Hudson Williams Has to ‘Draw the Line’ With Overzealous ‘Heated Rivalry’ Fans
Steamy hockey romance series Heated Rivalry is a bona fide phenomenon.
The Canadian-produced show about the secret relationship between two rival NHL players became a breakout hit after it debuted in late November 2025 on HBO Max in the U.S. (It streams on Crave in Canada.) Connor Storrie and Hudson Williams play Ilya and Shane, two rising hockey stars who fall into a hot-and-heavy romance. The pair of previously unknown actors have been thrust into the spotlight following the show’s surprise success. But navigating their newfound stardom has come with challenges.
Hudson Williams calls ‘Heated Rivalry’ success ‘crazy’
Williams, whose previous credits include small roles in Tracker and the Hallmark movie All I Need for Christmas, wasn’t expecting Heated Rivalry to become the most-talked about show of 2025.
“It’s crazy. It definitely feels like an overnight rapid success,” he said during a recent interview with CNN News Central. “You know, there was kind of a sprinkle of like, oh, maybe it’ll do well, or maybe it’ll sell, you know, overseas.”
While Williams is glad Heated Rivalry – which is based on a book by Rachel Reid – has connected with viewers, the attention that comes with that is a lot.
“[T]he kind of level of the stratosphere it’s reached is — it’s a little overwhelming and definitely the privacy feels weird,” Williams shared. “You know, the relationship with the fans is like, you know, you have to kind of draw the line at points.”
“Connor and I were both like, are we in a bubble? Like is this actually [what] people are talking about? But it is crazy when you start to go to places, you’re like surely no one will recognize me here,” he added.
‘Heated Rivalry’ fans can be ‘obsessive’
Some fans of Heated Rivalry quickly developed intense parasocial relationships with the show’s stars. When I Love LA’s Jordan Firstman criticized the show’s depiction of gay sex and relationships, he was widely criticized by Heated Rivalry fans, who flooded his social media with disparaging comments. Meanwhile, Williams’ own Instagram is filled with comments from fans thirsting over the 24-year-old actor.
Williams said he had an inkling of what he’d be dealing with during filming, when readers Reid’s books found him and Storrie on social media.
“I don’t think it’s something you can prepare for. I would say to a degree it has been gradual,” he told The Hollywood Reporter. “We saw the fans find us when we were halfway through shooting — they found it through Instagram sleuthing — so it wasn’t like, oh, this is a totally normal fan base. It was like, oh, these people can be obsessive.”
But the sheer number of fans has left Williams stunned. (He now has 1.6 million followers on Instagram.)
“I didn’t think it would blow up to this,” he added. “I thought it’d be more of a niche fan base. Not that I think of Instagram followers or anything, but unfortunately it is sort of a metric of relevancy in actors. I thought I’d maybe get 100,000 [followers] by episode six release … this already is like, oh, f*ck, did not expect this.”
Heated Rivalry is streaming on HBO Max in the U.S. and on Crave in Canada.
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