Stephen Fry says being an actor won’t help on The Celebrity Traitors: ‘Actors are terrible liars’
Stephen Fry on The Celebrity Traitors. (BBC)
Stephen Fry on The Celebrity Traitors. (BBC)
Stephen Fry doesn’t seem to think being an accomplished actor will be much use on The Celebrity Traitors stating, “Actors are terrible liars!”
The Blackadder star is one of several LGBTQ+ celebs in the cast of the first series of The Celebrity Traitors. He’s joined by Alan Carr, Cat Burns, Tom Daley, and Clare Balding. Contestants will join Claudia Winkleman for the ultimate game of betrayal in the hopes of winning up to £100,000 for a charity of their choice.
Ahead of next week’s debut, Fry was asked by the BBC whether he’d use his acting skills during the game. The Jeeves and Wooster star was quick to pour cold water on any idea that actors make good liars.
“Actors are terrible liars!” he exclaimed. “It’s not an actor’s job to lie. It’s an actor’s job to tell the truth. So, there’s that side of it,” he then said.
Fry did offer an idea of who could be at an advantage, which would bode well for Daley and Balding. “There are those who are in the sporting arena, and they’re known for their competitiveness. You can’t succeed in sport unless you have a drive that is way beyond that of a normal person. So those are kind of two interesting elements.”
But beyond that Fry seems to be willing to just see how everything goes. “I don’t know what they’ve got in mind for us, but they’ve obviously considered all of this and will find fun ways of torturing us over the next few weeks,” he said. “We’d better get used to it, I suppose!”
The esteemed LGBTQ+ icon also hasn’t placed much value in a good poker face reasoning, “Some people look as if they’re lying when they tell the truth and look as if they’re telling the truth and they’re lying.”
Fry also labelled notions of “I just knew,” or “it’s the way he lifted his glass,” as a way of uncovering Traitors as “nonsense.” Elaborating, he said: “The only thing you can go by is when someone makes a mistake, they make a slip, or they themselves at the Round Table choose to get rid of people and they’re spot on in their choice. That seems mysterious.”
Also in The Celebrity Traitors cast are Charlotte Church, Paloma Faith, Joe Wilkinson and Lucy Beaumont. Kate Garraway, Jonathan Ross, Joe Marler, and Mark Bonnar also join. Nick Mohammed, Ruth Codd, Tameka Empson and Celia Imrie, David Olusoga and Niko Omilana round out the cast.
The Celebrity Traitors launches on Wednesday 8 October at 9pm on BBC One and iPlayer. There will be two episodes per week on Wednesdays and Thursdays.
