CHICAGO — Morgan Cook has 1.4 million Instagram followers who are fans of her topical, hilarious videos, which usually involve her puttering and muttering around her apartment about current issues like the midterm elections and Shane Gillis’ SNL monologue.
The self-described introvert also posts about her anxiety in social situations, like recapping interactions at a recent party.
So her followers may wonder about Cook’s more recent, high-profile gig: a contestant on the current season five of the hit NBC/Peacock reality series “Traitors.”
In the Alan Cumming-hosted series, over 20 total strangers come together at a castle in Scotland. Soon after arrival, some of the guests are secretly assigned “Traitor” status, while the others are known as “Faithfuls.” The Faithfuls have to try to identify all of the Traitors by the end of the game, without getting “murdered” (sent home) themselves. All cast members meet at a weekly roundtable to vote on who they think the Traitors are.
Getting tossed into an on-camera situation with strangers would be an effort even for most extroverts. But Cook told Block Club she was eager to stretch herself on “Traitors.”
“I mean, I love the show. I was a huge fan of the show, so I felt like if there’s an opportunity for me to play it, I’ve got to do it,” she said. “So I felt like this was just a really good opportunity to push myself out of my comfort zone. You know, get to go to Scotland, get to meet a bunch of interesting, cool people and just have a once-in-a-lifetime experience. … Like, I’m not going to let my introversion or my anxiety keep me from having that experience.”
Morgan Cook (center) in “The Traitors: New Blood” season five episode “The Death Parade.” Credit: Euan Cherry/NBC
Getting cast on the show inspired practical questions like how she packed for Scotland. Her ensembles included a plaid dress for a Highland dinner party and black funeral wear. She found many of her outfits at thrift stores, she said.
“Packing was very interesting,” Cook said. “I had three suitcases in total. They do guide you on what you need to bring, like black formal wear, things like that. But otherwise, they just ask you to put together outfits that feel like you.
“I was really excited to put together outfits honestly because most of the time I’m just in my house in sweatpants. So I was like, oh people are gonna see me, I can finally wear some of the cute things that have just been sitting in my closet and be a little creative.”
Morgan Cook (center) in “The Traitors: New Blood” season five episode “Wake of the Living Dead.” Credit: Euan Cherry/NBC
Cook was at the center of a “Traitors” scandal called “fruitgate,” in which one of the Traitors had to throw a piece of fruit at a Faithful and if they caught it, they would be murdered that night. Traitor Joe threw an apple at Cook, who let it land next to her, leading a Faithful named Victor to be convinced that the apple was part of a “murder in plain sight” plot.
One of the fun bonuses of Cook’s social media is that she is now posting videos with comments about each episode, where she says, “To be fair, Joe seems like the kind of guy who would be throwing something at you.”
Watching the show now that she’s out of it, Cook said, “Pretty much every time I tell Victor he’s wrong about the fruit, I’m like, OK, we found another clip of that, did we? But overall, it’s been enjoyable to watch, and it’s while it’s frustrating to know the behind the scenes of what happens, it’s also fun to know.
“Like, I know all these extra little tidbits; I know what happens. Watching my friends and family watch the show and watching them guess about things, and I’m just like, ‘Oh, I know stuff you don’t.’”
Overall, Cook only had glowing remarks about her “Traitor” castmates, describing the Highland dinner that gave all the players the chance to sit down and talk about how much they had gotten to know each other through the series.
“Everyone on the cast is good people,” she said. “We really did bond throughout the experience, and the dinner was especially lovely because there were really no times that we all got to sit down and just talk to each other aside from the round table, and you know that was just purely stressful. So being able to sit and just learn more about each other’s stories was really nice.”
Cook is now back in Chicago, where she lives in the Old Town area. (“Traitors” listed her as a native of Midland, Michigan.)
“I went to school in New York, which was like too much for me. So I just love that there’s so much stuff to do in Chicago, and yet everyone is generally very kind, and like you have the Midwest kind of attitude here,” she said. “And I also love the lake. That’s probably actually my favorite part. I love being able to walk by the lake. Like jump in, it’s great.”
If Cook had a guest in town, she said she’d take them to the lake for beach volleyball. And in cold weather, “I feel like I would just be like, you need to try a Small Cheval burger,” she said.
The most surprising thing about being on “Traitors” was how difficult the game itself was, Cook said.
“I knew it was going to be hard … but it’s just even more, like 10 times harder, to really be there and be immersed and truly have no idea who the Traitors are. And you know, it’s the level of paranoia that develops and the things you can convince yourself of in that situation … it’s pretty surprising,” she said.
“The Traitors” airs Thursday nights on NBC and is available streaming on Peacock on Fridays.
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