved character Rhys from Tales from the Borderlands, would not return to be that same voice in Borderlands 3. At the time, Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford said that Baker was offered the job, but he turned it down.
That’s not exactly how things went down, according to Mr. Baker.
In an interview with VG247, Baker reveals what really went wrong. “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 they wouldn’t go union,” Baker said. “And I can’t do a non-union gig.”
Baker is part of the Screen Actors Guild, a union of both voice and traditional actors (and a lot of other professions too) which places mandates on doing business with their members. Anyone who wants to hire a union member must agree to certain pay and benefits, and if the union member takes a job that doesn’t abide by those rules, they could lose their union membership.
Telltale Games was fine with following those rules in the making of their games, but Gearbox just wasn’t willing to play ball.
Soon after the interview was released, Gearbox issued a statement saying that it wasn’t their fault–it was all because of Texas “right to work” laws.
“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 labor union or other labor organization,” Gearbox wrote. “As a talent-owned and talent-led organization, Gearbox enthusiastically works to ensure our pay and working conditions meet or exceed union standards.”
Which seems to ring a little false. The keywords here are “a person cannot be denied employment” due to their union membership, which doesn’t preclude someone from being hired just because they’re in a union. And if Gearbox was willing to pay and provide working conditions that met or exceeded union standards, then they wouldn’t have had a problem hiring a unionized actor.
The Screen Actors Guild issued their own statement to Polygon regarding the whole messy affair: “The misguided decision by Gearbox to deny their performers the opportunity to have fair union wages, a safe workplace and the possibility of health care coverage for their families, is unfortunate.”
This isn’t the first time Gearbox has been called out for their hiring practices of voice actors. David Eddings, the original voice of Claptrap, also didn’t reprise his role in Borderlands 3 because Gearbox simply refused to pay him for something he was doing for free when he was employed at Gearbox.
(Source: VG247, Polygon)
