{"id":366240,"date":"2025-12-23T21:11:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-23T21:11:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/366240\/"},"modified":"2025-12-23T21:11:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-23T21:11:07","slug":"connor-storrie-thought-heated-rivalry-fans-would-hate-my-performance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/366240\/","title":{"rendered":"Connor Storrie Thought Heated Rivalry Fans Would ‘Hate My Performance’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tBefore \u201cHeated Rivalry<\/a>\u201d quickly became a global television phenomenon<\/a>, star Connor Storrie<\/a> wasn\u2019t quite sure how fans would receive his portrayal of the Russian hockey player Ilya Rozanov \u2014 especially having seen \u201cadaptations be torn apart online previously,\u201d he said on a recent podcast episode of \u201cShut Up Evan\u201d<\/a> hosted by Evan Ross Katz.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI\u2019m very optimistic, but I\u2019m also a firm believer in optimistic nihilism: accept the worst, but expect the best,\u201d Storrie continued. \u201cI went through this entire process, even if it sounds pessimistic, accepting the worst case, which is that they\u2019re going to hate my performance, I\u2019m so wrong for the part [and] it\u2019s going to be torn apart by people who love the book, and be like, well, if that were the case, all I can do is really try to give an honest performance and trust that Jacob [Tierney] knows the story well enough to to bring the right moments to it.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThe show, which centers on a decade-long secret relationship between Rozanov and fellow hockey player Shane Hollander (Hudson Williams<\/a>), was created by Jacob Tierney, who adapted the material from author Rachel Reid\u2019s popular \u201cGame Changers\u201d book series. Since the show\u2019s debut in November, it has swiftly topped the charts: the Crave-created romance has become the Canadian streamer\u2019s most-watched original series and HBO<\/a> Max\u2019s top-rated non-animated acquired series.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThe center of conversation has been William\u2019s and Storrie\u2019s performances. Later in the podcast, Storrie discussed how he approaches significant moments in the show that book fans will have expectations for.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cFor moments like that,\u201d Storrie explained, referring to his now-viral \u201cI\u2019m coming to the cottage\u201d moment at the end of the fifth episode, \u201cI had some ideas about trying to really play to the book. But Jacob just knows that book. He knows that story like the back of his hand. I read the book twice, read all the scripts a million times.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tStorrie also noted the importance of not getting too wrapped up in \u201ctrying to please the fans.\u201d \u201cHonestly, I think with acting or art in general, trying to feed too much into what you think other people want is kind of the death of anything that\u2019s actually humane and inspiring.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Before \u201cHeated Rivalry\u201d quickly became a global television phenomenon, star Connor Storrie wasn\u2019t quite sure how fans would…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":366241,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[236,162091,88,1035,162094,162095],"class_list":{"0":"post-366240","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-connor-storrie","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-hbo","12":"tag-heated-rivalry","13":"tag-hudson-williams"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=366240"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366240\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/366241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=366240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=366240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=366240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}