James Acaster has revealed that he felt compelled to suppress his funny personality on Celebrity Traitors, saying he believed that making his co-stars laugh too much would draw suspicion on him.
The comedian was reluctantly recruited as a Traitor on the BBC show and knew he had to be strategic to last the distance. Speaking to Patrick Kielty on The Late Late Show on RTE, he explained his game plan.
Comedians told not to be funny
Acaster said: “With each series it gets a bit harder because we were the one after… you know series one is Alan Carr is the big traitor and everyone is like, he is disarming, and that’s why he won. And he’s disarming because he’s a comedian and he’s joking.”
He added: “And each series informs the next one so we end up, you know, day one we are there, and all the comics are like, 'Don’t be funny. If we are funny they are going to suspect us.' We can’t disarm anyone. So that’s why we are all going around as serious as you’ve ever seen us.”
Recruited as a Traitor
The 41-year-old was recruited by original Traitors Maya Jama and Richard E Grant. Despite desperately wanting to be a Faithful, he was asked whether part of him was “delighted” to get to don the famous cloak. He replied: “Yeah, I think it is funny. As a comic, if something bad happens to you, you go, ‘I hate this, but this is good.’”
The latest episode saw fellow comedian Joe Lycett get banished, and it ended with Traitors James, Maya and King Kenny trying to commit a murder in plain sight.
Past mental health struggles
Acaster has been open about his mental health in the past and found happiness again after a breakdown in 2017 when he split from his partner and had suicidal thoughts. It was also reported that Celebrity Traitors had to be paused during filming because he became “very anxious” on set and began to panic as the show got underway.
Speaking on the Perfect Sounds podcast about his past difficulties, he said: “That was went I started having serious suicidal thoughts for the first time. I didn’t attempt it. I was in New York, the first time I’d ever been, which should have been really exciting.
“Instead I’d find myself thinking about ways I could kill myself. That scared me. I’m very lucky, personality-wise, that as soon as I recognise something needs doing, I’ll do it. So as soon as I got back to England I booked a therapy session.”
He added: “I tend to go every other week. There is still some stuff I want to figure out and understand a bit more. There have been three points in my life where things have fallen apart. I’d be pretty naïve to think it won’t happen again. What I’d like is to understand why those three times happened, so if it happens again I can be more on top of it.
“I’m enjoying my career and my relationship…I’m not crippled by anxiety or waking up depressed. While I’m lucky enough to be in this happy period in my life, I’d like to understand those periods of my life when I wasn’t happy, so I’m more prepared if it happens again.”
