There are no overnight successes in Hollywood… but Heated Rivalry stars Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie’s lives have definitely changed over the month-ish the show has aired on HBO Max! If you haven’t seen the show yet (it’s only six episodes!), you’ve still undoubtedly heard about the gay hockey series by now. I can’t really improve upon CB’s assessment that the show “lives up to the hype but it’s like Cinemax after dark in the 90s.” What I liked about it, is that the show is fun and knows exactly what it is and who it’s for, and it revels in it. No shame here! Newly-minted stars Williams and Storrie have been on a media blitz — sometimes together, other times dividing and conquering — that led up to their presenting together at Sunday’s Golden Globes. While he was still in NYC last week, Williams stopped by Watch What Happens Live and told host Andy Cohen that closeted pro athletes across many sports have contacted him since the show came out. (Yes of course pun intended.)
The HBO Max acquired series is based off the “Game Changers” book series by Rachel Reid. It follows to closeted pro hockey players who are rivals on the ice, but hook up in secret for more than a decade and develop feelings for one another.
Williams made an appearance on “Andy Cohen Live” Wednesday and revealed he’s actually heard from professional athletes who haven’t come out yet — much like his character, Shane Hollander, in the show.
Williams said he’s heard not only from hockey players, but football and basketball players as well.
“It’s definitely the people who reach out somewhat anonymously who are like, ‘I’m still a professional player and I’m still in the closet,’” he said. “They’re reaching out to Rachel [Reid], our author, who will then kind of relay these lovely anonymous emails.”
Williams, 24, said he’s also received private DMs.
“And sometimes they’re just reaching out privately through Instagram, and those ones are the ones that really just kind of hit you and go, ‘Oh, so this is a fun show, and it’s celebratory, but also sometimes it’s just hitting people right in the nerve,’” he shared.
“Heated Rivalry,” which also stars Connor Storrie as Shane’s love interest, Ilya Rozanov, became a surprise breakout success after debuting in November.
Fans continue to have intense interest in Williams and Storrie’s close friendship off-screen as well, and the actors talked about their chemistry in an interview with Vanity Fair last month.
“Me and Hudson had the chemistry down before we even started acting,” Storrie, 25, said.
Williams added, “We got comfortable just being inches from each other’s face and invading each other’s personal space. A nightmare for HR.”
Williams also shared that his “pretty close bond” with Storrie “made it comfortable going into territories where you’re closer with a person than any other coworkers are with their coworker.”
“Unless they’re sleeping together,” he joked.
Representation matters, and that counts just as much for horny TV! I don’t know much about the ins and outs of sportsball the way I know enough to write essays on potato chip brands, but one comment I’ve seen a few times in conversations about this show is how hockey in particular can be doing much better about inclusivity for LGBTQ+ players. So yeah, Heated Rivalry is fun and has a lot of sex scenes, but it’s also important for a community that still needs to be seen.
As for Williams and Storrie at the Golden Globes, I thought they did great. I sensed a touch of embarrassment or bewilderment when they got a shout out early in the telecast, but that was more like, “Why are YOU all so excited to see US? You’re the greats and we’re the newbies!” When it came time for them to present, though, the boys were total pros; they committed to the bit written for them. In fact throughout their promotion for the show, both Williams and Storrie have been nothing but joyful, excited, and grateful young actors. 20 years ago, Brokeback Mountain was at the Golden Globes (sidenote: Connor Storrie’s face gives me Heath Ledger vibes), and even though everyone from the film was proud and respectful, it felt like there was always some degree of homophobia hovering close by. Things like then Tonight Show host Jay Leno commenting about Ledger’s rom-com Casanova: “that’s the movie you HAVE to make after Brokeback Mountain.” The bigger point I’m stumbling towards here, is that 20 years later I haven’t gotten a whiff of any of that hetero-reaffirming nonsense surrounding Heated Rivalry. So there’s at least **one thing** that’s shown improvement in this timeline.
Photos credit: C Flanigan/imageSPACE/MediaPunch/INSTARimages, Dave Starbuck/Future Image/Cover Images