Cosima De Vito is on the cusp of turning the big 5-0. Like many approaching this milestone, the ex-Australian Idol star has been taking stock and looking for ways to challenge herself anew as she steps into this next half-century.
At just the right time, The Traitors came calling.
“(The show) came to me, wanting for me to be on it,” she says of her upcoming role in Ten’s returning reality TV series.
“I knew I’d be out of my comfort zone, but I thought, ‘Let’s jump into something I have never done before; something that’s going to keep me on my toes.’
“I am really happy I did it.”
For the uninitiated, The Traitors is a globally popular reality television show, a “high-stakes psychological game” which sees a small group of “Traitors” selected to secretly eliminate players each night.
The majority of contestants, who take part in challenges adding to the show’s prize pot as they go, are “Faithful”. The aim of the game is for them to try to figure out who the Traitors are, unmasking them before they have a chance to “kill them off” each night — it’s up to the Traitors to trick their fellow contestants into thinking they are innocent.
This season, a who’s-who of Aussie reality TV are taking part, all hoping to be the last person in the game, for a chance to walk away with $250,000 in silver bars. It’s a fun premise, and this season sees ex-Big Brother host Gretel Killeen stepping in to oversee the frivolities, adding an extra layer of the absurd to proceedings.
De Vito, who famously dropped out of the first season of Australian Idol at the eleventh hour due to a vocal injury (going on to cement a place for herself in Australian TV history in the process), says she was excited to return to television, and to star alongside this year’s contestants.
They are a real mixed bag: there are Real Housewives (Gamble Breaux and Krissy Marsh are taking part), Bachelor and Love Island contestants (Keira Maguire and her arch rival Alex Nation are going head to head), and master strategists in the form of ex-Survivor players, including Survivor winner, Olympian Shane Gould, Henry Nicholson, Kirby Bentley and AJ Antonios.
De Vito admits she was a little intimidated, but there was one competitor she was particularly pleased to see.
“Dicko!” she laughs, referring to ex-Idol judge Ian “Dicko” Dickson, who oversaw her 2003 series.
“As soon as I saw him, I immediately started feeling calm.
“I was like, ‘OK, I’m going to be OK’ . . . I knew we’d have each other’s backs, regardless.”
Or would they?
Anyone who has ever watched The Traitors will know it is structured so that players never really know who is tricking them. They never know who is on their side and who is plotting to get rid of them until it’s too late. It makes for a tense viewing experience for those of us watching along at home.
De Vito says she was 100 per cent onboard.
“Everyone was beautiful, and lovely to be honest, but yes, in the back of your mind, you’re thinking, ‘Are we all being real and being ourselves, or are we all in character?’” she explains.
“You start second-guessing yourself, thinking, ‘Should I be doing that?’ and you are constantly re-evaluating how you should be playing the game.”
De Vito admits, “I had a ball.
“We filmed in New Zealand, and I had always wanted to go — the setting was incredible.”
The players are sequestered inside an old, historic home, where they eat, sleep and breathe all things Traitors for the two weeks they are filming.
“Being at the manor, and having Gretel appear on the first day — that was incredible,” De Vito says, adding that the host’s presence helped distract from the fact she was far from home and stepping into a game which, by definition, is designed to set everyone on edge from the very first moments they play it.
“When we jumped on the plane, I did find myself asking, ‘Why am I doing this?’ But at the same time I was intrigued because, like I said, you really don’t know what it’s going to be like,” she explains.
“It was nice to do something so different.
“When you are a mum (De Vito has daughter Amelia, 8, with husband Augusto “Gus” De Romanis), I don’t want to say life is mundane, but you are doing the same thing every day, and to be thrown into a situation where you don’t know what to expect was great.
“They take your phone away and you are thrown into this environment where automatically your instincts start kicking in, and you’re like, ‘OK, who is my friend, who’s not?’
“You get immersed in the game, and it’s so bizarre, but it’s also so great.
“I’m so glad I took part.”
De Vito has another busy year of touring and performing ahead of her, and she’s looking forward to continuing to push herself as she embarks on this next chapter of her life.
“I think I needed (The Traitors),” she admits.
“It jump-started me to go, ‘Maybe I need to get out there again and try different things’.
“Because you can get kind of stuck.
“I think it was good for me — I am really looking forward to seeing it. “
The Traitors starts Tuesday August 4 at 7.30pm on Ten.
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