{"id":371729,"date":"2025-12-26T19:23:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-26T19:23:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/371729\/"},"modified":"2025-12-26T19:23:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-26T19:23:07","slug":"connor-storrie-on-heated-rivalry-finale-ilya-rozanovs-i-love-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/371729\/","title":{"rendered":"Connor Storrie on Heated Rivalry Finale, Ilya Rozanov’s I Love You"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tSPOILER ALERT:\u00a0This article contains details about the finale of \u201cHeated Rivalry<\/a>\u201d Season 1, now streaming on\u00a0HBO Max<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cHeated Rivalry\u201d star Connor Storrie<\/a> knew early on he wanted to be an actor.<\/p>\n

\n\tHe made that perfectly clear in YouTube videos he made when he was 12 years old under the name Actorboy222. The adorable videos were discovered by rabid \u201cHeated Rivalry\u201d fans shortly after Storrie became an instant star when the first two episodes of the queer hockey romance series premiered on HBO Max just a month ago.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cHe was on to something,\u201d Storrie says looking back at his pre-teen self. \u201cHe got me here. He was part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat would 25-year-old Storrie say to his younger self now? \u201cI would say, \u2018Cut that damn hair,\u2019\u201d he cracks, before pausing to give it a think. \u201cI would tell him to make more stuff sooner, make more of his own stuff sooner. Just be more diligent about not just being an actor, as in trying to get cast in something and waiting for opportunities. I would be like, \u2018Try putting yourself in your own things.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tStorrie continues, \u201cI love that little guy. I love him. I used to not like him.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIt wasn\u2019t easy for a kid like him growing up in Odessa, Texas.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI was this artist, sissy boy in West Texas that didn\u2019t want to play football,\u201d he explains. \u201cI wanted to play pretend and play dress up and disappear into weird worlds and entertain and try to connect with people that way, and that was just not the norm out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThat kid is now one of Hollywood\u2019s hottest young talents.<\/p>\n

\n\tStorrie stars in \u201cHeated Rivalry\u201d as Ilya Rozanov, a Russian hocky champion having a steamy sex-filled years-long affair with his Canadian counterpart Shane Hollander (played by Hudson Williams<\/a>). The show \u2014 an adaptation of the \u201cGame Changers\u201d novels \u2014 chronicles Rozanov and Hollander\u2019s relationship as it goes from something purely physical to to being a deeply romantic and emotional relationship.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe sixth and final episode of Season 1 finds Rozanov visiting Hollander at his cottage. They finally admit to each other that they\u2019re in love. But then Hollander unexpectedly comes out to his parents as not only being gay but also in a relationship with his career arch-nemesis as his father walks in on the couple kissing after making an unannounced trip to the cottage.<\/p>\n

\n\tI spoke to Storrie over Zoom video from his Los Angeles-area home ahead of the season finale.<\/p>\n

\n\tWere you surprised Ilya was the first to say, \u201cI love you\u201d? He said it in the Russian monologue in Episode 5 but this was different because he says it in English and in person.<\/p>\n

\n\tYeah, but I think this shows Ilya is in it for the long haul and he\u2019s enthusiastic about that.<\/p>\n

\n\tHe\u2019s also the first to refer to them as boyfriends.<\/p>\n

\n\tThat\u2019s the thing about these eastern Europeans. They don\u2019t let you in on it. But once you\u2019re in, you\u2019re in for life.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat was it like walking into the cottage for the first time?<\/p>\n

\n\tThat was the element of the story that I was most excited to get to because it\u2019s really cool the way that Jacob Tierney wrote it. There\u2019s this kind of cool crescendo where it was so fast and rapid \u2014 the editing, the writing \u2013 with so much energy upfront, and then it kind of lands and we\u2019re just two people in a house for a few days. As an actor, that\u2019s where a lot of the cool acting moments are, where we really get to sit in some of those scenes for a long, long time. It\u2019s kind of the episode where there\u2019s officially a catharsis. People don\u2019t realize because of all the intimate scenes but this story really is about people falling in love at a distance. To finally see that come together, there\u2019s a catharsis.<\/p>\n

\n\tI think viewers may go into Episode 6 thinking it\u2019s going to be a sex fest because Shane and Ilya will be by themselves. There\u2019s some sex, but the episode is about much more than that.<\/p>\n

\n\tYou get to kind of breathe. They get to be normal on some level, which is what Jacob talks about when he says the \u201chappy ending.\u201d I think what he\u2019s referring to is being emotionally regulated, emotionally aware enough to look each other in the eyes and be like, \u201cI love you, let\u2019s do this.\u201d And then whatever that looks like afterwards, they\u2019re like, \u201cWe\u2019re going to sign up for it. We\u2019re signed up and we\u2019re locked in.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd then you literally ride off into the sunset when Shane and Ilya get in the car and leave Shane\u2019s parents\u2019 house.<\/p>\n

\n\tWe filmed that twice. I don\u2019t know which take they ended up using, but the first take, because we sit there for three or four minutes \u2014 we do the full length of that song, which I fucking love \u2014 Hudson and I just kind of rode in silence and just cried during that whole scene. As actors, we were like, \u201cWe\u2019re killing. We\u2019re in it. This is real, we\u2019re so in love.\u201d Then the music stops and Jacob comes around and is like, \u201cAlrighty, let\u2019s do one where you guys don\u2019t look like you want to kill yourselves. Let\u2019s start over.\u201d He was like, \u201cBe cute. This is happy. This is fun.\u201d We interpreted it in a very dramatic way. But, yeah, we literally get to ride off into the sunset.<\/p>\n

\n\tI think Shane and his mom\u2019s talk outside is going to resonate so much with people. Every kids wants to hear their parents apologize for something they had or hadn\u2019t done.<\/p>\n

\n\tThey\u2019re both accepting the truth of the matter, and that lets them actually heal from it, rather than it just being a placate-y kind of thing to each other.<\/p>\n

\n\tMy friend Ben texted me this morning and said the show has \u201crewired\u201d his brain and he feels he can now finally be able to pursue a relationship.<\/p>\n

\n\tWow. It\u2019s all about love, baby and realizing the stuff we internalize from the outside world hurts and it affects us. But at the end of the day, you gotta do your thing \u2014 whatever that is.<\/p>\n

\n\tYou\u2019ve talked about being ostracized in high school when some classmates found those Actorboy222 videos. What would you say to those people now?<\/p>\n

\n\tI don\u2019t feel any sort of way about it. I don\u2019t really villainize anyone no matter how nasty they get because I fully do believe that people are doing their best. I think that people are hurt. I think everyone is so insecure and sad, and we all have these things that are so tender to us, and I just feel blessed to be to have had a human experience that\u2019s been just rugged enough to give me that perspective, to be like, \u201cI don\u2019t really give a shit what words you use to describe me, or if you try to embarrass me because I\u2019ve embarrassed myself a million fucking times. I don\u2019t give a shit anymore. So bring it on. I don\u2019t feel bad about it because, especially how visible everything is now on the internet, if you\u2019re a nasty person, I think that just makes you look nasty. I don\u2019t need to try and make you look nasty. I just try to hold myself with grace and understanding. If you\u2019re trying to belittle someone, it\u2019s probably because you feel pretty small yourself because I know when I\u2019ve been mean in the past \u2014 we\u2019ve all done things \u2014 it\u2019s because I felt this big [he pinches a thumb and finger together]. I felt itty bitty.<\/p>\n

\n\tBefore we go, I have to ask \u2013 do you actually like tuna melts?<\/p>\n

\n\tI don\u2019t think I\u2019ve had a real legit tuna melt. Maybe I had one from Subway once. We didn\u2019t eat the best when I was growing up.<\/p>\n

\n\tThis Q&A has been edited and condensed.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SPOILER ALERT:\u00a0This article contains details about the finale of \u201cHeated Rivalry\u201d Season 1, now streaming on\u00a0HBO Max. \u201cHeated…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":371730,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[162091,88,162094,162095,36198],"class_list":{"0":"post-371729","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-connor-storrie","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-heated-rivalry","11":"tag-hudson-williams","12":"tag-just-for-variety"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371729","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=371729"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371729\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/371730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=371729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=371729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=371729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}