‘Heated Rivalry’ Creator Shuts Down Question About Actors’ Sexuality: ‘I Don’t Think There’s Any Reason to Get into That Stuff’

“Heated Rivalry” creator Jacob Tierney said during a recent interview with Xtra that the real-life sexualities of his stars are irrelevant compared to the “enthusiasm and willingness” they bring to HBO’s new queer, sports drama series.

“I don’t think there’s any reason to get into that stuff,” Tierney said when asked if the sexualities of stars Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie are relevant to the show. “I’ll tell you something about the casting of both of these roles. You can’t ask questions like that when you’re casting, right? It’s actually against the law. So what you have to gauge is somebody’s enthusiasm and willingness to do the work.”

He added, “And that’s what’s so impressive about both of these guys is they came into this being like, ‘Yeah, we’re here to do this, and we are here to make this story feel authentic and to be as real as possible.’ And they fucking hit it out of the park.”

“Heated Rivalry” stars Williams and Storrie as emerging hockey pros Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov, respectively. Despite playing for rival teams, the pair develops a romance off the ice.

Williams recently told Out Magazine that his chemistry with Storrie has an intense and unexpected authenticity unrivaled by other potential co-stars.

“I read with one other possible Ilya, and it was good. But something about Connor,” he said. “There was an inexplicable X-factor that just felt realer than what I thought it could possibly be. And that was something. I had a quote I told Jacob, at one point, about my read with Connor in particular.”

In the same interview, Tierney recalled meeting with Williams after the fact: “Hudson told me, ‘The other guy was good, but Connor felt like he was going to pin me down and fuck me,’” later adding, “That is literally what he said. And I was like, ‘Well, I think I cast this right.’”