Michael Sheen says being an actor will be a disadvantage on Celebrity Traitors
BBC
Michael Sheen has said he thinks being an actor will be a disadvantage while he is on Celebrity Traitors.
The 57-year-old is among the stars who will go head to head in the second series of the BBC reality game spin-off.
A total of 21 presenters, comedians, actors and musicians will try their hand at being traitors and faithfuls in the show, which airs on 1 October.
The Hollywood actor from Port Talbot said he wanted to participate because he is a “big fan” of the show and wanted to be in the castle after previously filming in the area.
Speaking about how his public persona may affect how others perceive and treat him on the show, the actor said: “Well, I do think it’s a disadvantage to be an actor because people immediately go, ‘oh well, he pretends for a living’.
“I don’t think that is the case, because the whole point of acting is that you have to trick yourself into believing that what you’re doing is true. If you are consciously aware that you’re pretending or you’re saying things that aren’t true, then it’s bad acting. It’s just bad.
“Just for me being an actor, I think that’s a disadvantage because people are already suspicious of that.
“Beyond being an actor, just my persona, I don’t really know what people think about me. So, I don’t know if it’ll help or not.”
Christopher Raphael/Blueprint/Sony Pictures Television
Sheen portrayed the disgraced Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor in the 2024 Prime Video series, A Very Royal Scandal.
It was based on the2019 BBC Newsnight interview conducted by Emily Maitlis with Mountbatten-Windsor regarding his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, and became a defining moment in modern royal and media history.
Sheen has also starred in films including Frost/Nixon, The Damned United and The Special Relationship.
Sheen said: “I knew the area a bit [where Traitors is filmed in Scotland], and it is stunningly beautiful. It’s a lovely place to be and the game is just fascinating.
“I think for a show to be so popular and to grab the cultural imagination so much, it has to have the ability to go beyond what its genre is.
“It somehow speaks to something a bit deeper, maybe. People get so absorbed in it.”
The first series of The Celebrity Traitors aired on the BBC last autumn, with its nail-biting finale hitting a peak of 15.4 million viewers, and Alan Carr emerging victorious.
Bringing in an average audience of 14.9 million people during its run, it received the biggest TV audience of 2025.
Fronted by Claudia Winkleman, the game is set in a Scottish castle in the Highlands, and follows the contestants – the majority of whom are known as faithfuls – as they try to seek out the murderous traitors among them, who kill off players in the middle of the night.
The celebrities will use their skills and experience to convince the other players that they are faithfuls as they try and win £100,000 for a charity of their choice.
The second celebrity version of the show will consist of 10 hour-long episodes.
Those taking part alongside Sheen include comedians Joe Lycett and Romesh Ranganathan, actors Miranda Hart and Richard E. Grant, and singer James Blunt.
The latest regular series was broadcast in January, attracting more than 12 million viewers per episode.
The Celebrity Traitors returns to BBC One and iPlayer on 1 October.
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Claudia Winkleman
Reality TV
The Traitors
Television
Michael Sheen
BBC
Port Talbot
