Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie have gone from waiting tables to ‘One Direction-level’ fame in a matter of months, upstaging A-listers at the Golden Globes last week. What’s next?
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ough luck if you prefer your romcoms PG-rated, or ice hockey leaves you cold: there is no escaping Heated Rivalry. The steamy coming-of-age series has been a sensation in North America, making instant stars of its leads as producers rush to make more of it. It’s hard to remember the last TV show to spark such a furore, let alone one from Canada’s “Crave network”. So who are the young men at the centre of the frenzy – and how are they coping with all that thirst?
1. From waiting tables …
Heated Rivalry is about the down-low romance between two hockey players: the Canadian good-guy Shane Hollander, played by 24-year-old Hudson Williams, and the Russian Ilya Rozanov, played by real-life Texan Connor Storrie, 25. You might recognise Storrie from the 2024 film Joker: Folie à Deux (his character kills Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker), but neither actor looked earmarked for huge fame. Both were waiting tables when they came to audition for Heated Rivalry. Storrie wasn’t having much luck at that, either. During an appearance on the Today Show, Storrie told the story of how, on the day he learned he’d landed the part in Heated Rivalry, he’d received a dressing-down from his manager: “I messed up a table so bad.” Production on the series began about a week later.
