The love interest of Peter Parker, AKA Spider-Man is described as a beautiful, green-eyed redhead in the comics, so it only makes sense that the Spider-Man game will hire a face model that can match Mary Jane's implied beauty. They succeeded in their goal, so much so that the model is being harassed by fans.
MJ's Face Model Posts a Public Letter
It's common for video game studios to use a different voice actress for the face that someone else modeled for. While they hired Laura Baliey to voice the red-haired investigative journalist, Stephanie Tyler Jones was the face behind the character.
Unfortunately in some cases, fans can't seem to find the line between admiration and harassment. The face model claims that some people are calling her workplace, asking to speak to Jones. The actor and model expressed her disappointment on Instagram.
In a public post, she stated that she appreciates the love for her role in the Spider-Man games, but that "some followers crossed boundaries." One fan left multiple voicemails wanting to speak to her and requested that she call back, as shown in Kotaku.
Jones called it "unacceptable and is considered stalking." As she has chosen a different career path, which is in skincare, she clarified that her page is not for Spider-Man or MJ fans. Due to the voicemails she received, the model said that she felt unsafe and uncomfortable.
"Please respect that I am a human being trying to make a living just like you, and I kindly ask for boundaries not to be crossed," Jones stated. She finished the post off by saying that she will block fans who make her uncomfortable and that they can unfollow her if that's disappointing to them.
Even Voice Actors Are Not Safe
Some cannot handle disappointment like others, and they turn to threats to cope with that. Jones' case is not the first time fans have ignored boundaries, and in other instances, it's not because of admiration but hate for a fictional character.
Weirdly enough, it's the voice behind Mary Jane Watson who has also dealt with this kind of attention before. Laura Bailey was also the voice behind Abby Anderson, who is a protagonist and a playable character in The Last of Us Part II.
Fans were outraged by how the writers for the game chose to end Joel's life, and some were also misdirected at the voice actor of the character who did the killing. It has come to the point that the harassments towards Bailey were death threats, as per CBR.
Back in 2020, Laura Bailey took to X (formerly Twitter) to post screenshots of people sending her threats, saying that they were going to harm her since she (Abby) killed Joel in the game sequel. One said that they were going to find where she lives.
One even went as far as threatening Bailey's child as well. Ellie actor Ashley Johnson responded to the threats, saying that it's unacceptable and that they should "not threaten someone's life, their children's life, or their family's life."
