‘It was a lot’: Maya Jama speaks out about seeing James Acaster struggle on Celebrity Traitors

At the end of this series of The Celebrity Traitors, the final three Traitors were Maya Jama, King Kenny and James Acaster. And while Maya and Kenny relished the idea of being secret Traitors, it was very clear that James didn’t want the role.

In the end, being a liar was too much for James. He confessed to the group that he was a Traitor and walked away. He had said he was reluctant from day one, and had always wanted to be a Faithful.

It was reported that filming for the penultimate episode, when James confessed, had to be paused, as he had become “distressed” while filming the roundtable. The comedian was left so distraught by the whole thing that filming was stopped for “quite a long time.”

The show’s welfare team is said to have stepped in, as James became “very anxious and panicked”. The BBC said in a statement that its “highest priority is always the safety and welfare of everyone taking part”. It has become clear that the intensity of the game wasn’t easy for him, at all.

In an interview with Variety, Maya Jama has now spoken about how hard it was to watch James Acaster struggle while on The Celebrity Traitors. 

via BBC

‘I don’t think anybody knows how it would feel once you’re in the situation’

Maya Jama said in the interview that she found it “hard” once she had realised that her fellow Traitor  James Acaster so badly didn’t want to be one. She explained she hadn’t known that he didn’t want to be recruited, until after it had happened.

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When asked about how reluctant James was to take on the role, she said: “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.”

via BBC

Maya went on to explain that ahead of the show she thought it would be all fun and games, but when you’re in there, it’s real. “I came in there like, ‘Oh, this is just fun and we’ll have a laugh, silly silly’,” she added. “But there are 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.”

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