Feature
Razorback Embarks on Quest
By its very nature quidditch straddles two worlds: fantasy and reality. On ABC’s new show “The Quest,” Razorback Quidditch player Jim Curry will do just that once more as he participates in a fantasy world come to life.
By its very nature quidditch straddles two worlds: fantasy and reality. On ABC’s new show “The Quest,” which premieres on July 31, Razorback Quidditch player Jim Curry will do just that once more as he participates in a fantasy world come to life.
The show, which is the story of the 12 contestants or “paladins,” is set in a fantasy world called Everrealm. The characters are called to be heroes of the world, with each representing different fantasy genres. On the show they face off against each other in various challenges, some of which involve mythical creatures.
Curry found out about “The Quest” last spring when he saw a link to a Mugglenet advertisement on Facebook looking for fantasy enthusiasts to apply to be contestants on a new television show. In addition to reaching out to Harry Potter fans, the producers also recruited other fantasy demographics such as Hunger Games and Lord of the Rings fans.
“I got a call a few weeks [after sending in my application] saying, ‘Hey, we read your email [and] we’re not going to be in Little Rock, [Ark.], but we’ll be in Dallas, so if you can come to Dallas you should come talk to us,’” recalled the Little Rock native. “So I went to a casting call there.”
The casting call for “The Quest” took place the night before Dallas Comic-Con, so although the show’s producers were expecting about 40 people to show up, the fantasy community came out strong with 150 people.
“I got my interview at around 11:30 at night,” said Curry, who was one of approximately 10,000 applicants. “They got really excited. I got really excited. [A producer] sent me over to the associate with a piece of paper [who] told me, ‘Hey, he must’ve loved you because you’re the only person he sent over to me all night,’ which was very humbling and exciting because that’s when it felt like a real dream was about to start.”
After the initial casting call, Curry got a callback in Dallas and then was sent back to Little Rock to shoot a home video.
“And after that home video I waited a couple of weeks and then I got the call saying we’ve narrowed it down to the finalists, [and they told me that] I’m a finalist in this casting selection,” he said. “They flew us out to Los Angeles for the final round of casting where there were about 20 people in the finals. We each had individual interviews in Los Angeles with about 15 producers sitting in a room...It was after that final round of casting that they narrowed it down to the 12 of us.”
Curry, who considers himself a Hufflepuff, has been a fan of the Harry Potter series since he started reading the books in second grade.
“I’ve grown up with the series,” he said. “I’ve gone to movies the day they’ve come into theaters. I’ve gone to midnight book releases at Barnes & Noble. I’ve gone to wizard rock concerts in public libraries; it’s awesome!”
When he got to the University of Arkansas, he contacted the quidditch team prior to enrolling in classes and has been involved with Razorback Quidditch since. Even though he will be unable to play with the team this coming spring due to a student teaching commitment, Curry still hopes to travel to the Southwest Regional Championship and, hopefully, to World Cup VIII as well.
“I think quidditch is the most recent and most prominent part of my being a Harry Potter fan,” he said.
Curry was chosen for the show to represent the Harry Potter fandom.
“You’ve got the Game of Thrones girl, you’ve got the Star Wars dude and I’m the Harry Potter guy,” he said. “Going in, we each represent these different things, but then we all kind of get blended into this one awesome, heroic mix, where it doesn’t really matter where you come from so long as you are showcasing that you are a hero. That was the biggest part of this show—is what makes a hero. Along the way you’re looking at yourself and realizing that you’ve got this heroic side to yourself and you start to look at your competitors and look for their heroic traits as well.”
During the show, quidditch enthusiasts can expect to see some scenes featuring the sport.
“Several members of my team kind of blindly followed me into a little bit of filming for the first episode,” he said. “[It was] just a basic scrimmage just to give people an idea of what it looks like.”
Curry hopes that exposing quidditch to a wide audience will highlight the legitimacy of the sport.
“I’m hoping that the fantasy fans that watch this show who may never have heard of quidditch can see that it is a real deal, that someone can get on a TV show for playing this awesome sport,” he said.
He is thrilled about the experience and is still in shock that something so improbable could happen to him. He also noted that the show was a life-changing experience and that he wouldn’t change anything about it.
“I’ve already gained a lot of confidence,” he said. “I don’t think that I’m the same person I was going into the show. I think that now that everything is done with, I’m living life with a lot more confidence and know that if I’m able to face an ogre, that I can play quidditch a lot more confidently, I can handle any situation, any bump in life that may evolve. I can look at [any obstacle] with a new attitude and know that I’ve done a lot harder than what life is throwing at me now.”
