James Acaster speaks out about impact of Celebrity Traitors after bombshell roundtable admission
Celebrity Traitors star and funny man, James Acaster, has opened up about how playing the role of a Traitor has followed him since leaving in a shock exit.
His final episode was one to put in the history books as in an unlikely twist; Acaster wasn't guessed to be a Traitor correctly by the Faithfuls.
Instead, during the Celebrity Traitors semi-final, he outed himself and asked to be voted off the hit show.
The comedian, 41, left everyone completely stunned after admitting his role as a Traitor during the roundtable when he was being grilled by Michael Sheen.
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Alongside fellow Traitor Maya Jama, Acaster was put under the scope and he didn't last long after a play-by-play of Ross Kemp's murder in plain sight was discussed.
As Acaster was the one who ultimately 'killed' Kemp, he cracked under the pressure and confessed that he was made a Traitor against his will.
“I was made a Traitor without wanting to be,” he confessed. “It’s me. Vote for me.”
From there, the repercussion was obvious – and he was banished from the show.
"Nothing feels real at the minute"
But now, just days after the 29 October finale, Acaster has revisited the show and how it has left an impact on him.
"Nothing feels very real at the minute," the comedian said as he sat down with Far Out Magazine last week. "Nothing feels very real at the minute. The Traitors is going out but it hasn't really affected my life at all which feels more surreal.”
He explained he had thought things would be different, noting: "I prepared myself for being bombarded all the time which hasn't happened. I don't look at stuff online all the time. I'm like 'Is anyone watching it!?'
However, people had been watching it, and Acaster’s final episode went on to become the most watched episode of the entire series, as per The Mirror.
And while fans of the show loved seeing Acaster on screen, he said there was one moment where he wished he’d have just walked away from.
Acaster reveals scariest moment on show
Calling it his 'worst fear', Acaster recalled the moment the cast were placed and locked in coffins underground.
If that wasn’t bad enough, soil was thrown on top of them, and they were practically being buried alive.
"I was laying there thinking, actually, I think I'm really scared of this," he said. "As soon as the soil was heaped on top, Bella [Ramsay] did say, ‘Imagine if they can't get us out’.”
"She didn't like it. She didn't like, well, none of us liked it. No, I respect Jerry [Hall] the most because Jerry just went, ‘I'm not doing this.’ Like, are you kidding me? And the rest of us were just like, 'We want to win Traitors in our coffins, idiots’.”
He added: "We should have just done what - as soon as I heard Jerry got out, I should have said to Bella, 'I'm getting out, forget it. If it's a free-for-all now, we should all get out. They can't stop us all. We could all do it.'"
However, the coup didn’t happen and Acaster was in fact buried underground.
But he made it out in one piece.
Topics: The Traitors, Celebrity, BBC
Britt Jones