The quietly sizzling scene was being shot on a rainy March morning in a grand old house in Victoria, the stately home separated from the street by an expansive lawn. A main-floor living room had been transformed into a set: a dark, old-school university professor\u2019s office. And a seduction was under way.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would like to talk to you today about bones,\u201d the character played by Hudson Williams, suddenly one of the hottest stars on the planet, said to the character played by Carrie-Anne Moss. <\/p>\n
In the scene, Moss\u2019s Katherine, a professor with deep expertise in bones, is being interviewed for a podcast by Williams\u2019s Henry Park, heir to a fishery fortune in a small coastal town. <\/p>\n
\u201cAre you comfortable or would you rather do it on the desk,\u201d Henry asks. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think you mean at the desk,\u201d Katherine responds.<\/p>\n
It might be raining outside but it is steamy on set. \u201cPrioritize the hot, people,\u201d showrunner Kat Sandler instructs. <\/p>\n
Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n Carrie-Anne Moss, left, stars next to Hudson Williams in a seduction scene from Yaga.Christopher Lawrence\/Crave\/Supplied<\/p>\n The scene appears in episode five of the upcoming series Yaga \u2013 a supernatural psychological thriller based on Sandler\u2019s play, Yaga, marking her first move into television. <\/p>\n She has adapted the witchy award-winning play, inspired by the Slavic legend of Baba Yaga, for the screen, expanding it from a two-act play to an eight-part series with more characters (and thus more suspects).<\/p>\n In the first episode, which premieres on Crave on Oct. 23, a private investigator named Rapp (Noah Reid) arrives, hired by the wealthy Park family to investigate Henry\u2019s potential disappearance. Rapp is paired with a local police detective, played by Clark Backo. It\u2019s not long before Rapp, an old friend of Henry\u2019s, becomes intoxicated by the local women, including Moss\u2019s Katherine.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is interesting to play someone that is my age that is supposed to be invoking attraction from younger men. That\u2019s a trip,\u201d said Moss, who is now 59. <\/p>\n Hudson Williams and YAGA premiere leave TIFF crowd buzzing<\/a><\/p>\n Growing up in Vancouver, Moss spent parts of her childhood summers in Victoria with an aunt and uncle who lived here. Being here now to shoot the series, she said, evokes a childhood nostalgia. \u201cJust the smell, the weather, the feeling of the place, even though it\u2019s changed so much,\u201d she said. \u201cI think subconsciously, where you come from is in your bones.\u201d <\/p>\n Moss became a breakout star herself as a younger woman, cast as Trinity in The Matrix opposite another Canadian, Keanu Reeves. Given that, I asked if she had any wisdom to offer 25-year-old Williams, who is also from B.C., about rocketing to stardom.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think he needs it, you know? I think he\u2019s very grounded,\u201d she answered. \u201cI don\u2019t know if it\u2019s the Canadian thing.\u201d<\/p>\n We were speaking in between takes of her exchange with Williams, a scene Sandler describes as \u201creally sexy.\u201d So hot, I was told, that even during an online read-through of the scene, Williams appeared to be blushing over Zoom.<\/p>\n Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n Williams: \u2018There is nothing that really prepares you for the weird intricacies of celebrity.\u2019Christopher Lawrence\/Crave\/Supplied<\/p>\n Not that Williams is any stranger to shooting racy TV scenes, as anyone who has not been in a pop-culture cave since Heated Rivalry took over the discourse is aware. The heat and chemistry between Williams\u2019s Shane Hollander and co-star Connor Storrie\u2019s Ilya Rozanov shot the two young men into the stratosphere since its late 2025 release. <\/p>\n It was in the midst of this phenomenon that Williams joined the cast of Yaga, giving this new Canadian production a boost beyond its creator\u2019s wildest dreams. <\/p>\n \u201cI was, of course, over the moon,\u201d Sandler, who lives in Toronto, told me. \u201cI couldn\u2019t believe it.\u201d <\/p>\n Production was under way at the peak of the Heated Rivalry frenzy, which at that point was still new and strange for Williams. It was early March and over the past three months, he had gone from relative unknown to one of the two most visible stars in the world, along with Storrie, who four days earlier had guest-hosted Saturday Night Live, complete with a Williams cameo. <\/p>\n Life had changed dramatically. A year earlier, Williams was working on some short films, juggling acting classes and his server job at a suburban Old Spaghetti Factory, trying to save up some money for a vacation, he told me.<\/p>\n And now? He\u2019s one of the most recognizable stars in the world.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m doing relatively good. I\u2019m learning all throughout this,\u201d Williams said during an interview that day on set. We were sitting in an improvised green room on the mansion\u2019s top floor, Williams dressed in his character\u2019s crisp white shirt. <\/p>\n \u201cIn the beginning, it was really hard during the blow-up. The good moments are absolute highs, but the lows are weird lows that I hadn\u2019t experienced before because it\u2019s foreign territory. The lows don\u2019t feel like regular emotions. The whole Earth feels different.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThere is nothing that really prepares you for the weird intricacies of celebrity,\u201d he continued. \u201cIt feels completely foreign.\u201d<\/p>\n He talked about meeting thousands of people, shaking endless hands, fans throwing themselves at him. \u201cIt\u2019s sweet, but it changes how you just walk down the street.\u201d The other day, he told me, he went out for what should have been a five-minute walk and was stopped about twelve times. So many new people but so few chances for true, organic connection.<\/p>\n \u201cBut now I feel like I know the muscle that can engage with all these different things is growing and getting better,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The hype he has brought to Yaga has been palpable. After Williams was announced as a cast member, orders came in from around the world for copies of Yaga, the play<\/a>. This season in Toronto, the Tarragon<\/a> Theatre will revive Yaga for its 50th-anniversary season. <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s really cool that theatre begets television, that begets more theatre,\u201d said Sandler, who from the beginning has approached her stage productions with a television model. \u201cLet\u2019s make theatre for people who don\u2019t like theatre, who really love HBO.\u201d <\/p>\n Sandler\u2019s enthusiasm is infectious. On set, in a ball cap that says \u201cBad\u201d and later during an interview in a \u201cDiet Coke\u201d ball cap, she exudes excitement about her play moving to TV, her first foray as showrunner and her top-flight cast.<\/p>\n \u201cI lost my mind when Carrie-Anne said yes. You don\u2019t get people like this to do first-time shows,\u201d said Sandler, rhyming off the show\u2019s \u201cAvengers-level\u201d team of Canadian talent, also including Reid, Backo, Sheila McCarthy and Megan Follows.<\/p>\n And while much of the early buzz about the series focused on its male breakout star, this is very much a female-centric story and a show powered by women: Sandler as showrunner, her friend and creative partner Mackenzie Donaldson as producer, and Moss as star and an executive producer. Half of the episodes, including episode five, are directed by Rachel Talalay.<\/p>\n Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n Director Rachel Talalay, Hudson Williams and showrunner Kat Sandler watch a playback of Yaga while Marsha Lederman, back right, looks on.Christopher Lawrence\/Crave\/Supplied<\/p>\n The story is based on a folkloric witch figure, Baba Yaga, whom Sandler calls \u201cthe original bad girl of Eastern-European folklore.\u201d If TV audiences could accept Dexter, Walter White and Tony Soprano, why couldn\u2019t they also fall for a complicated female anti-hero? <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s rage and it\u2019s sexy and it\u2019s witchy and it\u2019s mysterious, but it\u2019s fun,\u201d Sandler said of the show, which imagines Baba Yaga as a woman living in contemporary times.<\/p>\n Reid, who, like Williams, became famous playing a gay Canadian \u2013 Patrick on Schitt\u2019s Creek \u2013 said during an interview on set that day that the show has contemporary relevance. \u201cThis kind of repurposing of the myth of Baba Yaga and how she might be useful in today\u2019s society and the sneaky ways that men try to get away with things.\u201d<\/p>\n It had been just over a month since the shocking death of his Schitt\u2019s Creek co-star Catherine O\u2019Hara, and I asked him what he learned working from her that he was able to bring to his other projects, including this one.<\/p>\n \u201cI think about her process all the time,\u201d he told me, after shooting a driving scene with Backo. \u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s something that you could replicate, because she was such a pure source of creative energy.\u201d<\/p>\n Reid and the others I spoke to about Williams were excited about the buzz he was bringing to the show, but quick to point out how deserving he is; that he\u2019s a great actor \u2013 and a great guy. <\/p>\n \u201cHe is just a really lovely human,\u201d said Sandler. \u201cThere\u2019s the Hudson thing, but then there\u2019s a really smart actor who just wants to really work.\u201d <\/p>\n