Phaedra Parks, a lawyer turned reality star turned mortician turned reality star, has become the surprise fan favorite of the second season of Peacock’s dastardly game of deception The Traitors. Well, it’s only a surprise to those who didn’t watch her for years on Bravo’s Real Housewives of Atlanta and Married to Medicine. Bravoholics knew that she can deliver a comedic line with the best of them (“Oh lord, sweet baby Jesus, not Ekin-Su!”) and will read anyone who comes to her to absolute filth. (“Nobody likes you, Parvati.”) Yes, she joked and murdered her way through Alan Cumming’s Scottish castle until episode ten, when the swirling Faithfuls finally sent our favorite Traitor packing. Thankfully she stopped by to talk about why she joined a show she had never seen before, how Housewives prepared her for backstabbing, and why the only person she’s mad at is her fellow Traitor, Big Brother winner Dan Gheesling.
I am very sad because I just had to watch you get voted off of Traitors and I wanted you to win!
Oh, I did, too, but it’s okay. I think I won. It was such a great experience. Being there was winning, you know?
What was so great about the experience?
It was so opposite from what I’m used to doing. It was just out of my comfort zone. Last year I said it was going to be my year of yeses, and Traitors was something I wouldn’t have normally participated in. But I said yes. Hands down the best experience I’ve ever had in television production.
Was it easier or harder than filming a season of The Real Housewives of Atlanta?
There’s no comparison to Housewives of Atlanta. I think that’s a great training ground for anyone who would do it. Being on the Housewives is definitely a lot of mental games, so it’s a great preparation for something like this. But obviously, we don’t do any type of physical challenges, so there’s some gaming in Traitors that I wasn’t used to.
How did this opportunity present itself? When you first heard the idea, what did you think about it?
Well, they had called me for the first season, but it didn’t remotely work for my schedule so I immediately said no. When they called me for this season, it was actually three days before we had to leave. It was Sharon, one of the executives over at Peacock, who called me. “We would really love for you to join this cast.” And when she said castle, think Dynasty, spiral staircase, I was in. I didn’t think of the woods, bugs, maggots, biting beetles, midges. She never mentioned those things.
Did you go back and watch the first season?
My good girlfriend Brandi Glanville was on it. She had told me how much she had enjoyed it, but I didn’t really watch it.
Having not watched the show, did you have a strategy going in?
I got off the phone with the producers and my mother said, “Well, what was that and what did they ask you to do?” And when I said Traitors, she said, “That is my most favorite show. You have to do it.” And she said, “If you listen more than you talk, you can win it,” and that was her advice. She was so giddy about me doing it.
We have to send her a thank-you note for getting you to do it!
You have my mom, Regina Bell, to thank for this whole thing.
Do you think the Housewives and the other Bravo people were underestimated by the gamers?
Most definitely. I mean, gamers do this for a living. When you think of the Bravo family, we are pretty much glamazons. We are more on the lifestyle, glamorous, gossipy side of things. I’m sure they thought we wouldn’t be that challenging.
Did you and the other Bravo ladies get together as a form of strategy, or did you just naturally gravitate toward each other?
Well, we definitely didn’t have a strategy. When Kate came, she was all about, “Let’s bring it for Bravo.” But in my mind, my Bravolebrities are my family members, so I would always be wedded to them more than a stranger, and I think that was the same way with the gamers. But I mean, I loved most of the players. Really, I liked everyone except for Dan.
What didn’t you like about Dan?
I’m very loyal. And so when you take the oath to play a game under a certain set of rules and you break the rules just because you’re upset that you’re not winning, I don’t like people like that. That’s an innately distrustful and bad person.
Do you think he blew up your gaming coming after you at that round table?
Of course he did. I was never under any suspicion. They didn’t show some of this, but I’d always tried to help him because he was a very strange person.
We saw from Dan and Parvati and even Kate, a little bit, insinuating that you were letting the other Traitors make most of the decisions about how the murders went down. Do you think that’s an accurate portrayal?
Somewhat. I was never really on the hot seat until the end and I’m a strong proponent of allowing people to control their futures. Obviously Dan, when we first started, was a master gamer. If I’m not an expert, I don’t have a problem with allowing the expert to be an expert. And so if it’s the court case I would be in first chair, but it’s a game and he had obviously won Big Brother. He knew these people and I didn’t know him at all. If he made a reasonable argument, of course I would agree with it because I didn’t have the expertise to know who a Johnny Bananas was.
So the internet wants you and CT to be boyfriend and girlfriend.
Oh, God.
If you and CT were both single, would you go out on a date with CT?
CT is a great guy, and we definitely had a wonderful connection. He’s a sweetheart. He’s a really good guy, and he’s attractive and all those good things. He’s a gentleman. There was never anything romantic between us at all. It was just a sweet, pure friendship.
Obviously you knew everyone on Bravo before, but did you recognize anyone else in the castle?
Maksim Chmerkovskiy was one of my most favorite people to meet there. Maks was so much fun, and I’ll tell you, Maks and Peter, I fangirled out on both of them. I am definitely Bachelor Nation all day every day, and I love Dancing With the Stars. To see both of them, I was in heaven. I didn’t know those other people, but baby, I knew Pilot Pete.
Pilot Pete ended up being your archnemesis!
Pete is a dictator, baby. He was more of a dick than a traitor, but he’s a good guy. He played the game like his life depended on it.
Every morning you would come down to breakfast, and we see all this footage of you being like, “Pass the sausages,” and you’re eating a full breakfast. Was the food really good?
Well, it wasn’t. Breakfast, hands down, was the most palatable meal you could have. I will eat breakfast every day, so that’s the meal I really relied upon. Because the other meals, they don’t really … Their diet is a little different from ours, we’ll say that. It wasn’t the tastiest food.
We saw some of the women on the show, especially the Bravo crew, in full glam every morning, and some of the women less done up. Were you getting your hair and makeup done every morning?
I do it myself. I did some of the other girls’ as well. Bravo ladies, we love glamour. We love to look pretty. And I wake up like that, honey, I’m going to put on a lash and some blush every day. You are never going to see me undone.
Phaedra, are you coming back to Real Housewives of Atlanta or not?
I never say never about anything. Who knows? We’ll say that. Who knows? I don’t know. Obviously I’m friends with a lot of the ladies. Porsha and I are friends and we talk, and I would love to see the show resume its moment of grandeur and success, but all good things do come to an end. A 15-year run is a long run. I don’t think Friends ran that long.
So now that you’ve done The Traitors, would you want to go on Big Brother or Survivor or The Challenge like your castmates?
You know I’m a pamper princess. You start talking Survivor in jungles. I’m used to living in a castle. If it’s not a castle, it’s a pretty nice mansion. I don’t know if I’m cut out for the woods. I can do a quick challenge, but to live and be in the woods is definitely — it’s not something I would want to willingly do. I’m a glamper, honey. I don’t do rugged things.
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