![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/bc609dc2f09f74fb8d130b2d6ba2494015-Connor-Storrie-Taste-Test-Dec-15-2025-v2.rsquare.w400.jpg\")
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Taste Test<\/a><\/p>\n \n What is \u201cgood taste\u201d anyway? Allow your favorite actor, musician, celebrity, or comedian to let you in on what they\u2019re watching, reading, and consuming.\n <\/p>\n \n Photo-Illustration: by The Cut; Photos: Getty Images, Everett Collection, Retailers, Netflix\n <\/p>\n If you\u2019re like me and basically everyone else in the world, your brain space and your phone\u2019s algorithms have undergone a radical transformation. Suddenly, everything is gay (not new for me) and everything has to do with hockey (very new for me). Heated Rivalry<\/a>, a new six-part series based on the Game Changers books<\/a>, has completely taken over.<\/p>\n In the Crave\/HBO Max series that follows two closeted pro-hockey players who are deeply in love, Connor Storrie plays Ilya Rozanov, a Russian hockey player who is known for his cocky attitude and frank demeanor. He\u2019s the polar opposite of Shane Hollander (Hudson Williams), his Major League Hockey rival. They begin to have sex (really hot sex<\/a>) while maintaining their status as rivals to the public, and for the two actors the whole experience has ushered them into a whole new level of fame. \u201cI keep gaslighting myself into thinking that nobody has watched this show,\u201d Storrie tells The Cut merely an hour after hearing the announcement that the show has been renewed for a second season. Below, Storrie talks about his Russian manifestations, joining the L.A. clown scene, and who he would cast in a lesbian version of Heated Rivalry.\u00a0<\/p>\n I know you\u2019ve talked about it, but everyone is still wondering: How did you become so proficient in Russian? Do you speak any other languages? Did you understand what you were saying in character on the show? It\u2019s been a crazy two weeks, and I\u2019m sure you didn\u2019t expect the reaction of the show to be like this, but what has been the most surreal thing that\u2019s happened since the show came out? You very much are. Let\u2019s get into some of the taste-test<\/a> questions. Where do you get your best cultural recommendations from? What is your pre-filming ritual? Is there something you do to get into the right mind-set to film a scene? Did you have a playlist that you listened to or a song that was on repeat when you guys were on set? I am a firm believer in manifestation, so I love hearing this. What\u2019s the last book you read that you couldn\u2019t put down? Does the timeboxing stuff really work for you? This is a question from my friends, so I have to ask you: Did you read any smut before Game Changers? Or was this your introduction to the world of smut? It\u2019s a whole world out there. What is your comfort rewatch? Okay, so you\u2019re crafty. That\u2019s a good skill to have. What is your glute workout? Do you have one? How many times a week do you do legs? That\u2019s the most L.A. thing I\u2019ve ever heard. Do you do a lot of reps, or is it heavy weight? In your opinion, what\u2019s the most erotic sport? If there were a lesbian version of Heated Rivalry, who would you cast?<\/p>\n This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.<\/p>\n \u200b<\/p>\n Related<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Taste Test What is \u201cgood taste\u201d anyway? Allow your favorite actor, musician, celebrity, or comedian to let you…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":349461,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[49,48,569,75,5863,140293,117973,102497,151942,1788],"class_list":["post-349460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-culture","tag-entertainment","tag-hbo-max","tag-heated-rivalry","tag-lgbtqia","tag-queer","tag-taste-test","tag-television"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=349460"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349460\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/349461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=349460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=349460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=349460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
I\u2019m not a polyglot. When I was little, besides wanting to be an actor, I just wanted to be European. I wanted to speak a foreign language. Also,\u00a0I think like 70 percent of the town where I grew up in West Texas was Latino, so I was around Spanish all the time. I speak French because I studied abroad in France. When I was there, I met some Russians, and I got really into their music. I think I just have a knack for it. I\u2019m good at feeling stupid and trying the accent and really committing to it, which is 90 percent of the language-learning stuff.<\/p>\n
I understand those words. The thing that makes Russian impossible is that it\u2019s not like any other language. In Spanish, dog is always perro. In Russian sabaka means dog, but depending on the context it\u2019s sabaka, sabaki, sabaku. If I\u2019m like, \u201cThis is the dog,\u201d then that\u2019s one word. But if I say, \u201cI\u2019m petting the dog,\u201d then that becomes a different word. And if it\u2019s \u201cthe toys of the dog,\u201d then the dog is a different word again. There\u2019s six different ways to say almost every single word that depends on context. So learning vocabulary is almost impossible.<\/p>\n
I keep gaslighting myself into thinking that nobody has watched this show. I just went and walked and got my coffee with Fran\u00e7ois, who plays Scott Hunter, and we got stopped four times in 15 minutes. Yesterday my sister and I went grocery shopping, and we were just walking around, and after we left she was like, \u201cI didn\u2019t want to tell you in the moment because I didn\u2019t want to make you uncomfortable, but I saw like five different people sneak photos of you.\u201d I was like, Damn, are we really at that level?<\/p>\n
I only started being online in the past year or so. I\u2019m in the clown scene in L.A.; it\u2019s like an alternate-comedy theater that\u2019s kind of blowing up. It\u2019s been around forever. It\u2019s very European. But it\u2019s having a moment right now, and I feel like I get a lot of my culture from that. I get a lot of music recommendations. I see a lot of performance artists that are doing really crazy, daring stuff that show me what you can do artistically to stimulate people. It can be really brash. It can be kind of cringe. It can be really funny or manic or hysterical or sad.<\/p>\n
With Ilya, his mannerisms and his accent clicked me into his physicality and his emotional state so easily. Since the accent\u2019s so different from mine, and it does inform so much of the character, the moment I got to my trailer that morning until the time they called cut on the last thing, I kept that accent on just because it would be exhausting for me and everyone else if I went from talking like Connor to [switches to Ilya\u2019s voice] being this all the time. No one would believe it. It would be bad for my brain. If I know that I have some heavier scenes, I\u2019m a very high-energy person so if I have something that requires me to be a little bit more down, I have to kind of drop Connor a little bit and I have to work to slow my energy down and make my baseline like a level three rather than a level nine or ten, which I usually am.<\/p>\n
I had a playlist that was all old Russian music that I imagined Ilya\u2019s grandmother probably would listen to. Old \u201950s and \u201960s love ballads and shit. Playing this Russian character was kind of a manifestation for me. I\u2019ve loved Russian music since like 2015 or 2016. IC3PEAK, which is a pretty popular Russian band now, I was into them from the jump. I used to have an alter ego that I would DJ under with friends, and the character was Russian. I was the Czar. Russian music has always been a huge interest of mine.<\/p>\n
To be honest, the last book I read was one of the books in the Game Changers series, Role Model, which is a book that\u2019s connected to Shane and Ilya\u2019s story. But before something in Game Changers, I actually think it was one about timeboxing, which is pretty much like how to schedule your life if you want to be highly productive. I read a lot of self-help books. I read Rick Rubin\u2019s The Creative Act: A Way of Being.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t do the exact method of timeboxing, but I wrapped production on my feature-film debut as a director and writer at the end of last month, right before the premiere of Heated Rivalry, and timeboxing was super-helpful because I was doing all the production, preproduction, planning, all the call sheets, everything. Without taking an interest in these methods, I wouldn\u2019t have been able to do any of that. But right now, life has been so crazy that my schedule is kind of like, Show up here and do this and then go do this. To quote Lady Gaga, \u201cA bus, a club, another bus\u201d or whatever she says<\/a>.<\/p>\n
To be completely honest with you, I don\u2019t read like that. I\u2019m a very visual person, like my imagination is very visual, so when I start to imagine things, I can\u2019t help but take it and run somewhere else. The only time I was able to really get into reading was when I studied abroad in France. Since French was my second language, I had to double focus, not only on the story but also on the language. But no, I had not read any smutty books before Game Changers. When you all said sex and books, I did not realize it was like this.<\/p>\n
The Great British Baking Show. I\u2019m really bad at keeping up with movies. I will not watch a single thing for like six months, and then I will just be so gluttonous. I feel weird admitting that because if Hudson were here right now, like his idea of comfort \u2026 that man is so well researched. My comfort is not in watching something. I\u2019m a doer, you know? I\u2019m always working on something, whether I\u2019m painting my room or learning how to reorganize my kitchen or writing something or making really experimental electronic music that will never see the light of day.<\/p>\n
I do legs. I think legs are super-important.<\/p>\n
Well, first of all, I\u2019ve only worked out like twice in the past two months because of the feature that I directed. I lost 15 pounds. So the butt is gone, everybody! The butt is dead! I\u2019m kidding. I do a lot of kettlebell squats, but I\u2019ll do them raised. I think the whole thing about legs that people mess up is that you don\u2019t get deep enough, but it really depends on your body. Like some people can\u2019t do a full squat where you sink all the way into your heels. Some people can only go about 90 degrees, or else they\u2019ll fall over. But I have really long legs and a really short torso, so I can sit all the way into my heels. I just make sure that whatever I do, I go super-deep. Luckily, at my gym, they have a whole butt room withe five different types of hip thrusts and five different types of abductor machines. We call it the booty room.<\/p>\n
I do heavy weights. I\u2019m always switching it up. My body just responds well to change, and it\u2019s funny because it\u2019s kind of the polar opposite of what a lot of workout experts say, which is that consistency is key. But I think it\u2019s nice for a few weeks to go super-heavy, super-low reps and just really fail at like six reps. Then, next time you do it, do three-quarters of the amount of weight, but do twice as many reps and feel the burn in a different way. If you\u2019re doing a squat, for example, really let yourself sit there at the bottom and feel the stretch, and then really push from that place and connect; I think that\u2019s what takes it to the next level.<\/p>\n
Wrestling. It\u2019s practically foreplay.<\/p>\n