Phaedra Parks Told Us 14 Fascinating BTS Facts About Her Time On "The Traitors"
🚨Warning: This post contains major spoilers for Season 2 of The Traitors 🚨
The Traitors may just be the buzziest reality TV show of the moment, and much of the love for the Peacock series' currently airing second season can be attributed to its breakout star Phaedra Parks. Known in the Bravo-verse for her time on Real Housewives of Atlanta and current run on Married to Medicine, Phaedra is bringing her best one-liners, luxurious fashions, and unparalleled wit to the Scottish highlands for this campy game of deception. The Traitors follows a group of reality TV legends trying to sniff out the secret defectors in their group who are to "murder" their fellow contestants. Ahead of Episode 9, Phaedra is the last remaining original Traitor this season after Dan Gheesling and Parvati Shallow were banished. Below, Phaedra dished to BuzzFeed about all the best behind-the-scenes moments her time on The Traitors so far.
1.Phaedra's style inspiration were Dynasty stars Joan Collins and Diahann Carroll.
"When I had spoke to [the production team], they told me castles, Scotland, [and a] beautiful spiral staircase. So I said, 'What is the inspiration?' Dynasty. Miss Deveraux. So I'm like, 'Oh, that's me every day. I got it covered.' That was pretty much it. They obviously said, 'Hey you need a black outfit.' Things of that nature. They gave us color descriptions. Pretty much from there, Joan Collins and Diahann Carroll, they've always been my muses. Honey, all they had to say was Dynasty, [and] I was in there," she told BuzzFeed.
2.Phaedra and Carsten "Bergie" Bergersen's friendship started on the plane ride to Scotland.
"When we were headed to Scotland, he was sitting by me and, you know, he was such an innocent, young man and such a nice young man. So I said, 'Well, where are you going?' And he said, 'I'm going to Scotland.' And I said, 'What in the world are you doing by yourself going to Scotland?' He said, 'Well, I'm going to visit a castle.' And bells went off in my head. I said, 'Honey, are you on this show with me?' And he said, 'I can't tell.' I said, 'You are, so help me with my bags. Come on, baby.' That's how we became friends. He told me his name, and I said I'm gonna call you Bergalicious because I just think you're so sweet."
3.Though they're longtime friends, Phaedra and fellow Real Housewives of Atlanta star Shereé Whitfield didn't know they were both on The Traitors ahead of time.
"I had no idea. I was so shocked. I couldn't really process who might be there because I was moving at such a rapid speed, trying to get myself together. I had no idea, and Shereé literally lives around the corner from me, you know, Chateau Shereé in the best neighborhood. We hadn't talked, but we see each other all the time. She never mentioned it, so I had no idea. So when I saw her, I was totally shocked, but it was a great surprise."
4.Phaedra said she defended Dan in one of the early roundtables, but it apparently didn't make the final cut of the episode.
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"[Mercedes 'MJ' Javid] was on to Dan at the first or second roundtable. I defended him. I said, 'You know, he is definitely strange, very weird. But we cannot make weird social awkwardness a reason to vote him out.' So I really defended him."
5.Phaedra didn't think the "Lord not Ekin-Su" moment would become a meme.
"No way, Jose. I was just so shocked. I loved Ekin-Su. I adored Ekin-Su, and she was such a sweet young lady. Ekin-Su was not a problem for anyone, you know. She was youthful and sweet. And I just could not believe that they killed poor Ekin-Su. It just troubled my soul. So it was just so strange to me, but on the flip side, I just knew no one but poor Ekin-Su would have been crazy enough to drink from [Parvati's glass] because everyone was sort of on to Parvati from day one. So for anybody to drink, it would have had to [be] poor Ekin-Su who didn't know any better."
6.Phaedra said she offered to "help" Dan before the roundtable where he was banished.
"I knew the night he was going to be basically banished, and I went to him and I said, 'If there's anything I can do to help you, I will. What is your plan?' He was like, 'Oh, you know I'm coming up with something.' Always very aloof. He's like, 'I would never give you up. I would never betray you.' And then he goes off and betrays me."
7.Phaedra was "totally blindsided" by Dan accusing her of being a Traitor.
"I was totally blindsided. I had no idea he would do that. I didn't have an inkling. Because in the [turret alongside the other Traitors] before, Parvati and I asked, like, 'What are you going to do?' If you watched the episode, he was still being very aloof, and that's when I said, 'Well honey I'm gonna be embalming you myself.' Because you can't even trust the people you're killing with. I mean, what are you doing? It just made absolutely no sense, but from what I understand now, that's the play that he had used on Big Brother."
8.Phaedra could sense people were starting to think she was a Traitor.
"After Dan did what he did, I knew that I was under suspicion anyway because of [his] comments. So at that point, I knew I just had to play the best game that I could play and let the chips fall where they may. Because I was going to just keep playing like I was playing."
9.Phaedra said she was endeared to keep Trishelle Cannatella around after The Real World and The Challenge alum confided in her about her experience on reality TV.
"On one of the rides, Trishelle had confided in me that she comes to these shows and she never seems to win. She had been in TV and had had some interesting things happen in reality TV, and she said for the first time I really want to stay. I love this show, and so it gave me a soft spot for Trishelle. Even though she was always sort of being a little bit mean to me. I really had a soft spot for Trishelle because as a woman it seemed like her confidence was down because she felt like she would not win and she would either be killed or voted off. I wanted to see her have an opportunity."
10.Phaedra left Peter Weber and Parvati's conversation in the armory to avoid being implicated as a Traitor.
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"I would be crazy because that would implicate me. I'm super smart now. First of all, I knew Pete really felt like he was the second coming of Matlock, so I was not going to be in any rooms with him, especially not with a fellow Traitor."
11.Phaedra declined to light Parvati’s torch in Episode 7 because she thought it would have been a “giveaway” of her own Traitor status.
"That would have been the most idiotic thing I could have done. Any fool wouldn't have done that. Why would I light [Parvati's torch]? Obviously, you guys watching it see Parvati and I, our interactions. I love Parvati. We had a great relationship together as Traitors. But in the castle, we weren't buddies at all. Parvati was very much, unfortunately, somewhat of an outcast. She was definitely an Iron Maiden. People thought Parvati was a little strange, so I wouldn't have lit Parvati's [torch]. It would have just been so weird. I think that would have been a dead giveaway."
12.Phaedra picked Kate Chastain to be a Traitor because she found her funny.
"Kate is hilarious. She's just so funny to me. She's very funny, very sarcastic, [and has a] dry humor. At the end of the day, I knew she knew the game. And she played the game. So I was like, I think this will be very interesting, our dynamics. At that moment, I thought she would be fun to kill with."
13.Phaedra shared which Real Housewives stars she'd like to see compete in Season 3, and that includes a former Atlanta costar.
"Marlo [Hampton] would be hilarious. She would definitely bring the fashions, honey. She would be great. I think Meredith Marks out of Salt Lake would be hilarious. When it comes to my [New Jersey] family, I think Teresa [Giudice] would be very good. She might be someone that would sneak up on them. ... My New York friends, Sonja [Morgan] could be hilarious. I could see her being very entertaining."
14.Finally, there's apparently still "tension" among the contestants.
"Not with me, but yeah [there is] definitely some notable tension."
New episodes of The Traitors air Thursday at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT on Peacock
The quotes above have been edited for clarity and brevity.