Adrianne Curry is perhaps best known as the winner of the first season of America's Next Top Model, with photo shoots for People, Maxim, Ed Hardy, and more. She was also involved with the reality shows Celebrity Paranormal Project, The Surreal Life, and My Fair Brady, the latter of which focused on her relationship with Christopher Knight that developed during The Surreal Life. Curry is also the “resident celebrity gamer” on The Tester and enjoys cosplay and playing World of Warcraft.
Most recently, she is the executive producer, co-creator, and host of Adrianne Curry's Superfans for Stan Lee's World of Heroes channel.
This and the other interviews in our World of Heroes series involved a panel of journalists in addition to our very own Jason Sacks.
Question: So how did reality TV lead you into the fan life?
Adrianne Curry: Well, reality TV didn’t really lead me into fan life; in fact, the fan life was a huge problem in my last marriage. My ex-husband did not appreciate cons or costumes or comics or video games and he told me to grow up and that I’ll never make money or go anywhere by liking these things. So this is almost my revenge show against him.
It’s like “oh, I’m sorry, I’m producing a show about all the things you said would never do anything for me.” But I just know with the Internet, this is the next big mecca. Direct TV, cable companies, I think it’s all gonna merge. Hopefully sooner rather than later. I’m going to guess about 15 years. So all these channels on YouTube and Hulu, that's the next generation. To be a part of that and have one of the first shows is extremely exciting, and that’s why I wanted the quality of the show to look like something you would see on cable or network TV.
We're shooting for a reality show feeling, only less annoying; there’s no slut vying after some guy’s love and stuff like that. Much less annoying.
Q: So it’s not going to be your standard web series, where the budget’s very low and people are just creating it out of their basement.
Curry: Well, that’s the beauty about reality television. I wasn't just the talent, I also worked in post-production, so I knew that they have no budget to begin with because the network gets to keep all the money and give the producers, like, five dollars and say, “make a show and do it with people who aren’t famous so they don’t have to pay them either.”
So I said, okay, it’s going to be a small budget but if we just roll with it like every other reality show, then we’ll have a quality show on the Internet. I’m very, very proud of this show, and working with Stan Lee is fucking awesome.
Q: A lot of folks say they’re fans. How do you designate between someone who says they’re a fan and what you’re looking for as a superfan for the show?
Curry: Well, there’s fans, like me, where you walk into my house and you’re going to find a lot, like the Witch King of Angmar. You’re gonna find the Lich King from WoW too. Like, I’ve got a nice collection, but it’s sporadic here and there. A superfan—a true fan—which is a fanatic—has devoted the majority of their life to something.
From their home situation on, to building a collection, a costume, you know, having the one film cell from one movie that’s never sold. It’s amazing. I mean, I feature a guy on my show that has the biggest comic book collection in the world. And the Hall of Justice which he built in his backyard in Indiana. It’s a fucking Hall of Justice, in this guy’s backyard.
And he’s a very successful real estate agent. His wife hates it, and we interviewed her, which was great. But then he had a Captain America outfit. He had all his friends come over. He had this, uh, exact replica of the Batcave and the pole that goes down. It’s amazing. And that’s what I’m looking for when it comes to fandom. Somebody who’s really involved it in their life.
Q: So you said you created this to try to change public perception of what a fan is?
Curry: Well, yeah, and I think stuff like Big Bang Theory does a great job of changing public perception, but even casting for our show, people were worried I was going to put them on TV. I mean, almost everyone I know that has been asked to do stuff, like Steve Sansweet, owner of the world's largest Star Wars collection, I was the first person he let in there to film an actual television show, because he trusts me not to go “look at this loser.”
Q: Do you find that you learned anything different about what makes someone a fan?
Curry: Yeah, I learned a couple of things, especially with couples. If one spouse is not into your hobby, you can still have it, there's a compromise. Like I said earlier, that was not had in my last marriage. To know that it exists, it was nice for me, because I had a bit of a bitterness there. To see a woman say “I hate what my husband does but he loves it. I love him and look at him smile.” That’s nice, you know? I want that.
Q: How many couples do you run into where only one of them is really into it?
Curry: It depends. I mean I have friends that met at a Con and got married. I have friends that love to chase beautiful, supermodel women that don’t want to give them the time of day and that whine to me “I need to find a girlfriend.” It's because you’re chasing someone who wants Charles Atlas and your sitting at home playing World of Warcraft for seven hours a day just doesn’t go with that.
Q: That's a pretty good point; would you like to add anything else?
Curry: Just that Adrianne Curry's Superfans debuts this September on Stan Lee's World of Heroes channel on YouTube, so check it out.
Don't forget to check out these other World of Heroes creators: Bonnie Burton and America Young, Peter David and Jace Hall, and the inimitable Mark Hamill