Welsh star Michael Sheen reveals his plans for Celebrity Traitors

Nation.Cymru staff

A new group of celebrities play the ultimate game of detection, trust and betrayal in the hope of winning a cash prize up to £100,000 for a charity of their choice in The Celebrity Traitors series two.

Hidden amongst the group are The Traitors whose job is to secretly murder their fellow players, without getting caught. It’s up to the others, the Faithful, to try to detect the Traitors and banish them from the game before they become their next victim.

The lucky players who survive to the end have the chance of winning the money. If a Traitor remains undetected, however, they’ll take it all.

The Celebrity Traitors series two begins on Thursday 1 October 2026 with an extra-long opening episode at 8pm on BBC One and BBC iPlayer. The series airs two nights a week on Thursday and Friday evenings at 8pm.

With Welsh acting royalty Michael Sheen taking part in the latest series, all eyes in Wales will be on how the Welshman fares.

Here he gives the BBC the lowdown on why he decided to take part, his to approach the game, fake Welsh accents and whether he’d rather be a Faithful or a Traitor.

How do you feel as you’re about to take part in The Celebrity Traitors?

The thing is you don’t know what to expect. You know? So, you can’t prepare really.

Do you think it’s possible to have a strategy and do you have one?

I’m sure you can have a strategy. I mean, you’ll be wrong, but it’s like Mike Tyson said; “strategy is what you have until someone punches you in the face.” You can have a game plan, but ultimately you’ve just got to go with it. Having watched the show, you pick up certain things. Theories, unless they’re right, tend to make people look very foolish.

So, as for strategy, there are choices to be made about how you vote such as do you try and vote with the herd to stay hidden within? Or do you go rogue and pick random people? But does that draw attention? And there are 21 of us this time so that’s a lot of people. It’s a lot of big personalities there. There are a lot of people who in their jobs draw attention to themselves.

In here, I’m not sure how much that works for you. So, if I have a strategy, it’s to begin with at least, just to try and stay hidden.

What’s drawn you to take part this time?

I’m a big fan of the show. I’ve loved watching all the series so far. The castle looks fantastic. I just wanted to be in the castle. I came to this area to film when I played Prince Andrew in A Very Royal Scandal, so I knew the area a bit, 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.

Do you like playing games generally? Are you competitive?

Yes, and I am competitive. I used to play a lot of sport when I was growing up. I now host House of Games. I love games. I love quizzes. I love all that stuff. But I’ve always enjoyed being the quiz master as well, because then you get to play the game, but you don’t have any of the same pressure on you.

So similarly with this, when everyone asks, “Do you want to be a Traitor or do you want to be Faithful?” and I can see that being a Traitor is exciting, and you’re in the thick of it, and you feel like you have more control and everything. However, I think there’s a lot of stress that comes with it as well. I’m not saying I want to or not. I’m just saying that I can see that that’s the case. I think I wouldn’t want to deny myself the opportunity to do that, but I don’t think I would openly choose it. In the same way as there are some parts as an actor that I wouldn’t necessarily say I want to play, but if I did play it, I’m sure I would enjoy it and get loads out of it.

Some things kind of intimidate you a little bit. You read it and think, oh, that’s a really good part, but oh, that would be hard, or that would be stressful or difficult or whatever. So, I can see that with playing the part of the Traitor.

Do you think all of your acting experience prepares you for this at all? Can that be applied in taking on the role of a Traitor and treat it almost as an acting job?

I don’t think so. I think that would be a mistake. I think the other people in the game and the audience can just smell when someone’s not being authentic. I think you’ve got to be really careful about that. Obviously, there’s a certain amount of role playing. It is a role whether you’re a Traitor or a Faithful. I mean, that’s the problem I think with being a Faithful as well as everyone wants to show that they’re a Faithful so they’re acting as much as a Traitor is. So, you’ve got to be really careful with all that. I think again, if there’s any strategy, it’s just to try and be as authentic as possible.

How do you think your public persona will affect how others perceive and treat you in the game?

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.

Well, we’ve seen documentaries you’ve made where we see you rather than a character, and we all know of your activism and good work for communities, a rather favourable trustworthy impression could be based on that…

But on the other hand, he’s a lying actor!

You’re representing Wales, of course.

Yes, am I the only Welsh person in it? I was looking and I think I am. And I’m an actual Welsh person, as opposed to someone pretending to be Welsh.

Oh yes, Charlotte from series three. What did you make of her Welsh accent?

It was really convincing because she didn’t overdo it.

Are you excited for the Missions?

Yes and no. I mean, some of them are probably quite scary and physically hard. I’m not as young as I once was. I do think it will be nice to get out and about and do something together and I do like physical challenges. I also love all the kind of folk horror stuff they play with in the Missions.

Do you think you can win?

I mean, watching it, it’s so random in many ways. It feels like 80% luck and chance and how things fall, but it’s that 20% or whatever of being able to make the most of the moment when it comes. Whether it’s the ability to get someone on your side and keep them there right to the end, so that then you can just use them, or vice versa, trusting someone when everything in you is saying not to, but you do, and it works out. We’ll have to see.

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