#hrinterviews

"I fell in love with Shane immediately. I mean, I was falling in love with him even when I read the sides, which were just the audition... like, two scenes I got for the audition. By the time I finished reading episode 6, I was crying. I felt like no one else was allowed to play him. I needed to play him."

"Shane is very affable, even though he's sort of a departure from myself. As much anxiety as I have, Shane has quadruple, tenfold more, and it's just pouring out of him at all times. And that was fun to play, even if sometimes my stomach hurt. I always thought of him as sort of this pretty, neurotic character; this little concoction of this flowery, determined, sort of alpha in some ways, or sort of wanting to appear so, and then just this pretty little sensitive painting in other ways."

"I had Heated Rivalry read, and then read again, and annotated many times, on my Kindle."

"After reading Jacob's scripts, even before the book, I immediately saw how he would operate. My dad is on the spectrum, he knows it. He's a mechanical engineer graduated top of his class, first in class in everything, very technical genius in a lot of ways, but sort of socially... I think he would say that he doesn't want to deal with emotions. He has told me, I'm not even paraphrasing, "I relate more with Vulcan than human," referencing the Star Trek, the hyper-cerebral alien creatures. I love my dad to death, and I've always felt very connected to him. He has a sensitivity to him that is very boyish. I think when I read the script, I took a huge page out of living my life with him. Rachel Reid has said Shanel is autistic, so I think I knew how it should look. I empathized with him a lot immediately."

"Shane is hyper competent at this one thing. He's stereotypically masculine in a lot of regards. He's a kind person, and he's so overtly Canadian. He's harboring something that he thinks is a career-ending secret because he just doesn't have the emotional maturity or societal maturity to sort of understand what his own queerness means. To him, it's most likely detrimental, which is the wrong assumption to some degree, but it shatters his own idea of what his masculinity is, or at least it cripples it. And yet, he still never harms a fly."

"Shane is like a giant wooden suit with not too many articulating joints. I love him dearly, but he is exhausting because although it's my accent to a degree, it's not my voice. I'm very expressive, I'm loud, and he is tight-lipped and tight-throated, and he walks like a little frickin' square. He's like a Roomba, and has the emotional expression of one as well. So it's exhausting, but the friction is also sort of liberating in a sense that I can just be very sardonic and not necessarily earnest all the time. I'm trying to work at that. Even if Shane just says "you're an asshole" or "fuck you," his heart is on his sleeve no matter what. It's just pure earnestness and a real lack of ability to articulate himself into a lie or a less truthful place. His heart is always in his eyes, and that is kind of refreshing to be in, but it's also scary."

"Sometimes I think people might not like him, but it's like, "Oh, I hope people understand him." This is someone who's very close to me. These are family members. These are friends. These are neurodivergent people I know very well. So I'm also scared for him because a lot of the time I'm like, do I make him more cinematic and more sellable and more of a charismatic performance? Shane is not charismatic. There's a wardrobe person on set who said, "Hudson, you're hot as hell, but Shane's unfuckable." And I was like, "Well, yeah, I guess that's Shane."

"Shane feels very much like my father in a lot of ways. Thinking of him while playing Shane, that was a part of the build, the very first ingredients. I think I said my dad has a boyish quality, but he's also mechanical. Shane is boyish, but he's also mechanical. Getting to live with that, be frustrated by that, be frustrated by the restrictions of it, it just made me feel even more empathy and love for my dad."

"To cry in someone's arms is possibly the most intimate thing I think a human can do, let alone bare your heart on your sleeve and have to look someone in the eye. It's terrifying for me, and I'm an actor and my job is to be some soapy bitch. But for Shane, it is like death."

"Shane is not the most observant fella. He doesn't even have a gaydar. So I think Scott was someone he admired and represents the guy who's done it and been in the league-macho, competent. And to see that guy kissing smoothie boy on screen in front of millions of watchers is like a little pressure off his shoulders of going, "Okay, this makes this a little less scary. I'm not sure I'm going to do that, but I'm glad someone did."

"Shane's on the spectrum so he has to be specific."

"And then also the scene where, it's very sweet, when Shane mentions that they can start a mental health organization. I don't think Shane knows how sweet that is to Ilya. I think it kind of comes from Shane's pragmatism and he's sort of thinking, well, this was good and Ilya will appreciate this, but I don't think he knows to the extent."

"And then the final nail through the fucking skull in my eyes was the scene with Yuna. That was the scene that felt the most pointed in my upbringing. You know, Asian family... There were some stereotypes that are true, in my experience and a lot of Asian kids' reality. Perfection, discipline, a lack of straying left and right meant a lot of old, outdated conventions and old biases. Being gay is one of them. So having that release... I didn't know at that point if Yuna would tell him, "Okay, well, do you want to be a part of this family or not? You're not going to be talking about that again." To the degree of which she brought him in and said, "That's okay," really just sent me."

"Shane and Ilya get their ending, but as a reader bringing in my own experience of what that sort of overbearing mother means and the fears that it comes along with, this is the looming anxiety that carries Shane through all those seasons, all those years. "What would my mom think? What would my dad think? Holy fuck, I am breaking their idea of this perfect little image of a hockey player I have built over these years and sort of fabricated, to a degree."

"No, Shane does not know he's autistic. Although autism has always existed, the idea of it being a spectrum... that conversation started to reach me in a more open, accepted way in like 2017, 2018. I kind of forget the exact dates of when our show wraps up, but the overlap would probably be nearing the end of where we leave them in Heated Rivalry And I don't think Shane would be having those conversations in his social circles."

"He would need to go to a therapist, and Ilya is the only one in therapy in season two. And I don't think either of Shane's parents are the type to be like, "There's a spectrum. You're on it." They just think he's driven and antisocial. To me, reading the scripts, it didn't even have to be acknowledged. I was like, "This guy is farther along the spectrum than a lot of people." And I kind of aw, even how the dialog was written, how it manifests. Sometimes autism's portrayed in movies with quirky head movements, weird blinks, and weird inflections. And it's like, Okay...? That is sometimes truthful but that's always the reach. That's always the way it's expressed. And it's like, No, sometimes it is flat affect. It's just being immobile in your seat and taking 10 seconds to move your hand to do something because you don't know what this movement looks like or means."

Sophie: How are you navigating all of this – staying grounded and grateful without being overwhelmed?

Hudson: I’ve been writing a lot. I have two separate journals. One is a manuscript – semi-autobiographical – about this period in my life, where I blur the lines between fiction and real life. Then I have one where I just recount things: I met this person today, this happened. And I have a Google Doc where I’m building my internal monologue, writing down what I’m thinking and feeling in hotel rooms between events. It’s really fun to write. There’s this writer I love, Joan Didion, and she once said she journals so that when she gets really old, she can pick up her books and find her way back to herself again. That inspired me. It also helps with gratitude. I can look back and go, ‘Wow, that really blew me away.’ Keeping grounded, I have such a good group of friends. They don’t care too much. They’re like, ‘Okay, good for you. This is amazing. But what’s your next role?’ Or, ‘Are you treating us well? Are you treating the people around you well?’ That’s make or break. How you show up as a person matters more than anything else. I use my friends and family as a metric. Am I being an asshole? Let’s make sure I’m staying kind.

Sophie: You’re kind of like Shane, aren’t you?

Hudson: No, I’m not. I find the parties. I find the crazy people in Vancouver, Sophie. But I like that the city isn’t all, ‘Who are you with? What are you doing next?’ I love LA too much. If I lived there, I’d become an insufferable LA stereotype. In Vancouver, I read books, watch movies. I feel plugged into my inspiration. I can absorb art before I have to expend it. In LA, people can confuse themselves into thinking they’re artists just because they’re around other creative people. You need hobbies. You need to be doing things that aren’t just talking about art.

I’ve got projects in the inbox. I want to do a few things before season two. I want to break the idea of Shane. I love him, but I don’t want every role to be ‘square guy in a romance’. I want to do other stuff. Eventually, I want to do theatre. Broadway. A musical, after singing lessons. There’s a lot I want to do in the next two years.

Sophie: Do people have a hard time separating Shane from Hudson?

Hudson: I think I was trying to show another side of myself after Heated Rivalry. I have a cocky side – ‘Fuck you, this is me’ – but I also have a soft, quiet, scared side. I decided to show that. Some directors have seen my short films and were like, ‘Oh.’ I never thought they’d reference those films as a reason to cast me. I made them for two dollars and a camcorder.

Sophie: What question are you most sick of being asked, and what do you wish you were asked more?

Hudson: No one asks me what underwear I’m wearing. No one asks my favourite sex position [laughs]. I feel like Heated Rivalry questions are exhausted until season two. I wish people asked, ‘How are you? How do you feel?’ Right now? I feel out of shape. I’ve expended everything. All Hudson had to give, Hudson gave. I need rest. I need movies and books. Artists are sponges. You soak things up and pour them into work. These events feel like preparation for things I don’t even want to do. I love fashion, but no one’s handing me a needle and asking me to make a dress. I want to act, direct, write – and I have no time for that. Schedules are 9am to 9pm, sometimes 8am to 11.30pm. You get an hour here, 30 minutes there. You can’t settle. You’re just absorbing toxic shit on your phone. There’s no routine, and routine breeds mental structure. I don’t have that right now, and it sucks.

Hudson Williams on SiriusXM

About Connor: "He's an awful texter so not great in that way. But we'll just facetime each other. Or call each other randomly, very consistently. That has sort of been my stability especially through this. It's just having my best friend who is in the same position as I am."

About the team Canada fleece Shane wears at the Olympics: "I was trying to steal that and then I forgot to ask the wardrobe to give it to me at the end and I really wanted it. It's still my only regret from season 1. My only regret is not getting that fleece."

About Shane's coming out scene: "Some people don't have the benefit of having parents that maybe would be as supportive as his parents were. Even with his parents there's a degree of like clinical-ness to it I think. It's like what about Reebok, it's not the perfect open arms. But I hope that people can take the feeling that you're not alone and that's not something that should be a fantasy. It should be just want you kind of deserve. And whether that is your parents or not that you deserve a community and a family really that just kinda put their arms around you and let you know that you deserve that."

About the s*x scenes: "Fold me in half, turn me into a pretzel, every position, we didn't hit enough. Hopefully in season 2 we can fix that."

About pasta: "Spaghetti sucks. Rigatoni is awful. I like a noodle or a penne noodle. Or fettuccine"

About the Snoopy edits: "Yeah, I've seen a lot of just me next to Snoopy. I don't know if Snoopy comes first or me but I'll do something and then they'll show Snoopy doing that exact thing. I'm like did you create that or am I just Snoopy. I love Snoopy."

About his family's reaction to the show: "They love it. My mum was an instant fan, my dad as well. I think some other distant family members were like "is it a hockey show?" and I was like "yeah!"

About the Golden Globes: "I'm so excited. I'm hopefully not gonna pee myself or something."

About the most challenging emotional scene to shoot: "The coming out to my mum scene was really tough. Because I wouldn't go about it that same way. If I had this really emotional moment with like my mother in real life it would be just like "I'm sad, I'm just gonna cry, you're just gonna hold me" but that's not their relationship. It's a little bit more sterile, a little bit more guarded. My mum would be like "keep crying, let's cry forever". So like the lack of eye contact and things like that were kind of deliberate and I didn't feel as released as I would want as Hudson but as Shane it made sense."

About people speculating on his private life: "I don't care. You can look at whatever I said, I don't care. But the other people in my life, they don't want to be broadcasted. I'm pretty chill about it. On a scale of freaking me out it's like a 2 out of 10. I'm kind of indifferent. There are going to be people who have crazy reactions to it, but those people can kinda go take a hike. Because the people who have a healthy reaction to it are the only people that I care about or really respect for having like a developed frontal cortex. The rest is just Neanderthals."

Jacob Tierney for Deadline

"Who said I’m doing it all? There’s a lot of material," Tierney coyly told Deadline, suggesting that some storylines involving Shane and Ilya might continue into another subsequent season.

"The Long Game is like sex Scenes from a Marriage. I don’t want to say we are making Bergman here, but you’ve got your happy ending, you’re in love, you get to be in a relationship. But, as most adults know, you think that’s when it gets easy? It’s not. That’s when it gets hard. That’s when you have to make real decisions. That’s when real life can often smack you in the face."

"We’re continuing to take this relationship on a journey that will end happily, but along the way is full of ups and downs and realizing loads of shit about yourself, about your partner and about how you want to live and what it means to live as a queer couple in the world and what you want out of your privacy and your public life," Tierney said." We’re just continuing to give Shane and Ilya the seriousness that this love affair deserves while also continuing to exist within the confines of the genre that we’re in, which I love. I want them to be happy, but I also want to show that that’s not easy. Because part of what Rachel does so brilliantly in her writing is to give queerness joy, but also not pretend the world isn’t the world. It’s not like she created this world where it’s like, there’s no homophobia and hockey’s amazing, and anyone can come out. No. She shows it’s difficult, takes courage, guts, and sacrifice, and takes stepping up and saying things with your full chest. And that to me is a triumph. That’s what we’re trying to do here."

"We didn’t expect any of this attention or reaction from a public that might not exist at all," Tierney reflected. "We’ve learned a lot [since the show aired], and there’s a lot to think about moving forward in terms of the fandom and all that comes with it, negative and positive."

Jacob Tierney for Variety

"It’s different. It really is different," Tierney said during a panel alongside Heated Rivalry book author Rachel Reid Saturday at BookCon at the Javits Center in New York." And the challenge of it is, from an adaptation point of view, is that you’re in much more serious territory. A lot of the initial, there’s still lots of flirting and lots of sex, but this kind of danger, this kind of hotel-room-adolescent-sex stuff is largely gone. And so it presents really new challenges."

"Part of the reason you start off with Heated Rivalry, as far as adapting goes, is because you want to get to The Long Game," Tierney said. "Because The Long Game is an emotionally sophisticated book that takes this couple seriously. What I've always said about this show is there are a lot of books, Game Changer is in Heated Rivalry and obviously, as I think you guys all know by now, obviously parts of Role Model are going to be in [Season 2], to the great surprise of absolutely nobody. But Ilya and Shane are the heartbeat of this series, of my show. It's always going to be about Ilya and Shane, that is what is the trajectory that runs through it as their world xpands."

As Tierney confirmed, Reid's book Role Model, which is part of the overall Game Changer novel series but follows the relationship of hockey player Troy Barrett and team social media manager Harris Drover rather than Shane and Ilya, will be worked into Heated Rivalry Season 2.