Troy Baker reveals Gearbox did not hire him because he was part of a Union

Gearbox and Randy Pitchford have come under a lot of scrutiny and controversy recently. The controversies started before Borderlands 3 even released. 

Last year, David Eddings, who was a former Gearbox executive and voice of Claptrap, revealed that he wouldn’t be reprising his role in Borderlands 3 because Pitchford refused to pay him. Earlier he had done the voice acting for free since he was an executive. He also went on to allege that Pitchford had siphoned off money from the employees’ royalty pool and he was still owed royalties. And then to top it all off, there was also an incident of assault. Another incident is of Duke Nukem 3D composer suing the studios for using his work without paying royalties. 

The latest accusation comes from Troy Baker, who is a part of Screen Actors Guild‐American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. Talking to VG24/7 he explained that Gearbox did not want to hire people who were part of the union. He also said that he would have loved to reprise the role of Rhys from Telltale’s Tales from the Borderlands. Speaking to the website he said: 

“No, it was simply a matter of they 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.” 

Earlier in April, Pitchford had said that his Voice Director told him Troy Baker had refused to return as Rhys. 

You’ll have to ask Troy. I was told by the audio director that he turned it down. Fortunately, with how Rhys appears in the game, I don’t think it actually matters at all. You’ll see for yourself when the game comes out and you may disagree with me on that or not.

— Randy Pitchford (@DuvalMagic) April 10, 2019