Devil May Cry 5 voice actor pulls racist and transphobic videos from his own YouTube channel
UPDATE: Camen apologises, denies he is racist.
UPDATE 20/3/19: Devil May Cry 5 voice actor Joey Camen has apologised for the offensive videos he recently removed from his YouTube channel.
In a statement to Eurogamer, Camen explained his "edgy" comedy - labelled as racist and transphobic - was "parody", but still pulled the videos as it "was the right thing to do". Here's his statement in full:
"I'm sorry and I truly apologise to anyone who was offended," Camen told Eurogamer. "Look, I have been a professional standup comedian, actor and voice actor my entire adult life. I do voices and impressions for a living. I am also Jewish and I grew up in Detroit in primarily black neighborhoods. The voices and characters I do reflect my life experiences and admiration for the people I grew up with. The videos I did were comedy parodies with characters speaking in their vernacular.
"Some of my comedy is edgy, and everyone is entitled to their own opinion as to what they think is funny, but please do not refer to me being racist or otherwise. I do not come from a place of hate in any of my work. I removed the videos because I thought it was the right thing to do.
"BTW, please note that I never posted a video with myself in blackface. I was wearing a multicolored ski mask and doing a music review of an artist's new album as a character."
ORIGINAL STORY 19/3/19: A Devil May Cry 5 voice actor has pulled multiple videos from his own YouTube channel after fans found racist and transphobic content.
White American voice actor Joey Camen, who plays Morrison in Capcom's recently-released action game, yesterday removed a video in which he dons blackface, pretends to be black and says the n-word in a video "joke".
Camen also pulled a video in which he wears a wig and makes transphobic jokes.
Camen came under scrutiny after ResetEra user Skittles highlighted the fact Morrison, the only person of colour in Devil May Cry 5, is played by a white man who dons blackface in a YouTube video.
According to Camen's own description of his YouTube channel, which he posted to regularly during a year-long period between 2016 and 2017, it's a place for "outrageous comedy characters". One of these characters is Krey Master J, an over-exaggerated black stereotype. Camen is yet to respond to Eurogamer's request for comment, but the videos were pulled after we made contact with the voice actor and press reports emerged.
Meanwhile, the actor behind Devil May Cry protagonist Dante was heavily criticised for comments made in a recent interview with YouTube channel Toy Bounty Hunters.
Reuben Langdon, who voices and provides motion capture for Dante in the Devil May Cry games and is the voice of Ken from the Street Fighter games, victim-blames sexual harassment victims and says the Me Too and Black Lives Matter movements have been "hi-jacked", motives are "going a little too far" and "logic has gone out the window".
Langdon was responding to questions about fellow voice actor Vic Mignogna, who was recently accused of sexual harassment by fans. Mignogna, one of anime's biggest voice actors, was dropped by Funimation and Rooster Teeth after the allegations emerged. Mignogna has categorically denied any accusations of sexual harassment.
Here's a transcription of the relevant section of the Toy Bounty Hunters interview, brought to light by ResetEra user Kyle Cross, which starts at 48:40 in the video below.
"This Me Too movement started off as this amazing movement and I'm all for uplifting women and I do believe women have gone through centuries of being thrown under the bus and just not being acknowledged and being respected, and I'm all about the divine feminine and really uplifting women in our society.
"But what happens with Black Lives Matter and the Me Too movement, these movements get hijacked when the motives start going a little too far, and then logic goes out the window. And you start getting people talking about being sexually harassed because of a hug.
"The past is the past. This is going to sound really bad, and some people are going to take this the wrong way, but we need to let go of the past. We need to move forward with a new mindset, a new set of eyes and a new way of doing things.
"This whole planet is guilty of all kinds of things. What we need to do is learn how to forgive. Not forget. But forgiveness is one of the key aspects of the documentary I'm making. It's one of the key teachings in many religions, especially Christianity. Forgiveness is the only thing that's going to really get us through a lot of this stuff. And then moving forward after forgiveness, it's empowering the individual to learn how to say no.
"This is where all this stuff with the Me Too and the Black Lives Matter, it's never gonna end. We're going to be throwing people under the bus and it just creates more conflict, it creates more of what we've already been through. We need to start telling ourselves a new story, and start moving forward in a new way.
"I know Vic and he is a very touchy-feely guy, and I've seen him interact with women in that way, but I've also seen women say 'no thanks' and he's very much, 'I respect that, thank you very much.' I feel a lot of people just need to learn to just stand up and say, if they don't feel comfortable with somebody, 'no thank you' and then we move on. I have a hard time believing Vic would go any further than a hug in a lot of these cases."
Langdon has yet to respond to Eurogamer's request for comment, or acknowledge the controversy on his Twitter page. In a Facebook post, he reacted angrily to a Newsweek article on his interview comments without clarifying them.
When contacted for comment yesterday, a Capcom spokesperson said the company was looking into the situation, but stressed the views expressed by both Camen and Langdon are not shared by Capcom whatsoever.
These latest worrying developments make for a string of controversies around Devil May Cry 5. In September 2018, Capcom pulled a video showing off new music for the game by the deathcore band Suicide Silence after fans said the band's lead singer had been accused of having an emotionally manipulative and sexually inappropriate relationship with a 17-year-old fan.