James Acaster has revealed the one thing he’s been too scared to do since his dramatic appearance on The Celebrity Traitors made him one of the show’s most talked-about contestants
James Acaster has opened up about the reaction to his dramatic appearance on The Celebrity Traitors, admitting there is one thing he has been too frightened to do since the BBC show’s huge success.
The comedian became one of the most talked-about contestants in the BBC show’s second series after making the unprecedented decision to reveal he was a Traitor at the round table. Now, he has opened up about the attention he has received, including being branded a “villain” by some viewers.
Speaking on the Table Manners podcast with Jessie Ware and her mother Lennie, James was asked how he was coping with the attention after becoming something of a heartthrob.
Jessie told him: “How does it feel to be a bit of a heartthrob? I mean, maybe you’ve always been a heartthrob, but I definitely took notice of you, James Acaster, at that round table. I really was quite attracted to you when you fessed up.”
Lennie agreed, explaining that she found the moment attractive because James had admitted his faults and acknowledged his actions.
Jessie also defended him against criticism, saying: “I know that lots of people have said you were a villain, which I think is ridiculous, and I found it very attractive as a woman.”
However, James revealed he had deliberately avoided looking up the public reaction, admitting he was too frightened to search for himself online.
James, 41, said: “I’m not on social media, I genuinely don’t look at it. With a show as big as Traitors, I’m too scared to Google myself or look at the press. So I genuinely haven’t seen any of it.”
He explained that he only became aware of certain stories when they were significant enough for his agent to bring them to his attention.
The Off Menu star said: “So it’s weird really, because I have a bit of a disconnected thing from it. So I’m not really… I know that those things have been talked about and gone on, but I don’t know how massive they are.”
James also admitted he knew his extraordinary round table moment would provoke a range of opinions, particularly because it was something that had never happened on the programme before.
He said: “I didn’t go in planning to do it, but after it happened, you go, well, that’s never happened on the show before, so there’s going to be every opinion. Every opinion under the sun about that.”
Despite anticipating the backlash, he insisted he was prepared to stand by his actions rather than worry about those who disagreed with him.
He said: “Part of me was just like, stand by it, I don’t care. You obviously get to that point as well, where you know that the public will have every opinion about it, and you can’t worry about the people who don’t like whatever it is that you’ve done.”
His comments come after series winner Romesh Ranganathan offered an insight into James’ behaviour behind the scenes.
Romesh, 48, won alongside actor Sebastian Croft, 24, with the pair sharing the £83,000 prize money between their respective charities.
James had initially been a Faithful before being recruited as a Traitor, but struggled with his new role and wanted to remain a Faithful, resulting in journalist Amol Rajan being eliminated.
Speaking to fellow series winner Alan Carr on The Romesh Ranganathan Show, Romesh was asked whether James had really been as quiet as he appeared on screen.
Alan said: “I saw James Acaster was like a rabbit in headlights, but was he like that, or did they edit it? Was he quiet?”
Romesh replied: “I don’t think he was quiet. He wasn’t quiet. I think it’s fair to say he was wrestling with being a Traitor, but he wasn’t quiet.”
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Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: mirror.co.uk
