“Traitors” star Wells says wife Sarah Hyland 'wasn't super proud' of early exit

Wells Adams really hoped his experience as the beach bartender on Bachelor in Paradise would help him go far as a Faithful on The Traitors. "On Paradise, I sit back and I listen to everyone's stories, I'm a pretty good judge of character," he tells Entertainment Weekly. "So, I thought I'd be really good at sussing people out."

Alas, the former DJ and contestant on The Bachelorette was banished before he had a chance to put his powers of perception to work. Soon after the contentious Dragon Boat mission in The Traitors' season 3 premiere, Wells found himself singled out by Real Housewives of Potomac star Robyn Dixon — and that scrutiny continued at the first Roundtable, where he was the first player banished.

Though Wells doesn't think he would have done much better as a Traitor, he does have some theories as to why people accused him of acting "uncomfortable" after host Alan Cumming chose the traitors. EW chatted with him about those theories, as well as Wells' first impressions of his fellow players, his odd-couple friendship with Real Housewives of Dubai's Ayan, and what his wife — Modern Family star Sarah Hyland — thought about him being the first one out.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: We need to start by addressing your slow clap at the Roundtable when you were banished. Did you always know going in that you were going to slow clap if you got banished, or did that just come to you in the moment?

WELLS ADAMS: I don't know if I thought about it beforehand. I remember thinking it would be funny because we were so excited that we'd be the first season to get a Traitor out first, and everyone really wanted to be the first season to do that. I remember thinking more than half the people there are Faithfuls, they don't know [I'm not a Traitor] — and it would be really, really funny if I just started slow clapping, and then they would think for a second that they finally got a traitor out. I'm also a child of the '90s, and I feel like in every coming-of-age high school movie I ever saw, there was a slow clap. I wanted to know what that felt like, and I wanted to do it on television. And lastly, I realized that I wasn't going to be on the show for very long, so I was like, "Well, might as well get a little bit of screen time with this ridiculous slow clap."

Well done. When you first got there, who were the people you immediately recognized, and what was your reaction to seeing them there?

Yeah, it was exciting. You don't know who is going to be on the show before you kind of get to the castle, so that's fun. I don't know if you ever went to camp, but when you get out of the bus at camp, you get to meet all these new kids. I knew of a bunch of people, but I didn't know anybody personally from before the show. I knew Gabby [Windey] obviously, but we had never worked together on Paradise, so I'd never actually met her in person. I knew Dylan [Efron] because my wife was friends with his brother way back in the day. I was aware of Nikki [Garcia] and Crishell [Stause] because I'm fans of theirs, but I didn't know anyone beforehand. So it was really fun to make some new friends.

Related: The Traitors star Tony Vlachos doubles down on Boston Rob as 'such a sellout'

Who are some people that you couldn't have identified if your life depended on it?

Oh, they cut it, but in that first meeting with Alan, there's all these hooded druids, and then they all leave and then there's one left. They derobe this guy and everyone's like, "Oh my God!" And I'm standing next to Dylan and I go, "Hey, who is that? I don't know who this person is." And he's like, "That's Boston Rob. He's a Survivor legend!" And I was like, "Ah, I don't watch that show."

I don't watch Big Brother either, so when we were doing the second mission and everyone's in the cages, at that point, I knew who Boston Rob was, and I knew who Wes [Bergmann] was because I'm a huge Challenge fan. Everyone's trying to figure out who to [give] their coins to. To the other guy, I was like, "I don't know who you are, man." He's like, "I'm Derek, I'm from Big Brother." And I was like, "That makes sense. I don't watch that show. I'm very sorry." I didn't know Sam [Asghari] — I know who Britney Spears is, but I don't know some random ex of Britney Spears.

We didn't see you and Gabby interacting much. Did you guys talk, and if so, what kinds of conversations did you have?

Yeah, we actually did. I was a part of that little clique for a bit. After the Dragon Boat mission, I was in the car with them going back with Gabby and Nikki and Crishell. So we kikied a little bit and hung out. What wasn't shown was a lot of people were really, really upset at the toxic masculinity of that mission because a lot of the guys were like, "Girls need to get out because they're not as strong as the guys for rowing" and all this stuff. But I had offered, they don't show that either, but I was like, "Listen, I feel bad that all the girls are getting off [the boat]. If I'm not doing a good job steering the boat, as much as I want an immunity shield, I feel bad and I'll get off." I remember they were like, "Wells is an ally!" and all this stuff. And I was like, "Yes, okay. I'm in with the cool girls." That didn't last very long. I got banished almost immediately.

Ayan from RHOD took quite a shine to you. What was your favorite conversation that you had with her that we didn't see?

I mean, every conversation I had with her was amazing. She's just absolutely beautiful, but beautiful inside and out, just a really, really bright light. You come across these people — and you usually don't come across them on reality shows. I got to be honest with you, I've done a lot of them and it's just a lot of jerks. But I came across this just beautiful little cherub of a woman who was just this shining light.

She could not understand the rules of the game. She couldn't be bothered to figure out what was going on, which was so funny. So she was asking me a lot of like, "What does this mean?" My favorite thing was, I think in her mind there was a grim reaper that would come around at night and kill people, and she'd called him "the dead man." In her awesome accent, she'd be like, "Wells, I was so scared of the dead man. The dead man was going to get me." She was just the best, man.

I was sad to see her go, for sure.

It was so dumb! I'm sorry, I stand by what I said: The Traitors were making such dumb decisions. They killed Dorinda [Medley] first, a woman who everyone was going to banish the next day. Everyone was like, "She's definitely a Traitor. She got off [the boat] first. She yelled at everybody." We're like, "You're doing too much, lady." Why would you kill somebody that everyone was going to banish? Get rid of someone else who's a stronger player. Then they get rid of me, whatever. Then they get rid of Ayan, who nobody thought was a Traitor because there is no way that she would understand the rules of how to be a Traitor. The fact that she was Faithful was amazing. It made zero sense.

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From what we saw, Robyn was the first one who singled you out and said you were "starting to appear a little uncomfortable" after the Traitors were chosen. Before your discussion with her about whether killing Dorinda was smart or dumb, had you interacted with her much at all?

So much. That's why it was so hurtful. There are times when you're not filming because you're in a car going somewhere or whatever, or there's times when you're just not filming and you're chitchatting about life and stuff. She was one of those people that I was around all the time. And so when she called me out, I was actually hurt. I was like, "I know about your family, we've talked about your podcast. I know all this stuff, and you're saying that I'm acting different."

It's funny though, I've had some time to reflect on it, and I think I know what they're talking about. I was a radio host, that was my real job before I did TV. I've done over 150 episodes of reality TV — and when cameras aren't rolling, I'm saving my energy. When I was on the radio, I wouldn't be cracking jokes unless the mic was on and I was doing the show. So, I think that's what people saw was, I would turn on when the cameras were on because I knew we were making this show. And then when I wasn't [on camera], I would be like, "I'm going to chill and hang out." With the housewives, the one thing I noticed is that they are constantly like that. I remember being like, it's got to be exhausting to be you. You're always yelling at people and going crazy. You got to chill out, man. Your blood pressure must be off the Richter scale. When they said, "I think that you're acting different," it was just, "No, I'm not going to tell the joke that I think would be funny for TV when the cameras aren't rolling."

Looking back, if you had to do it differently, would you have stayed "on" all the time?

I don't think I could stay on all the time. I'd kick my own ass if I did that, I think, I don't know what I would do differently. Honestly, my plan coming in was to shut up, stay under the radar. Then we go to that first dragon boat mission and they say, you needed someone to steer the boat. And everyone was like, "Wells, you're the best leader, because you're the most talkative." I remember thinking like, "Oh no, I thought I was trying to fly under the radar — and seven hours into this, I've already been pinpointed as someone who's leading the group." That's when I knew I was in trouble.

How did your wife react when you told her you were the first one banished?

Yeah, she wasn't super proud of me. [Laughs] I mean, there's vows that we said for better or worse, so she can't divorce me over this. She was bummed, I think. She ended up watching it this morning. I'm like, "What did you think?" And she was like, "Yeah, you don't look that bad." I'm like, "It's that bad, isn't it?" I think she thought that I would win. I thought that I would win, and then I didn't. So here we are.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

New episodes of The Traitors season 3 drop Thursdays on Peacock.

Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly