TV SERIES · 2025– · CANADA
Heated Rivalry
- Created by
- Jacob Tierney
- Network
- Crave
- Seasons
- 1
- Episodes
- 6
- Studio
- Accent Aigu Entertainment
79 archived facts 7 topics 1 source Last reviewed Nov 2026
Two of the biggest stars in Major League Hockey are bound by ambition, rivalry, and a magnetic pull neither of them fully understands. What begins as a secret fling between two fresh faced rookies evolves into a years-long journey of love, denial, and self-discovery. Over the next eight years, as they chase glory on the ice, they struggle to navigate their feelings for each other. Torn between the sport they live…
79 Interesting Facts About Heated Rivalry
Interesting Facts (15)
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Connor Storrie revealed that they filmed the silent final credits scene twice. He and Hudson Williams decided to do the first take crying through the whole song, overcome with love and emotion. They were thrilled with their performance until director Jacob Tierney said, "Alrighty, let's do one where you guys don't look like you want to kill yourselves. Let's start over."
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Connor Storrie decided to show his body and deliberately performed his entire audition shirtless, even though it was not written that way. He noted: "We're doing a heavily sexed show. So I took my shirt off, even though it didn't say that. I had my shirt off the entire time because I said, 'If we're doing this, you all need to see what these people look like naked.'" He impressed the producers and won the role.
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Ilya holding Shane's chest while performing oral sex on him was Connor Storrie's idea. Hudson Williams brought it up as an example of how the actors could make the sex scenes more passionate with decisions made on the shooting day, even though the scenes had been heavily choreographed in advance. The intimacy coordinator called the process "artistic interpretation" by the actors to enhance the scenes.
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Production Story (23)
- #016
Connor Storrie's performance during the audition was so overwhelming that even though Hudson Williams tested with one other guy, Williams told the creator, "The other guy was good, but Connor felt like he was going to pin me down and fuck me." Storrie then won the role. Williams added, "I read with one other possible Ilya, and it was good. But something about Connor... there was an inexplicable X-factor that just felt realer than what I thought it could possibly be. And that was something." Storrie was pleased when he heard Williams' graphic description of his audition performance, "Damn! Is that what it is!"
- #017
- #018
Connor Storrie decided to show off his body and deliberately perform his entire audition shirtless - even though it wasn't written that way. He noted, "We're doing a show that heavily involves sex. So I took off my shirt, even though it didn't say that. I had my shirt off the entire time because I was like, 'If we're doing that, you all have to see what these people look like naked.'" It impressed the makers and he won the role.
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Texas-born Connor Storrie studied Russian for the role of Ilya Rozanov and developed a Russian accent for his English lines. Throughout the shoot, he kept the accent even during lunch breaks and when talking with the crew. Russian crew members even tried to chat with him without realizing he didn't know the language; Storrie had memorized his lines phonetically.
- #025
Connor Storrie's audition was so impressive that Hudson Williams, even though he had tested with another candidate, told the creator, 'The other guy was good, but Connor made me feel like he was going to pin me down and fuck me.' Williams added, 'I did a read with another potential Ilya and he was good. But Connor had an indefinable X factor; he was so much more realistic than I had imagined.' Hearing this graphic description, Storrie expressed his satisfaction with 'Wow! So that's what it was!' To win the role, he decided to do the entire audition shirtless; 'We're shooting a show with a lot of sex, so even though it wasn't written in the script, I took my shirt off. If we're going to do this, you need to see what these people look like naked,' he said, impressing the producers.
- #026
Connor Storrie said that although the sex scenes were entirely tied to the script, the actors could add their own touches, such as extra kisses, to make the scenes more passionate. 'Things that aren't written at all, some of our touches, our body kisses. There are levels to everything: closed-mouth kiss, open-mouth, kissing with tongue, hard and prolonged kissing with tongue. Hudson and I aren't weird or shy about this, we trust each other. So we said, let's go all the way, I'll wear the least clothing, I'll do the most kissing. It turned into asking each other, 'Is it okay if I touch you here?' and me saying, 'Touch me wherever you want, I don't care.' Most of those small, detailed kisses and touches between moments are our organic contributions to the moment.' Storrie didn't want to hold back in the show's explicit scenes and told the intimacy coordinator, 'I'm fine with the most extreme form of kissing and the least clothing; there's no professional way to say this, I'm ready to do everything except actual sex.' Hudson Williams explained that Ilya grabbing Shane's chest while performing oral sex on him was Storrie's idea; this was an example of how the actors made scenes hotter with decisions they made on the shooting day, even though the scenes were choreographed in advance. The intimacy coordinator described this process as the actors' 'artistic interpretation' that elevated the scenes.
- #027
- #028
Connor Storrie said he was aware that thousands of photos of his nude physique were being shared online, but that he knew this would happen when he started the show. 'We are absolutely objectified, I signed on knowing that would be part of it,' he said. Storrie, who drew great attention for displaying his chest muscles in shirtless scenes, admitted he actually didn't do any special preparation: 'I don't do push-ups. My chest — this will sound narcissistic — is naturally round, so I don't have to work too hard on it.' Instead, he said he focused on bringing out his biceps and shoulders: 'I do biceps curls. I focus more on my arms because they're my weak point. I'll sit in a chair and do 40 biceps curls, or work my shoulders. Shoulders matter, they're a big deal.'
- #029
Ksenia Daniela Kharlamova is the great-niece of Valeri Kharlamov, one of the Soviet Union's greatest hockey stars. Kharlamov was named Soviet League MVP twice, won two Olympic golds and played against Canada in the 1972 Summit Series. Ksenia took the role of Svetlana knowing almost nothing about the show. During filming, her father on set asked whether she was related to the gold-medal-winning hockey player with the same surname. When it turned out that Valeri Kharlamov's wife was named Irina — the name of Ilya Rozanov's mother — and his son was named Sasha — Ilya's first love — the story became even more astonishing, even though everything had been written before Ksenia got the role.
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Lead actors Hudson Williams, Connor Storrie and François Arnaud turned down invitations to take part in Variety's annual Actors on Actors series. According to co-editor Ramin Setoodeh, the series' failure to qualify for the Emmy Awards for a technical reason may have played a part, since the production launched on the Canada-based platform Crave rather than in the US.
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Behind the Scenes (9)
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It was Connor Storrie's idea for Ilya to grab Shane's chest while performing oral sex on him, Hudson Williams revealed as an example of how the actors were able to make the sex scenes even more passionate through decisions made on the day of filming - even though the scenes were heavily choreographed in advance. The intimacy coordinator called the process "artistic interpretation" by the actors to elevate the scenes.
- #041
Connor Storrie did not want to hold back when it came to the show's explicit sex scenes and was willing to go as far as needed. He told the intimacy coordinator he was, "okay with the most extreme form of kissing, I'm okay with the least amount of clothing. There's no professional-sounding way to say that other than, I'm okay with doing anything outside of having actual sex. You know what I mean?"
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Connor Storrie said that even though the sex scenes are fully scripted, the actors have room to add their own touches like additional kisses to make the scenes as passionate as possible. He said, "The things that aren't fully scripted are some of our touches, some of our body kisses. There are levels to everything, right? Where are you allowed to be touched? What type of kisses are you allowed to do? There's a closed-mouth kiss. There's an open-mouth kiss. There's an open-mouth kiss with tongue. There's a hardcore open-mouth, prolonged kiss with tongue. Hudson [Hudson Williams] and I, we're just like, 'I'm not weird about that. I'm not squeamish.' I trust him. So I'm like, "So, let's go all the way. I'll wear the least amount of clothes. I'll do the most amount of kisses." It literally just made me and Hudson be like, "Is it cool if I touch you here?" And I'm like, "Yeah, touch me anywhere. I don't care." So all those little intricate kisses, touches in between moments, a lot of that is just us organically feeding into that moment."
- #045
- #046
Connor Storrie said they shot the silent end-credits scene twice. In the first take, he and Hudson Williams decided to play it crying with love and emotion throughout the song. They were so pleased with their performance that director Jacob Tierney said, "All right, now let's do a take where you don't look like you want to kill yourself. Starting over."
- #047
Characters & Cast (25)
- #048
Ksenia Daniela Kharlamova got the role of Svetlana knowing very little about the show. During filming, her on screen father asked if she was related to the gold medal hockey player with the same last name. He is a relative and won 2 Golds - 1972 and 1976 and silver in 1980 in Lake Placid for the Miracle on Ice win for America. To make this story even more amazing considering everything was written before Ksenia got the role is that his wife's name was Irina - Ilya Rozanov's mother and his son's name was Sasha - Ilya Rosanov's first lover.
- #049
Connor Storrie received a lot of attention for showing off his pecs in his shirtless scenes but said he actually doesn't do any special prep before displaying them - "I don't do push-ups. My chest - I sound so narcissistic - is naturally rounded, so I don't have to try that hard." Instead, he said he focuses more on making his biceps and delts pop, "I do curls. I'm more so arm-focused because my arms are my weak point. So I'll take a chair and just do bicep curls 40 times, or shoulders. Shoulders are big. Shoulders are a big deal."
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Texas-born Connor Storrie studied Russian for the role of Ilya Rozanov and developed a Russian accent for his English lines. Throughout the shoot, he kept up the accent even during lunch breaks and when talking with the crew. Russian crew members even tried to chat with him without realizing he did not know the language; Storrie had memorized his lines phonetically.
- #058
Connor Storrie's audition was so impressive that Hudson Williams, despite having tested with another candidate, told the creator, 'The other guy was good, but Connor made me feel like he was going to pin me down and fuck me.' Williams added, 'I did a read with another potential Ilya and he was good. But Connor had an indefinable X factor; he was far more realistic than I had imagined.' Hearing this graphic description, Storrie expressed his satisfaction with 'Wow! So that's what it was!' To win the role, he decided to do the entire audition shirtless; 'We're shooting a show with a lot of sex, so even though it wasn't in the script, I took my shirt off. If we're going to do this, you need to see what these people look like naked,' he said, impressing the producers.
- #059
Connor Storrie said that although the sex scenes were entirely tied to the script, the actors could add their own touches, such as extra kisses, to make the scenes more passionate. 'Things that weren't written at all, some of our touches, our body kisses. There are levels to everything: closed-mouth kiss, open-mouth, tongue kissing, hard and prolonged tongue kissing. Hudson and I aren't weird or shy about this, we trust each other. So we said, let's go all the way, I'll wear the least clothes, I'll do the most kissing. It turned into asking each other, 'Is it okay if I touch you here?' and me saying, 'Touch me wherever you want, I don't care.' Most of those small, detailed kisses and touches between moments are our organic contributions to the scene.' Storrie did not want to hold back in the show's explicit scenes and told the intimacy coordinator, 'I'm fine with the most extreme form of kissing and the least clothing; there's no professional way to say this, I'm ready to do everything except real sex.' Hudson Williams explained that Ilya grabbing Shane's chest while performing oral sex on him was Storrie's idea; this was an example of how the actors made scenes hotter with decisions they made on the shooting day, even though the scenes were choreographed in advance. The intimacy coordinator described this process as the actors' 'artistic interpretation' that elevated the scenes.
- #060
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- #062
Connor Storrie said he was aware that thousands of photos of his nude physique were being shared online, but that he knew this would happen when he started the series. 'We are absolutely objectified, I signed on knowing that would be part of it,' he said. Storrie, who drew great attention for displaying his pectoral muscles in shirtless scenes, admitted he actually did no special preparation: 'I don't do push-ups. My chest – this will sound narcissistic – is naturally round, so I don't need to work on it much.' Instead, he said he focused on bringing out his biceps and shoulders: 'I do biceps curls. I focus more on my arms because they're my weak point. I sit on a chair and do 40 biceps curls, or I work my shoulders. Shoulders are important, a big deal.'
- #063
Ksenia Daniela Kharlamova is the grandniece of Valeri Kharlamov, one of the USSR's greatest hockey stars. Kharlamov was twice named Soviet League MVP, won two Olympic golds and played against Canada in the 1972 Summit Series. Ksenia took the role of Svetlana knowing almost nothing about the series. During filming, her father on set asked whether she was related to the gold-medal-winning hockey player with the same surname. With Valeri Kharlamov's wife named Irina – the name of Ilya Rozanov's mother – and his son named Sasha – the name of Ilya's first love – the story became even more astonishing, even though everything had been written before Ksenia got the role.
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Lead actors Hudson Williams, Connor Storrie and François Arnaud declined invitations to take part in Variety's annual Actors on Actors series. According to co-editor Ramin Setoodeh, the series not being deemed eligible for the Emmy Awards for a technical reason may have been a factor, since the production launched from the Canada-based Crave platform rather than in the US.
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Deeper Meaning (2)
Career & Awards (4)
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On December 10, 2025, Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie surprised fans by showing up unannounced at trivia night at the West Hollywood gay bar Hi-Tops. The visit was documented on HBO Max's Instagram account and quickly went viral on TikTok, with fans sharing multiple videos of the appearance.
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Life & Family (1)
Sources & editorial notes
Reference databases
- Wikipedia
- IMDb
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