Pop-Culturalist.com

The Traitors is a nail-biting psychological adventure in which treachery and deceit are the name of the game. Entertainment’s most competitive reality stars and famous faces play the ultimate murder mystery game. Hosted by award-winning actor Alan Cumming at an ancient castle set deep in the Scottish Highlands, contestants work together on a series of exhilarating missions to build a prize fund worth up to $250,000.

Hidden amongst the Faithful are the Traitors, whose goal is to eliminate the Faithful and claim the prize for themselves. Under the cover of darkness, the Traitors murder the Faithful one by one in a treacherous spree, while the Faithful try to uncover the Traitors and banish them from the game. If the Faithful contestants banish all the Traitors, they will share the prize fund, but if a Traitor or Traitors makes it to the end, they will steal all the money.

Among the competitors this season are Kevin Kreider (Bling Empire), John Bercow (FMR Speaker of the UK House of Commons), and Deontay Wilder (Deontay Wilder (FMR Boxing Heavyweight Champion).

Pop Culturalist spoke with Kevin, John, and Deontay to learn more about their strategies heading into The Traitors 2, what they hoped to accomplish, and learned whether they wanted to be a Faithful or a Traitor.

PC: Kevin, this competition is unlike anything you’ve done in your career. What initially appealed to you about joining this series? What was your strategy heading into it?
Kevin: The initial appeal was knowing that it was up for an Emmy, so I would be joining a show like that. That really helps a lot. My initial strategy went to sh*t. I thought, “I’ll be a Traitor. Nobody will expect that.” Then I went in, and I was unsure if I could pull this off. You got Deontay right there. He would have caught me in a lie, and I’d probably get a beatdown. You’ve got John over here. I feel like he’d blast me and give a speech about how crappy Kevin was. That was going all through my head. Then I thought, I’ll be a really good Faithful and join the winning team. That’s what I want to do. Join a team that I thought was going to win.

PC: John, there’s often a stigma when you come into a competition like this with a political background. Was the initial game plan to lean into the fact that you were a politician, or did you want to stray away from that? How did the circumstances you found yourself in tip the scale?
John: The answer is I started with the firm intention, if possible, of being Faithful. Now, whether that involves leaning into being a politician is a debatable point. Was I planning to emphasize politics? No, I mean, subconsciously I might have done that from time to time because I’ve spent three decades in that profession.

But I very much wanted to be Faithful for two reasons, partly because I thought I’d be better at it, or at any rate, less bad than I would have been as a Traitor. Partly because the stereotype of politicians is that they’re dishonest, untrustworthy, backstabbing scumbags. I didn’t want to reinforce that stereotype. I thought it would be quite tedious. So my objective was to be Faithful and try to identify the Traitors. Why did I decide to do the show? Because I thought it would be fun and different from anything I’d done before.

PC: You’re a great addition to it. Deontay, there are a lot of unexpected emotions that arise when you’re competing in a competition series like this. Was that the most surprising part of this experience for you? How were you able to take your own experiences as a boxer and apply them to this competition?
Deontay: This was definitely a different experience for me, more than anything I’ve been through. I had a lot of trauma as a child, and being a part of this show brought a lot of it out. I’m 38 now, and that happened way back in elementary [school]. To travel through the past into the present, it was remarkable to be able to release that. We always look for some outlet to allow us to release those past traumas. I never had anything to allow me to release that. Being out there, due to the circumstances and conditions that we were in, it brought up a lot of things. Anybody who knows me knows that I’m an emotional guy anyway, even though I’m an ass whooper, I’m very emotional.

I didn’t apply anything from being a boxer to the competition because people were already uptight because of what I do. I just wanted to come onto the show and show another side of me that I’m Deontay Wilder and not the Bronze Bomber. I wanted people to get to understand who I am as a man and not as a fighter.

Make sure to follow Kevin (Twitter/Instagram) and Deontay (Twitter/Instagram). Stream The Traitors 2 on Peacock today.

Photo Credit: Peacock