Acting lessons we can learn from The Traitors

It’s virtually impossible to go anywhere without hearing about The Traitors, especially now the fourth series has started airing. Following Alan Carr’s iconic win in the celebrity series, the 2026 premiere peaked with 6.9 million viewers – clearly, it’s hard to resist the promise of ordinary people scheming and lying to each other.
Aside from just making a gripping TV show, The Traitors does contain some interesting insights on acting. It is a show that centres around lies: people lie about their careers, their accents, their family connections. And this doesn’t even cover the traitors lying about their position in the game!
Although it might feel like an unconventional place to look for acting tips, The Traitors is rich with dramatic performances, both good and bad. Let’s take a look at some things that the contestants have taught us over the years.
Subtlety over everything
Who remembers Linda from series 3? As loveable as the retired opera singer was, she is not remembered for being a good traitor. She provided us with some of the most iconic moments of the series, including the hilarious incident when Claudia uttered the word ‘traitors’ and Linda’s head whipped round. Her wonder at ‘who the HELL’ was coming back to breakfast was similarly notable, and honestly makes us wonder how Linda lasted as long in the game as she did.
The main lesson to take away from Linda’s Oscar-worthy performance is that, within acting, subtlety is an important skill to possess. When we compare her to Minah (the superior traitor of the series), Linda was far too dramatic and expressive next to Minah’s calm demeanour. Even in the most tense situations, never underestimate the power that silence can have.
Listening over speaking
Being an actor is not just reading lines. It’s also listening to your scene partner, then responding accordingly. The importance of listening is demonstrated within The Traitors: the faithfuls are always trying to listen out for some sort of clue, often misinterpreting people’s words to fit their own agenda of who they think a traitor is. And the traitors themselves of course have to be listening intently, making sure they pick up people’s suspicions and shape the game around them. It makes for the best viewing when the traitors have picked up on everyone else’s paranoia and used it for their own agenda.
This, of course, is the same in acting. Unless you are performing a monologue, you are never working alone; even then, it’s still important to listen to your audience and how they are receiving you. Even if you have read through a script a thousand times, you should always pay close attention to your screen partner and their lines. This creates believability, as you are not just reading out a given sentence: when you directly respond to your scene partner, reacting to what you have just heard rather than just your lines, the audience can feel your sincerity and will connect more.
High stakes need emotion
Like any game show where a prize is on the table, the stakes are high. Winning a share of £200,000 would change anyone’s life, traitor or faithful, so it’s no surprise that tears are always flowing around the round table. And then there’s the constant thought that your closest friends could be lying to you, or the pressure of keeping up with this lie. The most successful traitors are those who channel these emotions into their performance, using the stress of constant deceiving to present themselves as a frazzled faithful. Series 1's Wilf was fantastic at this, these tactics informing his near-win. He made genuine friendships and was able to compartmentalise his traitorous secret by essentially living as a faithful in public. Whenever the lies got too much, he would blame his emotions on the stress of trying to find traitors. This made him, in my opinion, the best winner we never had.
When performing high stakes, emotional scenes, it always helps to pour your own feelings into the role. When we watch a good film we are obviously aware that actors are pretending to be people they are not, but the best performances come when real emotions are informing the scene. Everyone has experienced the basic emotions of happiness, sadness, fear, and anger – unlocking these emotions within an acting performance can even be therapeutic.
The importance of accents
The Traitors casts contestants from all corners of the UK, so a blend of accents is expected. Series 3 contestant Charlotte did some research before starting the game and found that the Welsh accent is considered ‘most trustworthy’ – this seemed laughably pointless at first, but served her well when she was recruited as a traitor. Charlotte was viewed as inherently trustworthy, almost making it to the end – whether this was down to her accent or her gameplay, it’s hard to tell. Regardless, her deception even as a faithful shows that everyone benefits from possessing some sort of acting ability within the game.
Accents are a very useful skill to have in any actor’s toolkit. Being able to speak with different dialects and inflections shows a strong eye for detail, as it takes work to master how someone else speaks. Casting directors will be instantly impressed if you have a wealth of accents under your belt.
Status and power dynamics
In any good dramatic scene, there is a power imbalance. One character always holds a higher status than the other, which informs the way actors to respond to each other and builds tension: status is flimsy, and could switch at any point.
The power dynamics in The Traitors is very clear: the traitors have more power (although this has slightly changed in the recent series, with the introduction of the secret traitor!). They know their identities and the identities of everyone else, which gives them the same information as us, the viewers. They then have the added acting challenge of pretending that they don’t have this power, and are as clueless as everyone else.
Where these dynamics get interesting is when the power switches. Think of the times when a traitor has been caught out – there is a desperate scramble to get their original status back, which is very often unsuccessful. Once the roles have been reversed, it is very hard to return to the status quo. These scenes are genuinely useful for actors to look at if you are wondering how to convey status: the nuance of expression when someone is on top of the pyramid, and how everything is thrown into chaos when their crown slips.
The camera sees everything
When people say the camera sees everything, they really mean it: every micro expression, every look. When you’re lying, being in front of a camera is a pretty unforgiving position to be in. It’s these small moments, these times when the mask slips, that makes The Traitors audience scream, ‘it’s so obvious! How are these people not guessing?!’ But, obviously, these moments are far easier to spot on the silver screen. In real life it is near impossible to catch every single detail of someone’s face, the subtle tells that they are lying.
As an actor, you should use this magnification to your advantage. Onscreen, your expressions will be scrutinised and understood more so than in real life, so make it count. The smallest glance, move of the eyebrow, curl of the mouth, can change the entire meaning of a scene. When you are aware of the potential that the screen can unlock in terms of characterisation, your performances can reach another level.
Authenticity makes people likeable
The best part about The Traitors is how likeable the contestants are. There are arguments, disagreements, but no uncomfortable screaming matches like some other reality TV shows. Perhaps the closest that The Traitors has ever come to having a real villain was series 2’s Paul, a traitor who was confronted in a dramatic round table. His role was the over-confident character that we love to hate, and even admitted to wanting to be seen as a pantomime villain. As disliked as Paul was, he provided excellent viewing. And, after all, it is only a TV show.
Compare Paul with series 3’s Minah and the recent celebrity winner, Alan Carr. Both played the traitor role, but did it while being wholly themselves: Minah was down to earth and loyal to Linda, and Alan was his usual hilarious self. This seemed to even work to his advantage, no one suspecting that someone so silly would be capable of lying. The most important thing about these players was their authenticity – we knew that they were lying, but allowed ourselves to like them because they had such endearing personalities.
The same principle can be applied to acting. You don’t have to play a likeable character to get the audience to root for you – sometimes it’s more fun to root for the villain. As long as your performance is rooted in authenticity, there is a way to help the audience connect to you.
Acting needs an objective
Every player in the show shares the same objective: to win money (either for themselves or for charity, depending on whether it is the normal of celebrity version). Working towards this shared goal puts everyone on a somewhat-level playing field, and the traitors can better disguise their secret since everyone wants the same thing. If they had a different motivation to the faithfuls, it would be even harder to stay hidden.
This shows how important it is to identify your character’s motivations. What drives them? What do they want, and what do they need? In the case of The Traitors, this seems straightforward: everyone wants to win the prize money. But everyone competing has a different motivation for winning, whether it is a mum’s mortgage they want to pay off or a wedding they have to fund. Tapping into these emotions is essential for giving a convincing performance, both in the game show context and in the general acting world.
Improvisation
The final, and arguably most important skill that The Traitors teaches us, is the value of improvisation. Every actor has their own feelings towards this word, but it’s hard to deny that it is invaluable. Remember poor Freddie from last year’s series? He was recruited near the end of the game and thrown into a world of lying that he clearly wasn’t comfortable with. He slipped up and revealed information that only a traitor would know, and needless to say, was swiftly banished. A very likeable faithful, Freddie clearly was not prepared for the level of improvising that lying so intensely requires.
While improvisation isn’t explicitly asked for in every role, it is a difficult but rewarding skill to master. Knowing how to react in unexpected situations isn’t just a useful life skill, it is also an important tool for actors to have. Adding micro expressions and body language that isn’t called for in the script is a form of improv, building extra character and personality to a role.
Conclusion
Overall, it’s clear that The Traitors goes beyond the typical reality show. That much is obvious from the insane reach it has – you can’t go anywhere without hearing about Claudia Winkleman and the round table. But what is it that makes it so appealing? Yes, it is fun to watch a group of strangers lie to each other. Despite this, it’s one of the rare reality shows where genuine skill is involved. Players need some sort of acting ability to succeed, and there is a wealth of things to learn from the show’s most successful contestants. So, the next time you watch The Traitors, look out for some skills that you could try and polish.

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Author

Lily Pierce