It’s not a very heated rivalry.
François Arnault sent out a sharp message via Instagram on Friday after making headlines for unfollowing fellow cast members and the show’s creators on “Heated Rivals.”
The actor, who plays Scott Hunter on the HBO show, posted a grid of three photos of co-star Hudson Williams smiling and playing with the camera with both hands.
Mr. Arnaud similarly gave up the bird in the fourth photo.
“Learning from the best. @hudsonwilliamsofficial,” the 40-year-old captioned the social media upload.
He added a post to his story set to Wolf Parade’s “I’ll Believe in Anything.”
The song was specifically played during the farewell scene between Robbie Graham-Kuntz’s Arnaud character and Kip in the episode of the same name.
On Thursday, news broke that Arnault had cut the number of accounts he follows from more than 1,000 to fewer than 200, while unfollowing Williams, 24, Graham Kuntz, 29, and Connor Story, who plays Ilya Rozanov.
However, as of Friday morning, Arnaud is re-following all three actors and creator Jacob Tierney, Page Six confirmed.
The reason for Mr. Arnault’s social media purge remains unclear, but he did so amid intense online harassment for departing from JFK Airport on a plane with Mr. Storey, 25, on Wednesday.
An airport sighting of the two sparked dating rumors, but some fans were furious that Story was linked to someone other than her on-air boyfriend, Williams.
Representatives for Mr. Storey and Mr. Arnault have not yet responded to Page Six’s requests for comment.
During the press tour, Arnault floated the idea of ditching social media completely on SiriusXM’s “The Morning Mashup.”
“Helen Hunt…not only followed me and other members of the show, but she also commented on my old posts,” he explained, noting that this tempted him to “shut the whole thing down.”
“It’s like, ‘Oh, just delete Instagram. I don’t need to look at anything else,'” Arnault quipped. …This is how it should end. This is my happy ending. ”
His followers raved about his latest post, telling Arnault that “haters may choke”.
One person wrote, “There’s a part of the fandom that’s trying to be very invasive and hateful to you all, and I apologize for that. I hope you guys will be careful and look out for each other. And it seems like you guys are.”
