{"id":382118,"date":"2025-12-31T07:33:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-31T07:33:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/382118\/"},"modified":"2025-12-31T07:33:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-31T07:33:08","slug":"how-heated-rivalrys-connor-storrie-learned-his-russian-accent-for-season-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/382118\/","title":{"rendered":"How Heated Rivalry’s Connor Storrie Learned His Russian Accent For Season 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

For “Heated Rivalry” star Connor Storrie<\/a>, filming the first season of HBO Max’s smash hit came with its fair share of obstacles to overcome, including honing his ice-skating skills enough to play a convincing professional hockey player. But that was nothing compared to what Storrie calls “the most scary thing ever” about bringing Ilya Rozanov to life on screen.<\/p>\n

As revealed during his recent appearance on Owen Thiele’s “In Your Dreams” podcast<\/a>, the most difficult part of the process was learning to speak Russian, a skill he was forced to master in a very short amount of time. Texas-born Storrie was put in touch with a dialect coach as soon as he signed his contract, giving him just over a week to prepare before flying to the show’s set in Ontario, Canada.<\/p>\n

“For a week, or I think it was maybe a week and a half, before I left, I was doing Russian lessons, and then all the way through a month and a half of the shooting, I had Russian lessons every single day,” he recalls.<\/p>\n

Looking back at the filming of Season 1, Storrie says, “It’s funny because everyone talks about, you know, mine and [Hudson Williams’] chemistry, the characters and stuff, and I’m like, not to water down the process or whatever, but at the end of the day, I’m like, I was f**king focused on sounding Russian when I speak Russian, and then not looking like a total idiot on skates. So all the other stuff that goes into that, I’m like, if I can just really master that, then I can feel comfortable and then just trust … whatever talent or skill or emotional truth comes up in that to deliver on the moment.”<\/p>\n

And deliver he did, particularly in Episode 5 (“I’ll Believe in\u00a0Anything”), which required Storrie to speak a five-minute monologue entirely in Russian. That performance earned rave reviews from critics and viewers, including many of the show’s Russian-speaking fans.<\/p>\n

the fact that as a russian i understood the entire ilya monologue in russian with zero issues says a lot. not a single word felt unclear. every time i’m blown away by how much work he clearly put into this. connor nailed it perfectly#heatedrivalry<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/snyyvfGqT6<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 \u263ewaynills\u2077 \u1d47\u02b8 \u02b2\u1d4f\ud83e\udd62 (@__prodjjk) December 19, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n

Of course, this was just one impressive moment of many during the show’s first season. Storrie and Williams were named TVLine’s Performers of the Week<\/a> for their incredible work in the heartbreaking Dec. 26 finale.<\/p>\n

Were you impressed with Storrie’s performance as Russian hockey prince Ilya?\u00a0Drop a comment with your thoughts on all things “Heated Rivalry” below.<\/p>\n