{"id":377996,"date":"2025-12-30T21:08:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-30T21:08:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/377996\/"},"modified":"2025-12-30T21:08:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-30T21:08:08","slug":"heated-rivalry-author-on-shows-sex-scenes-season-2-hopes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/377996\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Heated Rivalry’ Author on Show’s Sex Scenes, Season 2 Hopes"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tCanadian romance novelist Rachel Reid<\/a> first saw Connor Storrie and Hudson Williams in person on the set of \u201cHeated Rivalry<\/a>,\u201d Jacob Tierney\u2019s television adaptation of her queer hockey book series \u201cGame Changers.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThey were filming the very first sex scene, their first hookup and it\u2019s the longest sex scene on the show,\u201d Reid tells me. \u201cIt was a closed set, so I was just sitting on a couch for four hours while they did that. I had headphones, so I could hear it and I had read the script, but I couldn\u2019t see it. I was just listening. I was listening to them pretend to have sex for four hours, and I didn\u2019t really know them, so that was weird.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI do remember Hudson saying, \u2018Should I keep my socks on?\u2019\u201d she continues. \u201cI was nodding, but nobody could see me. I\u2019m glad he did.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cHeated Rivalry\u201d stars Storrie as Russian hockey star Ilya Rozanov and Williams as his archrival Shane Hollander. The six-episode series follows the two men as they carry on a secret years-long affair before eventually falling in love.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe show became a runaway hit <\/a>as soon as HBO Max, which acquired the series for U.S. distribution from Canadian streamer Crave<\/a>, dropped the first two episodes over Thanksgiving weekend.<\/p>\n

\n\tOn set, Storrie tapped Reid on the shoulder to introduce himself. \u201cHe looked so much like Ilya and he speaks with a Russian accent all day while on set,\u201d Reid recalls. \u201cHe was asking all these thoughtful questions about the character. I couldn\u2019t even talk to him because it\u2019s like I\u2019m explaining Ilya to Ilya. It was very weird, but I could tell right away he was really smart and funny and charming. He\u2019s so talented and fearless. I mean, introducing yourself to the author for the first time while doing a Russian accent is, I think, a fearless choice.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tShe watched Williams film the moments before Shane and Ilya have their initial tryst in a hotel room. \u201cHe was turning the lamp on and off waiting for Ilya to come for the first hookup,\u201d Reid says. \u201cHe had no lines, but I was like, \u2018Oh, that\u2019s Shane.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn just over a month, Storrie and Williams have become household names, the series has been greenlit for a second season<\/a> and several of Reid\u2019s novels have become New York Times bestsellers.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI\u2019ve been asked to speak at the University of Cambridge,\u201d Reid says. \u201cI write hockey smut. I\u2019m not Kurt Vonnegut. They were like, \u2018We\u2019ve had Robert De Niro and the Dalai Lama.\u2019 And I\u2019m like, \u2018Oh yeah, and me \u2014 I fit right in there.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tI caught up with Reid over Zoom from her home in Nova Scotia. \u201cI\u2019ll warn you, I think I\u2019m still in shock,\u201d she says. \u201cI don\u2019t know if I could speak coherently about any of this, but I\u2019ll try.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen you initially talked to Jacob, was there any discussion of you having any sort of creative control or a say in what he does?<\/p>\n

\n\tThe first conversation I had with him, I could tell he understood the characters so well and the story so well. He laid out his whole vision for the show, and that really is exactly what everybody just watched. That\u2019s how he described it to me. He wanted that Scott and Kip episode. We talked about what we were going to have to do to make sure we got everything right, how the sex was going to have to be an important part of the show and it was going to have to be explicit. He wouldn\u2019t do it if he couldn\u2019t do that. As soon as we had that first conversation, I was like, \u201cYou know what? He knows exactly what he\u2019s doing. I\u2019m not even worried about it.\u201d I wasn\u2019t really pushy at all. He just wanted me to read the scripts and I was really excited to do that. Obviously, he was very capable of doing this without my help, but he still included me. They [Tierney, Williams and Storrie] continued throughout all of the media and everything mentioning me and the books. I really appreciate that because I don\u2019t think a lot of authors get that.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhich casting did you know about first?<\/p>\n

\n\tConnor was first. I didn\u2019t even hear about another possibility for Ilya. If there was one, I didn\u2019t know about it. I know that Jacob was very excited about Connor. But it was a thing where we said that he pretty much has to be actually Russian because if he\u2019s not, it\u2019s going to be so distracting. People will be able to tell. The whole thing falls apart if he\u2019s not believably Russian. So when he told me, \u201cWell, he\u2019s American and does not have Russian heritage, but he\u2019s really good,\u201d I was like, \u201cWell, OK, if you say so.\u201d I think it took a little longer to find Hudson, but as soon as they did their chemistry read<\/a>, Jacob was very excited about it. I can\u2019t even imagine what other actors would\u2019ve been like.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen you saw Connor and Hudson, did they look like what you were imagining when you were writing Ilya and Shane?<\/p>\n

\n\tAt first, not quite, because I was just looking at still images of them [on Instagram]. Hudson had a lot of pictures where he looked like a badass and he was smoking or showing off all of his tattoos. I was like, \u201cI\u2019m not seeing it.\u201d But then as soon as I met them on set, I was like, \u201cYep, they\u2019re actually perfect.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWriting is such a solitary profession. What is it like going from being by yourself writing to now having all these eyes and attention on you?<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s overwhelming. Authors don\u2019t want to be looked at. It\u2019s not a natural thing. I used to be in a rock band, and that\u2019s an art that you make where you get your audience feedback right away live and you can feed off of it. But writing, even if it\u2019s big and popular and you know a lot of people are reading it, you don\u2019t know about it. You don\u2019t get that feedback really until something like this happens. And then suddenly it\u2019s like, \u201cOh, I can actually get mobbed sometimes.\u201d People are just very excited to meet me in a way that kind of confuses me, but I\u2019m trying to get used to it.<\/p>\n

\n\tHave you spoken to Jacob about what you\u2019d like to see in Season 2?<\/p>\n

\n\tI think we\u2019re on the same page about it. Obviously, the focus has to stay on Ilya and Shane. We\u2019re not going to do Season 2 and it\u2019s a totally different couple. It wouldn\u2019t be very popular. Not that we weren\u2019t expecting it, but I think we\u2019re all surprised at how popular Scott and Kip were. So now it\u2019s, \u201cOK, how do you get more Scott and Kip?\u201d I think it\u2019s going to be mostly \u201cThe Long Game.\u201d Jacob\u2019s already said that in interviews, but there\u2019s another book \u201cRole Model\u201d that kind of overlaps it. So I\u2019m hoping that we\u2019ll get both stories told at the same time. I don\u2019t think there\u2019s another way you could do it. I\u2019m hoping we get more episodes.<\/p>\n

\n\tHow many episodes do you want?<\/p>\n

\n\tI\u2019d go as high as 12, but maybe if it was just eight or 10, that would be nice.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tBrendan Brady, Jacob Tierney, Ksenia Daniela Kharlamova, Dylan Walsh, Hudson Williams, Connor Storrie, Christina Chang and Rachel Reid attend the premiere of \u201cHeated Rivalry\u201d at TIFF Lightbox on November 24, 2025 in Toronto, Ontario. <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGetty Images<\/p>\n

\n\tDo you have a group of gay friends who you have ask you to read your writing, specifically the sex scenes, to make sure they\u2019re realistic?<\/p>\n

\n\tI don\u2019t send them writing. Actually, I realized when the show came out that a lot of my gay male friends have never read my books because they\u2019re all obsessed with the show and they were all on their edge of their seats. They couldn\u2019t believe things that were happening. I was like, \u201cSo you\u2019ve not read the books?\u201d I have discussions with them. I don\u2019t like showing anybody my writing until it\u2019s done. My husband is somebody that I can send them to because he is bisexual and does know what it\u2019s like to have sex with men. So that\u2019s somebody I can bounce things off of. But mostly I just talk to people and get information that way.<\/p>\n

\n\tWill there ever be a \u201cHeated Rivalry\u201d Broadway musical?<\/p>\n

\n\tI hope so, because I still hold the stage rights to that. It was the thing that when I signed the contract, I was like, \u201cYeah, that\u2019ll never happen.\u201d But now I\u2019m like, \u201cMaybe.\u201d We\u2019re talking about all sorts of things right now. I was saying to Hudson a couple weeks ago that it feels like we could do literally anything. It just seems like we have too much power and we also have the power to destroy ourselves very easily. We could take it all down with one bad post, one bad tweet. We could destroy the whole show and everybody\u2019s lives. I was just like, \u201cThis is too much power.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tYou have talked about being diagnosed with Parkinson\u2019s at the same time Jacob approached you about the television adaptation. How is your health today?<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s making it hard to write because I can barely control a mouse. I can\u2019t type for very long. It\u2019s hard for me to sit in a chair for very long. I need to figure out new ways to write. I don\u2019t know if that will be voice to text. I don\u2019t know if I can write that way. It doesn\u2019t feel natural, but I need to figure out something because it is taking me a very long time to write now. But an amazing thing that\u2019s come out of this though is Jacob was on CNN a few weeks ago. For whatever reason, the interviewer asked him about my Parkinson\u2019s diagnosis. I thought it was kind of odd, but then the next day, one of the top Parkinson\u2019s experts in the world reached out to me and asked if he could help me. I\u2019ve never gotten to talk to a Parkinson\u2019s expert. I\u2019ve been on a five-year waiting list here because I live in a very small place. Now he\u2019s found me a Parkinson\u2019s expert, a neurologist, and I have an appointment in a couple weeks. That could change things for me because I\u2019m not really getting the treatment that I should be getting. He also told me how to change my medication so I can sleep because I never slept. That change made me sleep through the night, which really helps with writing.<\/p>\n

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