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The Latch

“Sam Is No Luke Toki!” — Camille Talks ‘The Traitors’ and Her Prize-Blocking Move

September 12, 2023
The Traitors Australia 2023 Cast, Camille
Network Ten

In a first for the global franchise that is The Traitors, Sunday night’s finale saw three Traitors make it to the end, only for Sam, Blake and Camille to all walk away empty-handed. After being presented with the Traitors’ Dilemma, the Traitors had to vote to either share or steal the $200K prize. The catch? If all three of them voted to steal, none of them would win, and that’s exactly what happened.

Sam, Blake and Camille had all sworn that they would write share and split the silver bars evenly between them. But when the time came to reveal their votes, the OG Traitors, Sam and Blake, had both voted to steal. For a moment, it looked that Camille would be cut out of the winnings, but that was not the case at all. Rather, Camille said that she’d known all along that this was exactly as far as they had wanted her to get, and that if she wasn’t getting any of the prize, no one was.

We caught up with Camille to discuss The Traitors, that finale, and the move that left jaws on the ground across the nation.

Related: ‘The Traitors’ 2023: Sam Says “Camille Made One Move At the End, That’s It!”

Camille Never Doubted Her Decision

It may have been called the Traitors’ Dilemma, but for Camille, “it was an absolute no brainer” to vote to steal. As for how she’s feeling now?

“I feel really great, to be honest,” she tells The Latch over the phone. “I knew it was leading up to the moment where I could finally just tell Sam what I really thought — Blake didn’t exhibit the same sort of ego that Sam did — I was just ready to wipe the smug off.”

While Camille has no regrets about her move, or blocking Sam and Blake from the prize, she was surprised at their reaction.

“There’s something about just saying, ‘Well played’,” she says. “I knew they would be shocked; I didn’t know that they wouldn’t say, ‘Well done, you played us, you got us in the end’. Which takes from the moment a little bit.”

On Sam’s “That’s What a Rich Person Would Say” Jab

In the moments after Camille revealed that she’d knowingly blocked Sam and Blake from receiving any of the prize, Sam was angry. When Camille noted that it was all part of the game, Sam shot back, “That’s what a rich person would say”.

Over the phone, Camille says that it “was only a snapshot of his personal attack” on her.

“Michelle Obama has this great quote, ‘When they go low, we go high’, and no matter what, you stay classy,” she says of her decision to walk off. “I was not going to put up with anything else from this cocky, smug guy. I actually walked off, and under my breath, I said, ‘Suckers’. But that’s how I felt after that personal attack.”

Sam and Camille haven’t spoken since the show, and while Camille says she she doesn’t “have any hard feelings” towards him, she does “feel like he needs to apologise for some of the stuff he said that night”.

“He couldn’t even pretend and say, ‘Well played’,” she says. “Like, you’ve faked it this whole time with your game and his try-hard acting and all those sorts of things — it was all a bit try-hard, when you look at it.”

On social media, Camille has found that there’s been “overwhelming support pouring in” for her move.

“That’s just awesome, because he was so unlikeable, and the viewers were ready to put him in his place, and he still, to this day, can’t accept that he got played,” she says. “It’s sportsmanship, and it’s a good person, and classy, Sam! To say, ‘Well played’.”

Camille Knew Sam and Blake Were Going to Cut Her Out

From the moment Sam and Blake recruited Camille to become a Traitor, she knew they would never let her take the win. Up in Traitor Towers, Sam laid out their entire strategy.

“There was only a little bit shown on the show, but there was a lot more,” she says. “But we went through the plan, and do you know what? He told me about the Traitors’ Dilemma… so I was like, ‘He knows exactly what’s happening’.”

Being someone who “put team before individual”, Camille knew that she’d been recruited “purely to protect” Sam.

“I thought along the way he’d come to me more quickly about banishing Blake,” she muses, “But I think his plan was that Blake writes share, I write share, or that the two of them write steal and I lose anyway. But the easiest way for them to get to the end was for me to protect them, and then of course, the trustworthy Camille would write share!”

There’s No Way Sam Would Have Shared the Prize

In both the finale, and his talk with The Latch, Sam said that he “definitely” would have voted to share the prize if he’d been in Camille’s shoes — even if he walked away with nothing. I put it to Camille: Does she believe him?

She laughs.

“That is… that is so laughable, and so… I just — Sam, wake up!” she exclaims. “Have some self awareness, and some accountability! Just recognise good gameplay when you get played, and people will like you more!

“Sam is no Luke Toki!” she continues. “Luke Toki is a loveable villain, at times. As he’s said himself, backstabbing is his bread and butter, and we love Luke for that. The cocky, smug, narcissist style, it’s just unlikeable, Sam, and to not have any accountability, even now? It’s just laughable. I don’t have any words for that.”

She pauses.

“Oh. Apart from, ‘As if!’” she adds. “As if, as if, as IF Sam, in my position, would’ve [said], ‘Oh, yeah yeah yeah, I’ll just roll over and write share, because you guys deserve it!’”

This Was All in Camille’s Strategy

Another of Sam’s claims was that Camille “made one move” at the end, while he’d been playing the game the whole time. Camille disagrees.

“I rebuke that,” she says. “A lot of Australian reality TV viewers love the big players — it gets rewarded in Survivor — other shows like that. A true superfan understands the subtle, intelligent gameplay.”

It’s this “fine balancing act” that Camille was striving to achieve on The Traitors.

“You don’t want to be a massive Traitor hunter, you don’t want to be the quietest person flying under the radar, either,” she says. “You need the Traitors to think, ‘She’ll probably get banished’, but you need the Faithfuls to think, ‘Nah, she’s probably a Faithful’.

She adds: “I was playing strategically from the moment I walked through that door. My strategy might just be different from how a big gameplayer might be.”

Camille’s aim was to be “as non-threatening as possible”, even down to the clothes and makeup she wore.

“I’m actually a little bit more edgy in real life, and a little bit more funky and out there,” she says. “But I didn’t even want to stand out in aesthetics.”

She explains: “I wanted to send a subliminal message to the other Traitors that there’s nothing about me that’s fake. I don’t have a persona that I’m hiding behind, I am what I am, you don’t need to be threatened by me, and that’s how I played all the way to the end.”

What’s Next for Camille

With The Traitors Australia done and dusted, Camille is ready for whatever’s next.

“I had such a positive experience, I really did,” she says. “From the applications and Zooms and all of that, it was all a really positive experience, and I would do some more shows if there was opportunity.”

As for which shows she might be interested in?

She laughs.

“Wait and see!”

For now, though, she’s still riding high on her Traitors experience.

“We’re all winners, and it’s not always about the money, and there was a bit of a lesson there but it sounds like Sam hasn’t learned anything,” she says.

“Oh hang on, that’s what a rich person would say!” she quips.

But for Camille, the experience of The Traitors Australia was “truly invaluable”.

“I have been a stay-at-home mum, and I needed to do something for myself,” she says. “That’s where I was at!”

Missed The Traitors Australia finale? Catch up on 10 Play.

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