This story originally appeared on Out.
The unexpected popularity of Heated Rivalry thrust its stars into the limelight almost overnight, but with their rise to fame came a loss of privacy that Hudson Williams is now acutely aware of.
Williams is currently being escorted by a bodyguard around France's capital for Paris Fashion Week, but it’s not the fans who gather outside his hotel asking for autographs that bother the newly minted A-Lister; it’s the people trying to make a quick buck at his expense.
Fans got to see another side of the normally happy-go-lucky actor when he tried to light one of his own photographs on fire after telling alleged autograph sellers: “You guys aren’t fans.”
In a video circulating on social media, the 25-year-old actor exited his chauffeured car on July 11 only to be approached by men who are reportedly autograph sellers trying to pass him his own headshots to sign.
“Guys, you just followed me to my residence,” Williams says in the video. “No ‘sorry’. You can’t do this. This is really f**king weird. You can’t f**king do this. You guys aren’t fans, you’re being really creepy and you just followed me. You don’t do this.”
Autograph dealers hunt down celebrities, get them to sign memorabilia under the guise of being a fan, only to turn around and sell the autograph for a hefty profit.
“I’m gonna burn this,” Williams adds with his photograph in his hand. “Now please f****** leave. You’re demented. I wanna watch you hop on your little bike.”
Williams doesn’t raise his voice, but he unsuccessfully attempts to use a lighter to burn the photos before the people with him encourage him to walk away.
When the men continue to follow him and film their interaction, Williams says, “You just followed me on a bike,” and tells them to leave.
Like all stars, Williams has signed that age-old Faustian bargain: gain fame and fortune in exchange for losing your ability to lead a private life. The problem comes when fans overstep, and the paparazzi and autograph hunters become vultures.
The overwhelming popularity of the gay hockey romance and the heightened scrutiny the stars have been under at Paris Fashion Week have given both Williams and his co-star Connor Storrie a front-row seat to just how weird and intrusive things can get at this level of fame.
Storrie also experienced this when a fan allegedly assaulted the woman behind the fan account Club Chalamet on social media while the pair waited outside his Paris hotel hoping to get a glimpse of the star.
But while stars like Chappell Roan have faced backlash from fans for how she’s handled the paparazzi, Williams’ interaction with the autograph hunters has been widely praised by fans on social media.
Some fans commented that he acted appropriately: “He did nothing wrong and everything he said was deserved,” while others admitted that they would still be a fan of the star regardless of how he reacted.
“hudson williams could start beating paparazzi up live on instagram and it would only make me stan him harder tbh,” someone wrote on X.
Things are likely to only get more intense as the Heated Rivalry stars head to Canada to film the second season of the show next month, which is set to air in April 2027.
See more fan reactions below.
