The Quest is a reality competition show set in the fantasy world setting of Everealm. Twelve Paladins must endure and survive training to find the one true hero and defeat the enemy, Verlox. One of the men who finds himself being among the final four with the possibility to be the one true hero is Andrew Frazer.
The Quest airs on ABC Thursday at 8pm – 10pm ET. This upcoming Thursday, September 11, is the finale with back-to-back episodes.
A thank you to @Session_Diva for the pictures!
Andrew Frazer can be found @FrazerFire
Tina Degenhart: How did you hear about The Quest? And how did your audition process go?
Andrew Frazer: Well I saw a picture of a scroll posted on social media asking for people who believe that [they] are a hero, and anyone in their right mind should know that a scroll means something serious. So I wrote back posting pics and vids of me, I then was asked to go to an interview in Boston, then it was bouncing around from Boston and LA auditions so to speak. That was my first time ever going to California. So it’s pretty cool but I was stuck in a hotel right outside of LAX
TD: You don’t come off as a typical geek; do you ever find yourself having to prove that you are a geek?
AF: That is the most annoying thing I have ever dealt with my entire life, First of all I was a very late bloomer, not growing until my junior year of high school, so I was about 5’6 170lbs until I was 17. So you could say it wasn’t until I became a Super Saiyan that people became uncertain of my geekiness; I would always read and talk about animes, video games, and fantasy stuff, I was voted most eccentric for my senior superlative. My attire mostly consists of anime, manga, comic book, and video game based apparel, but yes people are surprised with how many credentials I really have in the geek realm, until I get asked a question or they overhear a convo and then they will do anything to shut me up. I also love cosplay, my two favorite are Deadpool and Dick Grayson a.k.a. Nightwing but I love doing Sasuke or Itachi Uchiha.
TD: How are you handling all of the media attention, especially on Twitter?
AF: Well I’m new to Twitter so it’s interesting, I enjoy reading the love and fanfare, but I’m obsessed with the hate, especially because it lets me know how people honestly feel about parts of me. It’s good to have opinions from both sides. Because it’s easy for people to like you but it’s more influential to myself if I can try to change or adapt from what people don’t like about me so that maybe they can like me. I’m a lover not a fighter, so I find myself more complex with people not liking me because I want everyone to like me. I wish everyone could just like everyone because life is way too short to be hating on people.
A lot of fans don’t realize that my life involves working with children because of their imaginations, and I tried to put forth the effort to explaining to the kids, especially if they’re athletic, that [they shouldn’t] be discouraged; follow your dreams outside of sports, [pursue] your ambitions whatever they are, and to lead with your heart… I regret listening to people when they told me plays and theaters [are] for “homosexuals,” and that “real men” play sports. That turned me away from following my dream then. Now eight years later, I’ve found my niche and wish I had banished those souls away and pursued what I really wanted. Because I’ve learned that real men and women follow their hearts and don’t let the naysayers bring them down.
Serious faces mean serious business.
TD: How does it feel to be part of the final four? You were pretty confident early on; did you see yourself getting this far?
AF: Being in the final four is unbelievable; every day we were in the castle I was always wondering if it would be my last…there’s so many great people that were cast for the 12 that it’s hard to think that I deserve it over any of them. When we first got into Everealm, I never felt more at home, the surroundings, the people, everything was a dream come true. Being a huge gamer on all platforms, my favorite being MMOs or RPGs, I have to say that being me playing me is probably my favorite thing in my life so far. Being one of the Draculas of ADHD since birth, meaning this was at the beginning of the medical progress so to speak of having medication that could so they say contain or cure this disorder, sadly I felt as if society was in a way rejecting me. I have always found myself dreaming and believing in other worlds and realms that exist, these are what hold to me more meaning than the one we live in now, being able to be somewhere else where burdens and conflicts aren’t based on stupid issues and dilemmas.
Being confident isn’t something I am constant with in our world, I may be confident in wrestling, but that is something that I’ve been doing since I was a wee boy, but anything else in life I have very little confidence in myself in doing. I’m not trying to ask for sympathy, but I believe it was because of where and how I was raised. I was always taught there’s always someone better, stronger, faster, smarter out there that is going to be working harder on that aspect of their life…so I need to be working just as hard to keep up with them…but believing that I can be the one true hero in Everealm is something I hold close to my heart because I truly believe that this was made for me.
TD: There are so many amazing moments of The Quest. Can you think about something that stands out or means the most to you?
AF: A lot of people might say my feat challenge with the sword with me overcoming my disorder, but little do they know that that was my birthday and I was all so flustered I had lost Christian the night before so I wasn’t thinking clear from the get-go. The most important moment for me in The Quest is when we finally encounter Verlox!
This momentous occasion holds great value to me because it’s the defining moment to the paladins on what exactly we are up against; it was unreal to see first hand what he looked like, not on screen, 3D, or CGI, but face to face with “The Darkness himself.” I always dreamed of playing the bad guy or a monster like Douglas Tait. So that someone will be able to experience a hero aspect, even if it means getting killed. Because it’s okay to be the villain if you’re helping someone you really care about be the hero. So he is a huge role model.
Andrew closely watches his fellow Paladins in the Battle Dome.
TD: Were there any moments that didn’t make it onto TV that you wish it had?
AF: So far nothing that they have put in has had any real bad animosity, but I have devolved several ticks, and twitches from my disorder which are displayed throughout the season, when I concentrate I tend to bite my tongue and flex my jaw from side to side, I have been teased about this since I was young and devolved an anxiety from it, whether being called zombie face, jaws, or retarded…this caused me to believe that I was flawed from others. In a sense this is what made me feel so comfortable about fantasy because even if I had a disorder, when I’m playing a video game likes Skyrim, Diablo, LOZ, or any role-playing game I could pretend I was me in that world where no one cared about such minor flaws as they seem to do here. Seeing it multiple times per episode brought unsettled emotions to rise but I believe that others like me will see that and know we are not alone. I know that I took a great leap in order to prove to people just like me all around the world that there are heroes, in everyone, in every single person.
TD: When viewers first saw Verlox we were shocked, scared and very impressed. How did it feel being in the moment? Did it look the same for you while you were there as it did on tv?
AF: Well, It was spot on; the moment we saw Verlox was after the grueling fates challenge that I barley was victorious in, so I was euphoric and then having a drink with Ansgar was raising the level of comfort up even higher…on top of that it was my birthday, so I was all sorts of yay! Then seeing Verlox was a multiplier ’cause the sight of him made everything change, chills, butterflies…you can see my face and know exactly what was going through my head. At that moment when we finally saw Verlox everything became clear to me. That moment changed my life drastically, for it made me realize what I want to do with my life.
Andrew leads the discussion of who should be banished.
TD: Finally, is there anything you wish someone would ask you about or something you’d like to mention to the fans?
AF: I wish someone would ask me why I believed I deserve to be on The Quest. A lot of people look at the cast and think me and Shondo are just a bunch of jocks; they believe I have no credentials amongst the other paladins especially the ones that have been banished, that I am only there because I’m athletic, when in real life the reason I got involved with sports was not only because of my ADHD but was because of my imagination, books, and video games…that I wanted to believe that I could become a Super Saiyan that I could become Hokage, that I could become a superhero if I trained hard enough. I would love to thank the fans, I never thought we would have such a tight group of people loyal to “The Quest.” It gives a feeling of family amongst me. That there are people out there that are just as awesome as the twelve of us. It sucks for me that a lot of the fans believe that I don’t deserve to be the one true hero, when they have no idea the sh*t and struggle that I’ve been through in my everyday life just to get me to where I am today.
