The overwhelming popularity of Heated Rivalry has meant that the stars of the show have been catapulted to fame, and now they’re opening up about their butts, their “freak” status, and oral fixations.
Connor Storrie and Hudson Williams star as Ilya Rozanov and Shane Hollander, respectively, rival hockey players who give into their intense attraction to one another and start a years-long secret affair.
The show’s runaway success has led to an overwhelming obsession with Storrie’s impressive butt and the intense sexual chemistry and gay yearning at the heart of the rivals-to-lovers romance, something that Storrie and Williams are aware of.
In a new interview with Entertainment Weekly, Storrie admitted to knowing that his “butt has been a big topic of conversation” among fans before Williams told him, “It’s a great butt.”
Despite how odd it must be to go from being a relatively unknown actor to having fans on social media discussing your body parts, Storrie doesn’t seem to mind.
“I think I saw someone say that I am ‘America's ass,’ which I was not expecting that at all,” he said. “But, yeah, I love it. I'll take it. Feels good.”
When it comes to those intensely erotic sex scenes the show has become known for, Storrie and Williams say that when they watch them, they are seeing the mechanics that went into making them.
“The fans get spontaneity, but we see mechanics. We see technique, rehearsal,” Williams said. "We see Chala [Hunter, intimacy coordinator] going, ‘Knee little higher! Knee little lower! Hide your, like, little ballet slipper.’”
Storrie admitted that those moments don’t feel “overtly sexual” or “raunchy” to him because he’s the one in the scene, but Williams explained that things are different for fans who are “witnessing two people find a sexual language."
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The two actors have grown increasingly close over the course of filming the show and the press tour, and fans have remarked on how comfortable they are with each other, including in a new viral video of Storrie and Williams doing an interpretive dance where they manage to combine their bodies into an impressive pretzel.
“Very plainly spoken, me and Hudson are freaks,” Storrie said when asked about the video. “We're clowns. We just love to riff and have fun and go crazy, and those were two situations where we were caught off guard doing our thing. The wrap party, that was all improvised. I think we were just putting on a show.”
Heated Rivalry will end after six episodes, but there is the potential for a second season, considering Ilya and Shane’s love story continues in Rachel Reid’s series of gay hockey romance novels that the show is based on. While we haven’t gotten confirmation yet that there will definitely be a second season — although it seems likely based on the show's success — Williams teased that Shane’s “oral fixation” will continue if they get picked up for another season.
"So when there was not a straw in my drink, I would ask them to give me one,” he said of Shane always chewing on things like his hoodie’s drawstring. “If I'm texting, I'm putting the thing in my mouth. I'm always putting things in my mouth! And I'll continue to do that for season...if we get another season. There'll just be more things in my mouth.”
