Nocturnal 
Michael Sheen reckons his day job could be the very thing that gets him booted off Celebrity Traitors.
The Welsh actor, 57, is one of 21 famous faces taking part in the second series of the hit BBC show, and he’s already worked out why his fellow castle-dwellers might not trust him.
“I do think it’s a disadvantage to be an actor because people immediately go, ‘oh well, he pretends for a living’,” Sheen told the BBC.
Why Sheen thinks acting will work against him
The Port Talbot-born star, known for Frost/Nixon, The Damned United and this year’s A Very Royal Scandal, argued the assumption is actually a bit unfair on actors.
“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,” he explained. “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.”
Still, he admitted he’s not entirely sure how the other contestants see him beyond his career. “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,” he said.
Sheen said he signed up because he’s a “big fan” of the show and fancied the chance to film in the Highlands castle, an area he already knew from previous work. “It’s a lovely place to be and the game is just fascinating,” he added, saying the format “speaks to something a bit deeper” which is why it has “grabbed the cultural imagination” so widely.
Who else is in the castle this year
Sheen is part of a stacked line-up of 21 presenters, comedians, actors and musicians for series two, which includes Richard E Grant, Ross Kemp, Leigh-Anne Pinnock, Rob Beckett, Miranda Hart, James Blunt, Jerry Hall, Bella Ramsey, Sebastian Croft, Amol Rajan, James Acaster, Joanne McNally and Julie Hesmondhalgh, according to the Mirror.
Pictures of the cast arriving in Scotland ahead of filming even showed Sheen turning up with his hood up, looking every bit the Traitor already, as the Mirror reported.
Maya Jama, who hosts Love Island, is also among the celebrities taking part and is reportedly a huge fan of the show after watching it with her partner. The Mirror reported she took a flat fee of £40,000 for her appearance, a steep drop from her reputed Love Island pay.
Where things stand now
The first celebrity series was a huge ratings hit for the BBC, with its finale peaking at 15.4 million viewers and Alan Carr crowned the winner. It averaged 14.9 million viewers across its run, making it the most-watched show on British television in 2025.
Hosted once again by Claudia Winkleman, the new series sees the celebrities split between traitors and faithfuls as they try to win £100,000 for charity while rooting out the liars among them in a Scottish Highlands castle.
The Celebrity Traitors returns to BBC One and iPlayer on Thursday 1 October.
