The Celebrity Traitors: interview with The eight banished contestant

James Acaster was the third Traitor and eighth player banished at the Round Table

How did it feel to be banished?

I feel pretty good getting to episode nine, and now we’ve got a proper final on our hands. With three Traitors, it would have been a foregone conclusion that we were going to win. Don’t get me wrong, I thought it was hilarious at one point that we were just going to walk our way to the final and win the whole thing, but this is much better, isn’t it?

Your final Round Table, you finally got to tell them that you were a Traitor…

The idea of doing that got me through the whole experience because you feel as a Traitor sometimes, when you see people have real life reactions that are bigger than the game, you feel bad, and I would have to remind myself they don’t have a game without you, literally, if no one’s doing this stuff, they can’t play, and they all want to play. So you are doing an important job here, so they all have something to do, and when they catch you, they’ll be really happy and they’ll like it, and it will feel good to just tell them and see that reaction.

Did you go into that Round Table thinking you were at risk?

I went in thinking I’ve got no heat on me whatsoever, it was a surprise, but I was glad that they caught me.

It’s exciting that you get to reveal that you’re a Traitor at the end of your game. But some Traitors do it even earlier, don’t they?

Yeah, sometimes you just say it straight after the Traitor’s pick, shout it at the top of your lungs, roll the dice and see what happens there.

I was really surprised by the people who still weren’t convinced. I think those people have got to go away and have a bit of a look at themselves, and be like, “Why did I believe that man so much?

Joanne, Myha’la as well. I think she was overly empathising with Richard because she was disappointed she wasn’t a Traitor.

Quite often, you would talk about what you thought the Traitors had done, and literally just say what you had done.

That was it. You’ve got to change those little words for the sake of the game. You can’t Richard it. Nine times out of 10 the other Players would dismiss me, and go “that’s wrong” – and then every now and again, they’d latch onto it and go, “Okay, yeah, that sounds like the most feasible, and that would actually lead them somewhere, and then that was fun as a little Traitor going, “Ooh, getting closer. Can you get me?!

So, Kenny and Maya, your fellow Traitors, they’re still in there. Do you think they have what it takes to win?

I don’t know. I believe in them, I’ve got a lot of faith in them. They’re excellent Traitors, but you still have James Blunt. James Blunt is ferocious in this game. He is a man possessed.

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