Joey Camen and Reuben Langdon, two actors in the recent Capcom release Devil May Cry V, have come under fire. Camen due to his past YouTube content and Langdon for his controversial opinions.
On March 18th, a thread was started on the internet video game forum ResetEra by a user, whose profile displays the username ‘Skittles’, titled “Capcom hired a white dude who pretends to be black and says n**** to voice Morrison in DMCV. YT channel full of transphobia, racism, and antisemitism.” In the opening post, Skittles links to numerous YouTube videos hosted on the personal account of Joey Camen, who plays J.D. Morrison in Devil May Cry V:
Yes, that’s right. The only POC in DMCV is voiced by a white dude who essentially dons blackface, pretends to be black, and say n**** as a “joke”. Voice actor is Joey Camen, and here’s some videos from his youtube channel.
On the channel CamenTV, which has been seemingly inactive for the past two years, Camen would post comedic clips of himself playing ‘characters,’ such as a ‘vegan caveman’ or ‘wastepaper basket repairman Clifford Fletcher.’ In the video examples provided by Skittles, which have since been deleted from the channel, Camen can be seen playing a hip-hop artist character named ‘Krey Master J’ while in a mask that mimics blackface, wearing a purple wig while playing a transgender individual in a video titled ‘Transgenders Against Transfats,’ and wearing a red MAGA hat in a parody of Arnold Schwarzenegger which sees the actor endorsing Donald Trump for president:
Reuben Langdon, the voice and motion-capture actor for one of Devil May Cry V’s protagonists, Dante, was also the target of criticism for comments made during a guest appearance during a livestream hosted by the Toy Bounty Hunters YouTube channel:
In the livestream, which also featured YouTubers Hero Hei and Yellow Flash, Langdon discussed various behind-the-scenes stories regarding DMCV and answered fan questions. At one point, a fan tells Langdon that he hopes that the current situation regarding Vic Mignogna would not dissuade other voice actors from meeting fans at conventions. YellowFlash then provided a quick summary of the situation, which prompted Langdon to discuss his personal feelings on numerous ‘hot button’ issues, including his disagreement with troubling aspects of the #MeToo Movement and Black Lives Matter (the relevant portion of this discussion begins at approximately 48:40 in the above video):
“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 sort of 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.
Here’s where we need to sort of pull in the reigns on a lot of this stuff. 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 in 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 just a constant, 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.”
Langdon then offers his opinion on Mignogna and his behavior, stating that he would have a ‘hard time believing Vic would go any further than a hug’:
“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.”
At a later point in the interview, Langdon touched upon his opinion regarding the ongoing investigation into collusion between President Donald Trump and the Russian Government:
“The whole Russian collusion thing, how many years have we been going on with this and there’s still no evidence?
We are in this era of lets’ just make up a bunch of stuff and if we get it out there in the media and enough people believe it, that’s all we need… I’m not a Trump supporter or hater, I look at the evidence.”
Following the initial ResetEra post, articles were run by Newsweek and Eurogamer covering the outrage, with the latter painting Camen’s videos and Langdon’s statement both as “troubling developments.” According to Eurogamer’s report, the gaming site reached out for comment to Capcom, who stated that they are looking into the comments and stressing that the views held by Camen and Langdon were not shared by the company. Langdon, who at the time of Eurogamer’s article had not responded to request for comments, later criticized the Newsweek article and the outlet’s attempts to connect with him on his Facebook page:
Wow! I’m mentioned in Newsweek again! It was just over a year ago they were interviewing me for my ET Reseash [sp] work, and seemed to take it very seriously. So much so I was mentioned in their special Edition focusing on the idea of contact with extraterrestrials.
So yesterday I was contacted by someone claiming to be from Newsweek (see email attachment) I replied that I’m willing to talk about other stuff (anything but Vic) and that’s what I meant. I am all for engaging in a dialogue and giving a platform to discuss openly and without bias on where I Stand on certain issues. I’ll talk about #metoo and #blacklivesmatter I’m all for true journalism. To hear all sides of a story. As opposed to hand picking certain sentences from an interview that they didn’t even perform! Then making up a narrative to serve your clear bias about the #qanon 8chan discussions. Why would Newsweek go out of there way to throw me under the bus for having an opinion about a fellow actor? Just goes to show where the news of this world is at the moment and why we must all do our own investigation and research into the issues we truly care about. #Questioneverything #WWG1WGA
BTW: I got some press when I was shot at in Guatemala a few weeks ago (which was surprising) but not NEWSWEEK!!! In fact there was no mention of that in any of the mainstream media! But having an opinion about someone, especially if you don’t agree with that opinion, watch out cuz thats big news!
Link to recent article:
https://www.newsweek.com/dmc-5-devil-cry-voice-actor-dante-…
What do you make about Camen’s videos and Langdon’s opinions? Do you think this could be the beginning of a new witch hunt?