The Traitors’ Claudia Bonifazio Reveals Major Filming Secret: ‘Strict’

The Traitors Australia’s Claudia Bonifazio has spilled some major tea about filming the reality show and revealed what viewers don’t see on TV.

While the series appears to show every part of the contestants’ day from sunrise to bedtime — including breakfast, car rides, challenges, debriefs and Round Tables — the Love Island winner told PEDESTRIAN.TV that there are plenty of moments when the cameras stop rolling, which is referred to as “hard ice”.

“There are hours that we have to be separated from everyone, and production says, ‘You’re on hard ice, you’re not allowed to talk, you’re not allowed to look at people’,” she detailed.

“You desperately want to try and whisper something to someone, but they are so strict because the game is so real. You can’t give anything away. I think you guys don’t realise how much time we were on hard ice.”

“Hard ice” periods are also implemented on reality shows like Drag Race so production can reset without contestants having off-camera interactions that could potentially impact the on-camera narrative — which is basically what happens on Married At First Sight (MAFS) each season.

Claudia explained that contestants essentially aren’t allowed to play the game during “hard ice” periods, which means there are never any off-camera moves.

“Whatever you see on TV is what happened. There is no behind-the-scenes of like, ‘I’m going to knock on this person’s door’,” she said.

The power of editing

Although every part of the game is captured on camera, only so much footage can be included each episode. Claudia said this is why certain moves might not make much sense to the viewer without context and can seem impulsive. 

“Some people come up to me, and they go, ‘But I thought you guys liked her yesterday?’, but it’s like, you don’t see four hours of us talking about like, ‘Actually did you see how she was at this time?’,” she recalled.

“That’s where I think people are getting confused as well because there’s so much edited out. You see one conversation, and there’s 20 others happening.”

This is especially true for the Round Tables, which Claudia admitted can go for “hours” even though only around 15 minutes is shown on TV.

“They go for so long that sometimes Gretel [Killeen] would have to come in and go, ‘Okay, everyone, all right, all right!’. They went on for so long,” she said. “I feel like when you’re at the Round Table, everyone gets picked apart, but you get to see selective few. So it’s very scary.”

Release the tapes, Channel 10!

The Traitors Australia airs Tuesdays and Wednesdays at 7:30pm on 10.