“Heat Rivalry” creator Jacob Tierney said in a recent interview with Xtra that the stars’ real-life sexuality is irrelevant compared to the “passion and drive” they bring to HBO’s new queer sports drama series.
Asked if Starney Hudson Williams and Conor Storey’s sexuality had anything to do with the show, Tierney said, “I don’t think there’s any reason to go into that.” “Let’s talk about casting both of these roles. You can’t ask questions like that when you’re casting, right? That’s actually against the law. So what you have to assess is the person’s enthusiasm and willingness to do the job.”
He added, “And what’s so impressive about these two is that they came into this world thinking, ‘Yeah, we’re here to do this, and we’re here to make this story feel authentic and as real as possible.'” And they hit it out of the park. ”
In “Heated Rivals,” Williams and Storey play rising hockey pros Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov, respectively. Despite playing on rival teams, the two develop a romance on the ice.
Williams recently told Out Magazine that his chemistry with Story has a strong, unexpected authenticity that is unmatched by any of his potential co-stars.
“I read it with Elijah, another potential character, and it was good. But there was something about Connor,” he said. “There was an unexplainable X-factor that made it feel more real than I thought it would. And that was something. There’s something I said to Jacob one time, specifically about reading with Connor.”
In the same interview, Tierney recalled meeting Williams after the fact, saying, “Hudson said to me, ‘The guy was good, but Connor was going to hold me down and have sex with me,'” adding, “That was literally what he said. And I thought, ‘Well, I guess this was the right thing to do.'”
