The Traitors’ Danielle Defends Comparing Carolyn to Forrest Gump, Addresses Her ‘Messy’ Appearance

The Traitors star Danielle Reyes weighed in on her Forrest Gump comment about Carolyn Wiger, her “messy” onscreen appearance and more.

Danielle, 53, faced backlash after scheming to get Carolyn banished on the Thursday, February 20, episode of Peacock’s hit competition series. More specifically, viewers weren’t thrilled with how Danielle claimed Carolyn, 38, was putting on an “act” before comparing her to Tom Hanks‘ Forrest Gump character.

“Find the footage of Josh comparing the fabulous Lisa to Forest Gump in Big Brother 3. Yeah, she became our 1st female winner,” Danielle wrote via X on Saturday, February 22. “Played a spectacular end game and whooped my ass! Carolyn played a spectacular game. Hats off(no pun intended).”

After her exit, Carolyn shared a poem she wrote for Danielle, sharing via Instagram on Friday, February 21, “Imagine loving this show and being so excited to have fun and play this game and then you show up with your JCPenney hat wanting to play hard. I get it girl but we are not the same.”

She continued: “They say that expectations will leave you frustrated and sad. I didn’t expect to be around constant shaking and crying. I guess that was my bad. You are not just a Traitor. You are keeping Visine in business too. I hope those Big Brother fans are proud of you.”

Danielle reacted to the video, writing, “This is hilarious! Not her wearing the hat😂😂😂.”

The Traitors, which returned last month, brings together reality TV stars from various franchises as they compete in a mafia-style game for up to $250,000. Season 3 got off to an interesting start when Danielle, Bob the Drag Queen and Carolyn were chosen as Traitors but were quickly forced to work with newcomer Boston Rob Mariano as well.

Boston Rob’s experience in the Survivor franchise resulted in him sending a fellow Traitor — Bob the Drag Queen — home and from there all bets were off. Once Boston Rob was voted out, Danielle and Carolyn mirrored the Traitor-on-Traitor fighting instead of working together to recruit someone new into the turret.

Danielle specifically faced criticism from viewers — and costars — who questioned her over-the-top acting. There were also online jokes about Danielle’s disheveled appearance, which she had no regrets over.

“For real. I think I’m gonna frame the monopoly hat. Hot mess,” she wrote via X over the weekend. “I wasn’t there to be cute. I was there to win! Don’t give AF about my appearance. #MessyTraitor.”

Before the episode where she helped banish Carolyn aired, Danielle defended how she chose to play the game.

“That’s all performance and crazy acting,” she told People earlier this month. “I am a non-emotional person in my normal life to the point people think I’m heartless and cold. I’ve been told that. So I decided to cry. I thought I’d be more emotional. I would get emotional at stupid stuff. It’s so cringey. I laugh at myself because it is funny.”

Danielle noted that she was aware not everyone would support her gameplay, adding, “It seemed like, ‘What am I doing?’ ‘Oh, you’re an obvious Traitor because you’re not scared,’ but I did act scared. I made my hands shake, but I did put my name up eventually, but it was edited out. My point was to make it seem like I was a Faithful, that’s why I did that.”

She concluded: “If you listen to people who’ve been murdered and banished, they’re all surprised that I’m a Traitor. I mean, it’d be so boring if I wasn’t doing what I was doing. You don’t want Traitors hugging and singing ‘Kumbaya.’ You want to see the chaos, and that’s what we’re giving you guys.”

New episodes of The Traitors are released Thursdays on Peacock.