Recently, the fan site We are Mass Effect featured an interview with Tom Taylorson. He voiced the male version of the main character in Mass Effect: Andromeda.
The actor spoke about how he perceived the negative reaction to the game's launch in 2017:
I was certainly disappointed with what happened. But [what happened with the game] had very little to do with me. As an actor, I can only control a limited number of things in a game, and a significant amount of the hatred was directed at things beyond my control. On the other hand, this negativity was also directed at other people on the project — some I knew, some I didn't — and I felt sorry for them.
Taylorson was upset but quickly came to terms with it. However, he regrets that his character will not return – the actor believed he could work on Ryder for many years:
Personally, it was unpleasant, but I moved on pretty quickly. You have to – you're only as good as your last project or audition. So you just go back to work. Professionally, it helped that I had a major commercial client at the time. But personally and creatively, the most painful thing was realizing that it was over – Ryder wouldn't be coming back. I and others thought we had at least a decade of working with these characters and in this world ahead of us. And suddenly – it all disappeared.
The actor also said that he auditioned for Anthem (another BioWare studio game), but he was not hired, although the initial recording was liked by the developers:
The director said they were reviewing audition materials for their next game (at the time it was Anthem), and they really liked one of them. But someone said: "...sounds familiar... who is this?" They replied: "It's Tom," — and the whole room groaned because they thought they had already found an actor, but hearing it was me, they decided they couldn't take me.
Recently, Tom participated in another failed project, Highguard — the online shooter closed very quickly.