Colton Underwood Wanted His Fashion to ‘Lean Fully into the Theatrics’ on ‘The Traitors’ (Exclusive)

Colton Underwood is embracing a new fashion era.

The 34-year-old reality star reflected on trying out a new look on The Traitors during a recent PEOPLE in 10 interview. Instead of the suits he wore on the Bachelor franchise or sports attire he donned as a professional athlete, Underwood mixed things up with bold colors and playful pieces.

“I stand by every single look that I wore on The Traitors,” he says of his wardrobe choices. “I wanted to lean fully into the theatrics, the campiness of what Traitors is. I was not trying to be like Alan, I couldn’t come close to Alan [Cumming] if I tried. But I wanted to do something different for me.”

He continues, “Everybody’s seen me in suits, they’ve seen me in athleisure wear. I just wanted to have fun with my style and try something new, try something different. And I liked it.”

Underwood also spoke about having “so much fun” on the reality show.

“This entire experience I had so much fun with my castmates,” he shares. “I had so much fun playing the game.”

The former football player also says he never could have dreamed up the opportunity.

“If you would have asked me eight years ago when I first got into television if I would be in a castle in Scotland playing pretend mafia with Alan Cumming, dressing in incredible cardigans and fun jewels, I would have told you you’re full of crap,” he says. “It was a pinch-me moment. This is so much fun.”

The experience wasn’t all fun and games, though.

Underwood’s season 4 castmate Michael Rapaport was banished from the reality competition series after facing backlash for accusing the Bachelor Nation alum of being a Traitor at the Round Table during the Thursday, Jan. 15, episode, where Rapaport argued, “Nobody in this room would be better at holding a secret than you.”

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Several cast members, including Underwood — who came out as gay in April 2021 after appearing on both The Bachelorette in 2018 and The Bachelor in 2019 — took Rapaport’s remark to be a dig at his sexuality. 

“You think it was fun for 29 years of my life?” Underwood replied in the scene.

Rapaport, 55, addressed the incident in an interview with Entertainment Weekly. He claimed the comments had “nothing to do” with the reality star’s past and maintained that he did not intend to offend anyone.

“I thought that he was a Traitor, and I was riffing,” Rapaport explained. “I was going at him because he was going at me, and I felt defensive and I was doing my best to deflect all of the attention, which had been on me the previous four roundtables. Obviously, I didn’t get voted out [before this], but I was getting votes. And I was annoyed that he had come at me earlier in the evening at the kitchen table.”

“I was just flowing, I was just talking,” he continued. “I was talking about him being conniving, cowardly and commiserating. Those words are thrown around a lot during this game: lying, secrets, dishonest, deceitful, betrayal. And that was just one of the words I used, and I would’ve used it towards anybody that I felt was coming at me, but I truly felt that he was a Traitor in that moment. I was dead set that he was a Traitor.”

New episodes of The Traitors air on Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET on Peacock.