'Heated Rivalry' Stars Connor Storrie and Hudson Williams Talk Hockey, Sex Scenes, and Overnight Success

On a Thursday night in December, the stars of Heated Rivalry walked into the Chateau Marmont in West Hollywood. The occasion was an industry party the two men would not have been invited to just a few weeks ago, held at a hotel that would have likely turned them away. But then their smutty, NSFW drama about two closeted pro hockey players became a surprise hit on HBO Max. So Connor Storrie and Hudson Williams were welcomed inside like royalty-two smooth-chested crown princes mingling with Baz Luhrmann, Vicky Krieps, and the cast of The Pitt . “We were just happy to be there,” says Williams, 24. “Then the fact that people were like, We want a selfie with you! ” He shakes his head, acknowledging it’s been quite a week. A few nights earlier, he and his Heated Rivalry costar surprised fans at a gay bar in West Hollywood. Facing a wall of iPhones recording their every word, Storrie said, “Thank you for tweeting about our butts. That’s where the real magic happens.” Heated Rivalry is based on a Rachel Reid novel that just hit the New York Times bestseller list for the first time-a full seven years after its initial publication. Like the book, which is currently sold out on Amazon, the show chronicles a DL romance between Ilya Rozanov (Storrie), who is cocky and Russian and plays for the fictional Boston Raiders, and Shane Hollander (Williams), an Asian Canadian would-be role model who captains the equally fictional Montreal Metros. Their illicit, on-camera sex is frequent and sweaty, making Heated Rivalry a must-watch for anyone who liked Challengers but thought the churro scene was too subtle. None of this was supposed to happen. The most unlikely TV hit of 2025 was initially made for a small Canadian streamer called Crave, which has just over 4 million subscribers. The entire thing was shot in just 36 or 37 days. Then the trailer blew up. And fans of the books-there are six titles in all-started sharing tips on how to pirate Canadian TV. Mercifully, days before Heated Rivalry ’s late-November launch, HBO rescued the so-called “gay hockey show” from its snowy purgatory, making it available in roughly 54 million additional homes. The actors were suddenly thrust into the global spotlight, which may explain why Williams did multiple on-camera interviews that first week in what can only be described as the ugliest sweater vest I’ve ever seen. Sartorial missteps aside, the response was swift. Williams actually thought his algorithm had mistakenly convinced him the show was a hit. But then The Cut posted an explainer (“Why Are Women Obsessing Over Gay Hockey Smut?”) and The Onion weighed in on the show’s plot (“Two men have a steamy sexual affair despite not being vampires or elf nobility”). Desperate to get in on the conversation, Sweetgreen’s corporate account tweeted: “I just know Shane Hollander would love a harvest bowl.” (We’re lucky it wasn’t peach -and-burrata season.) Casey Bloys, chairman and CEO of HBO and...

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