Hudson Williams had a short answer when an interviewer on The Assembly asked whether he’d ever had romantic feelings for his Heated Rivalry costar Connor Storrie. “No,” he said. He and Storrie had realized early on that they were “platonic soulmates.”
The question came from Nate, one of the autistic and neurodivergent interviewers on the Canadian series. CBC included his question in its October 15 trailer and cut away before Williams answered. Viewers heard his reply in the November 1 season premiere, now streaming in Canada on CBC Gem.
Williams plays Shane Hollander opposite Storrie’s Ilya Rozanov in Jacob Tierney’s adaptation of Rachel Reid’s hockey novels. The first season follows the two players over eight years as they compete on the ice and fall in love in private.
The actors are filming season two. Tierney told CBS Mornings that he expects the series back in late spring 2027. The new episodes draw largely from The Long Game, Reid’s sequel about what happens to Shane and Ilya once they’ve committed to each other.
Williams Explains Why He Can Let His Guard Down With Storrie
Williams told Nate that what made the friendship feel solid was how easily he and Storrie could be themselves around each other. They could cuddle for ten hours, he said, and both be happy just cuddling. Neither wanted to “beep each other’s bop,” he added, before conceding, “That’s not a saying.” The room laughed.
Williams also talked about the people he turns to when he feels lonely. He pictured friends and family as climbing pegs he could reach for to pull himself back up. After the interview, another member of the group told Williams that he loved his best friend, Colin, too. “That’s lovely. It’s so important to have that,” Williams replied, according to CBC.
How Williams and Storrie Became Shane and Ilya
Casting directors Jenny Lewis and Sara Kay saw the two actors read together before they’d met in person. On that first Zoom call, Lewis could already see Shane struggling to keep up with Ilya. What caught her attention between scenes was how readily Williams and Storrie made each other laugh, she told The Canadian Press.
Their first day of filming called for a different kind of ease. Williams told Timid that they shot a vulnerable conversation from episode five that day. They knew the scene from their auditions. The hard part was figuring out how much Shane would trust Ilya by then. They still had the first four episodes of that relationship to film.
In Toronto, the two lived in neighboring apartments. After work they cooked, worked out together and talked about their excitement at landing the roles. Storrie later told Vulture that he understood why viewers saw echoes of the onscreen romance in their friendship. He wanted to keep his personal life private, particularly for the people close to him who had never signed up for publicity.
Why They Sometimes Choose Different Fashion Shows
When costar Sophie Nélisse interviewed Williams for Wonderland in January, she asked how the two could build careers of their own when so much attention came to them as a pair. Williams said they wanted the freedom to take different roles and make different deals.
Fashion week gave him an example. If both men got invitations to the same shows, one would ask which show the other planned to attend and pick a different one. Off camera, keeping in touch was simpler. “I FaceTime him whenever I’m free,” Williams said.