The Canadian ice hockey rivals-to-lovers romance series, Heated Rivalry, is finally here, but it’s not just steamy gay sex scenes (and trust me, they are HOT); the series also shares a side of queer intimacy rarely seen on television – and deserves to be seen more.
Sex sells, there’s no denying that.
And the promo team for Heated Rivalry have been working hard to titillate and tease us regarding the series’ hot and heavy sex scenes.
But as many of us in the LGBTQIA+ community know, sex can be so much more.
Having previewed the first two episodes of the series, the cast and crew have perfectly captured a side of gay/queer sex rarely seen on the screen.
That which is unspoken. Which is confusing. And also frighteningly affirming.
Heated Rivalry is a steamy and heartfelt story of love, rivalry, and identity.
Created by Jacob Tierney, the series is based on the Game Changers series by Rachel Reid.
It tells the epic story of hockey’s steamiest secret between two of the sport’s biggest stars.
Shane Hollander’s (played by Hudson Williams) and Ilya Rozanov’s (played by Connor Storrie) rivalry is matched only by their magnetic pull toward each other.
What starts as a secret fling between two rookies turns into a years-long journey of love, denial, and self-discovery.
The series is set to give new meaning to the term happy ending.
Jacob Tierney, who executive-produced, directed and wrote the series, intended to “do everything in my power to make Heated Rivalry unlike anything TV has ever seen.”
Images: Crave‘It’s how these guys communicate with each other’
When Tierney, Williams and Storrie sat down with QNews ahead of Heated Rivalries’ release, Tierney told us that “the sex is a part of the story.”
“Sex is how we watch the pair’s relationship evolve,” Tierney said. “For all of us, it was very important to do that properly and get it right.”
“It was certainly very important for me as the director to make it look very pretty, because it is a romance.”
“It’s how these guys communicate with each other.”
“But it’s also a rare enough thing on TV these days to see fun, consensual sex happen.
“We wanted to make sure that was a pleasurable experience for the audience.”
The series doesn’t hold back when it comes to the sex scenes, but they are also beautifully shot.
Sure, you’ll notice both actors have zero body fat, but the way the shots are filmed and lit is true artistry.
And it paves the way for a stronger view of the unspoken connection between the two lead characters.
It is a level of communication all too familiar within our communities, trying to figure out who you are while also hiding it.
Trying to explore your desire while making sure no one can see.
Something Tierney credits to the work of Rachel Reaid, the Game Changers series author.
“The source material was our starting point,” he said, “The rest was making sure everybody was facing in the same direction with the same intention and access to vulnerability and intimacy.”
“Even though it’s hot and fun, it’s also very vulnerable for the actors and for me as the filmmaker.”
“We all knew it was important, and we had to build trust with each other, with the material, to trust that this was the language.
“We weren’t doing something that was just gratuitous or titillating. It’s part of the fabric of the way we’re telling this story.
“And I was very lucky that Conner and Hudson were enthusiastically on board to get it right.”
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‘We choreograph the sex scenes like they were dances’
The six-part series spans eight years of the characters’ lives.
The pair chase glory on the ice while struggling to navigate their feelings off of it.
Which wins out, the sport they live for or the love they can’t ignore as they go head to head on the ice and in the bedroom?
“Every sex scene that happens in the series is intentionally different,” Tierney said, “Because it is at different stages of their relationship to each other, and also to the individual character.”
“We choreograph the sex scenes like they were dances, and we tried to make them feel as real as we could.”
That same coordination was needed when juggling the shooting schedule.
“It was hard,” said Hudson, who plays Canada’s golden boy Shane Hollander.
“Because we were often shooting eight hours in a single day, thanks to this knucklehead shooting schedule,”
“But it was very fun, and I definitely needed as many reference points as I could get.
“We had to trust that Jacob knew the script better than anyone else. If we were frazzled on a day going into the 11th hour, we could ask what happened before this and what we were going into.
“That was super essential to get our footing playing this wide age range of these characters.”
Connor, who plays Russia’s Ilya Rozanov, praised the show’s intimacy coordinator, Chala Hunter, for helping them through that.
“For the first half of the series, there’s so much time between our meetups,” he said.
“And also so much happening in our individual lives that Jacob and Chala were reminding us what our characters’ last interaction was.
“Was it awkward, was it romantic?”
“Chala played a huge role in getting all this stuff right.”
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‘We were very deliberately making a romance’
Both actors praised Tierney’s script for giving them exactly what they needed to find their characters’ purpose.
“I ground myself in the script and want to find the reality of that moment on the page,” Connor said.
“So that I can make that as real as possible.”
And Hudson is getting “80% of what I needed as the actor, from Jacob’s scripts and from Rachel’s books.”
With Heated Rivalries, Tierney wanted to make something iconic that’s also special.
Sharing that he wanted to use everything I’ve always wanted to show about love in the series, as well as comedic rhythm, timing, and hockey.
“We were very deliberately making a romance here; this is a fantasy,” he said.
“The important part of the grounding of it is that the reality is in character. It’s not going to be in circumstances, because they are huge and larger than life.”
“They’re huge star athletes; that’s something that happens to 0.1% of people in the world. When I talked to Rachel about adapting her books, I told her I wanted to take the relationship seriously.
“And I’m not trying to toot my own scripts, you have to find that on the page. It has to be there in the material you’re working with.”
Heated Rivalry streams in Australia on HBO Max from today (November 28).
For the latest LGBTIQA+ Sister Girl and Brother Boy news, entertainment, and community stories in Australia, visit qnews.com.au. Find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.
