“That was the Leg Where it All Fell Apart” An Interview with The Amazing Race's Azaria & Hendekea

RealityNewsOnline: Hi Azaria & Hendekea! Thanks for talking to RealityNewsOnline!

Hendekea: Thank you!

RNO: First off, you guys seemed like the team to beat this season! I was sorry to see you go.

Hendekea: Yeah!

Azaria: That’s what happens.

RNO: How far apart are you in age?

Azaria: We’re three and a half years apart. Hendekea’s 24 and I’m 27 right now.

RNO: Did you two get along well while you were growing up?

Hendekea: Hmmm…

Azaria: Awkward pause!

Hendekea: Well, I mean, I kind of feel like Azaria had the middle child syndrome going on. We have another brother that’s older than him – three years older than him – I think Azaria would pick on me and then my older brother would come to my rescue, kind of. So, I think that kind of lingered. I don’t think we changed that dynamic.

RNO: I want to ask you about the situation at the airport. First off, why didn’t the number for Polish airline that Christina gave you work?

Azaria: I think what the problem was is that we couldn’t nail down what the country code was. We were in Lithuania and we were trying to get the country code and no one seemed to know at the information desk. That kind of hurt.

RNO: Okay, what happened when you first got tickets? I heard Azaria say “economy” to the agent. But why didn’t you realize the agent gave you business class?

Azaria: I didn’t even know that! Hendekea told me about it. I thought that I hadn’t told the travel agent “economy class.”

RNO: They did show you saying “economy class” on the episode.

Hendekea: Yeah, everything happened so quickly that you forget some of the things you said and did. It turns out Azaria did say economy. Obviously, the lady didn’t hear him and we didn’t make it loud and clear. So, I don’t know, maybe she was benefitting [us] by getting us business class tickets at the travel agency. But she gave us business class and it was much later – when we tried to check in – that we realized it was business class. At that point, it was too late to get the right tickets and board.

RNO: So, whose mistake do you think the whole ticket problem was?

Azaria: If you had to pick a party that was… The mistake is still ours.

RNO: You’d been doing so well on the race, how do you feel about the airline situation being the cause of your elimination?

Hendekea: Um… It sucked. Definitely. But, the way I see it is that, whether it’s a ticketing agent that gives you a bad ticket or a bad camel or you get a bad whatever – monkey, donkey, whatever it is, stuff happens. It was just bad timing. I think, and this is what I’ve said before, during this race every single team makes some type of mistake or some type of oversight. But what differentiates the individual team that wins a million dollars – they’ve made mistakes when it didn’t count. So, Azaria made a mistake, and there was no way that we could recover in four hours. Maybe if it was a different leg or the leg was longer we could have caught up. Because we were only behind Nick & Don by ten minutes.

RNO: You got to the Pit Stop ten minutes behind Nicolas & Donald then?

Hendekea: Yeah. So maybe if it had been a longer leg, we could have caught up. So, it was our fault… bad luck… whatever.

RNO: You seemed, as a team, to be very good at recovering from your mistakes in previous legs. You may not have had the chance this time… But did you get lost going to the first clue box in Croatia?

Azaria: We didn’t get lost. The taxi actually took us to the wrong spot. We realized the error.

Hendekea: He took us to the wrong pier – a different pier.

Azaria: It was odd because he had said, “I know exactly where to go.”

RNO: How much time do you think that cost you?

Hendekea: Maybe ten minutes!

RNO: That’s what I was wondering. So, what was doing that tandem zip line like?

Hendekea: It was fun! I think we were so intent and so driven, thinking we must catch up, we didn’t think about any type of risk associated with the task. We were so honed in it was just like, “let’s go!”

RNO: Why did you pick the “Long and Short” Detour option?

Azaria: Hendekea and I actually differentiated on that. She wanted to do the ladder option and I wanted to do the boat because, my reasoning was, if it’s going to be physical then let me carry the burden of it. You get in the rowboat and it would basically be a one-person job to row.

RNO: Looking back, do you think you should have taken the other Detour option?

Azaria: I’m happy with the decision we made. I just wish that we had pulled the anchor up.

RNO: You didn’t pull the anchor up?

Azaria: (groan) Uh, boy.

Hendekea: It’s just that when we got into the boat, we didn’t realize that there was an anchor, and we wasted some time trying to row it with the anchor. Then we realized that there was an anchor and we pulled it out. So, that was some more time that was wasted.

RNO: So, the taxi driver took you to the wrong place and then the anchor was left down…

Hendekea: You know what, I think we were not meant – we were meant to be eliminated that leg. You know, we never had so many little things happen. That was the leg where it all fell apart and I think it was just our time.

RNO: Did you know you were last when you got to the Pit Stop?

Azaria: Oh, yeah.

Hendekea: I knew.

RNO: Did you think it might be a non-elimination leg?

Hendekea: Yeah, we were hoping!

RNO: Jen & Nate seemed to really not be getting along on the race. Do you feel that’s accurate?

Hendekea: Ummm… I feel like the editing might be one-sided. I feel like Jen & Nate are really passionate kind of wearing-their-heart-on-their sleeve individuals. So, they let it all out and I find that one of the most endearing qualities about them because they’re very honest and up-front. That’s why you may see some of the confrontation that you do, but I think it worked for them. They’re still together and happy.

RNO: Hendekea, how would you describe your relationship with Azaria?

Hendekea: Well, on the race, Azaria… I felt like Azaria questioned my abilities a lot on the race – which I really didn’t appreciate. But he’s definitely hard on me. It’s obvious from watching the race that he’s hard on me. But, at the same time, I felt like bickering and arguing was not conducive to a productive team. So I had to swallow my pride to deal with some of the bickering.

RNO: Azaria, do you respect Hendekea’s abilities? It wasn’t always clear on the race.

Azaria: Uh… wow. So, the short conversation that I had with her was [in the most recent episode] was…heh… not good to see or hear. I think that a lot of – I’m not going to blame my actions completely on the circumstances we were under, but… I played a major role in us getting out of line and so, there was a lot of emotion going on with me.

Hendekea: In his defense, I can tell because I know Azaria, that moment was just him – he knew he made a mistake and he got defensive. They didn’t show that I’m – not screaming at him – but, I’m kind of like, “I don’t need to listen to you! I’m not listening to you! I’m making my own decisions now.” I kind of went off a little bit. So that was the tail-end of him being defensive. I was nailing him for making an error.

RNO: What was your favorite moment on the race?

Azaria: My favorite moment was running to the finish line [Pit Stop] in Bingo.

Hendekea: Yeah, that definitely was incredible.

Azaria: That was awesome.