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SPOILER ALERT: This story contains spoilers for the finale of “Celebrity Traitors” Season 2, now streaming on BBC iPlayer.
There’s no question Maya Jama carried this season of “The Celebrity Traitors.”
As the only original
Traitor to make it to the final episode, the “Love Island” host successfully went undetected for five weeks and recruited three hooded accomplices in comedian James Acaster, professor Hannah Fry and YouTuber King Kenny. Not a single Faithful even threw a hint of suspicion her way until “Good Omens” star Michael Sheen zoned in on her at the last roundtable, leading to her banishment just before endgame.
“It was actually quite shocking for me too, I’m not gonna lie,” Jama tells Variety the day after the finale as she preps for her annual Halloween party. “After every day I was like, ‘How the fuck did I get away with that one? And why are you not looking at me?'”
Ultimately, the remaining Faithfuls — comedian Romesh Ranganathan and actor-singer Sebastian Croft — were victorious after voting out Traitor Kenny, donating £41,500 ($55,600) each to the charity of their choice. And although Jama didn’t prevail, she’s decided to also give what she would have won to the charity she was supporting, Action for Children, which provides foster care and residential support for children and young people seeking asylum in the U.K.
“Obviously, I would have loved to get to the [endgame], but the whole point is money going to charity at the end of the day,” she says.
Jama is also walking away from “The Celebrity Traitors” with a whole new crop of close friends — Kenny, Ranganathan, Croft and Fry are among the attendees of her Halloween party. “We’re the most unlikely group ever, but it’s a bond that you can’t have with anybody else because we’re the only ones who went through this exact experience,” Jama says.
Below, Jama tells Variety more about her “Celebrity Traitors” experience, including Kenny’s big betrayal, Acaster’s dramatic exit and where she thinks the Traitors went wrong in their gameplay.
Happy Halloween! What’s your costume this year?
I can actually reveal what I’m being: Mo Farah, the Olympic champion. I’m going to be in a bald cap and he sent me his actual Olympic outfit. I think people are expecting me to be sexy, but they’re just gonna see like, a bald man.
That’s incredible. You know, the last time we talked you told me you really wanted to play a villain. Look at you now!
Yeah, I know! I manifested it a bit too hard, I think.
How are you feeling after the finale? Did you watch it live?
I had loads of people over and we watched it last night. Honestly, it’s super scary watching back because we filmed in May, and you know bits of what happened but you just have no idea what’s going to be included. [I was] just nervous like, how did I defend myself [at the last roundtable]? I remember feeling my heart jumping out of my chest at every moment, so I was like, please let me have kept composure. But I was actually really proud of myself. It felt a lot more heated in the moment, even more than it showed on the TV.
It was amazing that your snarky comment after you got banished — “Good luck, you’re going to need it” — ended up playing a part in James Blunt’s banishment from the endgame.
A little sprinkle sprinkle at the end. I just thought, to be honest, the game’s wide open now so go fend for yourselves, everybody.
Going back to the beginning for a moment, did you always want to be a Traitor?
No! I was like, 50-50. Once I sat down with Claudia [Winkleman], I was like, “I actually don’t mind because there’s benefits to both.” If I’m a faithful then I can just be myself and try to do my best investigating job, and then if I was a villain, what you saw was me being like, “Well, I never get to play a villain and I’d actually like to be a cheeky little evil killer.” But I was more leaning towards wanting to be a Traitor because I just felt like, I might as well get the full experience. And I knew that it would definitely challenge different sides of me. I haven’t used many manipulation skills recently, so I wanted to put them to play.
And poor Richard E. Grant, who was an original Traitor with you but mistakenly said it out loud and became the first person to be banished.
I know, Richard would have been so great to just have around and laugh and get up to mischief with. I think he got too excited and panicked. I don’t know if he thought that he could get away with it, or maybe he thought it was allowed? I’m not really sure.
How did you get yourself into the Traitor mindset?
My plan always was like, “OK, you know these people a little bit, but barely.” I wasn’t super close with anyone [before] — I knew Kenny, Romesh, Rob [Beckett] and Leigh-Anne [Pinnock]. But I didn’t know them well enough for them to know if I was lying. So I think my whole mindset was like, “If you just be yourself and get on with everyone… No one thinks that someone that they get on with is going to lie to them.” And we spent so much time together — we really, really bonded and had the best time. Unfortunately, you didn’t see much of it because obviously it’s game focused, but everyone really bonded on a deeper level. And it’s hard to think that somebody would lie to you after that.
You took to being a Traitor really well, but others not so much — James Acaster was very reluctantly recruited and ended up outing himself at the penultimate roundtable. What was your reaction to that?
I know, bless him. Never in a game would you expect that you’re going to be put in a situation where you absolutely hate being a Traitor. And I obviously had no idea beforehand that he didn’t want to be a Traitor, I just thought everyone’s kind of up for it. But yeah, it was hard. I don’t think anybody knows how it would feel once you’re in the situation, and that’s going to impact everyone completely differently. As he said, for him it was a lot. You’re like, “OK, this is a game, we’re playing for charity.” But then these people have real feelings, and trying to find the balance between it is tougher than it looks.
I can imagine, being in a castle in Scotland for three and a half weeks playing this game, you can get really immersed in it.
Oh, 100%. I came in there like, “Oh, this is just fun and we’ll have a laugh, silly silly.” But there’s definitely days where you’re like, “Jesus, this feels really real.” And you can’t escape the bubble of being in the castle and everyone’s emotions and feelings. It definitely gets heavy at times. Everybody has a five-minute phone call everyday, but with the producers in the room. But because I was so tired from coming back to the turret late every night, and obviously being a Traitor from day one, I didn’t call anyone the whole time because I just wanted to be in bed longer. So I was really just immersed in the Traitor lifestyle the whole time. It’s a mind trip.
After James’ departure, you and Kenny decided to murder Michael Sheen, who was starting to suspect you. Talk me through that decision, because it feels like that’s where things unraveled a bit.
I’m not gonna lie, after James left I just thought, “OK, I’m fucked. I’m going to have to clutch at every straw available at this point.” And Michael was obviously the most on my case, and there was no persuading him otherwise. I thought, this is kind of a kamikaze mission, but it’s my only hope right now. So I’ve gotta get rid of him and hope for the best. In our defense, that murder in plain sight — there was no way out of it. It was like, all three of us in the room.
What was the murder in plain sight like in real time? That seemed so stressful just watching it.
We were in that room for at least half an hour trying to make them yawn. And there were not yawning, even though it was late at night. Usually, if you yawn at someone, they yawn back. I was focused on Jerry [Hall] trying to make her yawn, and [Acaster] was focused on Ross [Kemp] and it was just like, whoever gets there first. But it was hectic, and we were running out of time. Honestly, I didn’t even think we were going to get it.
Jerry Hall, what an icon! What was it like getting to know her?
I absolutely love her. She was just hilarious the whole time. I actually think she invited all of us to her birthday party after [filming], but I was away and I’ve been trying to get in touch with her. So if Jerry reads this, can you call me? I wanna hang out.
That final challenge, where you’re rappelling off the side of a helicopter, was wild. What was that like and did they prep you on that stunt beforehand?
I am a bit of a thrill seeker — I’ve sky dived, I enjoy those kind of things — so I was raring to go. But they gave us a five to 10 minute, “This is what you do,” and then we were off. Of course, with that production company they’re going to have the best of the best, so I trusted that they weren’t going to let me die on TV. So I probably had more confidence in doing it than I would if i just did it on a normal day. I kind of just went for it, and it was one of my highlights actually. I was lowkey trying to appeal for a Bond role. Like, you know what, maybe if the right person sees that I can hang out of helicopters, I might get an acting gig.
From “Traitors” villain to Bond villain, perhaps?
They can see I can do a poker face, so hopefully that adds to the CV.
And then you were banished at the final roundtable and betrayed by Kenny when he voted for you. How do you feel about that now?
You know what, I obviously love Kenny to bits. I think he’s amazing. And he didn’t really have much of a choice, so it didn’t hurt as much. In hindsight actually, watching back, I’m like, maybe we could have wrangled it. But in the moment, it just felt like everyone was going for me. And if Kenny did protect me, then he was going to be finished — even though he did end up being finished anyway. It felt like the only option, so I didn’t hate him for it.
Have you been keeping in touch with everyone?
Yeah! Literally as soon as I left, there was already a group chat. As different people were leaving, everybody just joined the group chat and we were all debriefing on the wild-ass experience we all had. Obviously, we were all NDA-ed up, so that was kind of the only place that we could actually discuss everything.
From your view, where did things go wrong for the Traitors?
Getting to the end, they had to start looking at the quieter ones. And I think that me and James weren’t necessarily quiet, but we just weren’t as outspoken as some of the other guys and we didn’t have heat on us. And where else do you look when you’ve been getting it wrong the whole series, other than at us? If I could go back in time, I probably would have thrown a few more theories out or maybe spoken a bit louder, but that could have backfired also. So you can’t really have too many regrets.
Was there something that surprised you about filming the show that viewers may not know?
The roundtables definitely felt way more intense than I’d imagined and go on for a lot longer. And everyone speaks at the roundtables, so you’re only seeing a few conversations, but everybody does have an input.
How long were they?
They were different each time, but they were supposed to be an hour and some days they went on for an hour and a half. I think there was one that was two hours.
I also have to ask about your looks on the show. How did you put them together?
I was working with my stylist, Rhea Francois, and we literally packed seven suitcases and I was just praying the whole time that I at least got to get some of them out. I didn’t realize how cold the castle was going to be, so there were a lot of dresses and skirts I never got to wear because I was absolutely freezing most of the time. Usually I’m in the sun with “Love Island,” so I wear more revealing, summer looks. So I really wanted to make a point of doing the opposite of that and showing a different side to me, that it’s not always crop tops and mini skirts.
Overall, what did you take away from this experience? Did you learn anything about yourself?
I was reminded about how resilient I am. You don’t really know what you’re capable of in some situations until it actually happens. And I’m really proud of myself for just holding it down despite the stress all around. Also being able to thrive off minimal sleep from day one. Because everybody was tired, but the Faithfuls had a lot more sleep than the Traitors. So the party girl era really helped me on that one.
How much sleep were you getting each night?
I’d say like three hours, four maybe? Near the end, I was like, “OK, you’re delirious.” But she kept going.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
