"You can't ask questions like that when you're casting, right? It's actually against the law," he said. "So what you have to gauge is somebody's enthusiasm and willingness to do the work."
"And that's what's so impressive about both of these guys is they came into this being like, 'Yeah, we're here to do this, and we are here to make this story feel authentic and to be as real as possible.' And they fucking hit it out of the park."
"It was always going to be about chemistry," he said. "We loved both of them separately and then seeing them together, it was just like perfection. We couldn't ask for more."
Heated Rivalry is a Canadian TV drama on HBO Max that centers on rival hockey players entering romantic entanglements off the ice. Hudson Williams portrays Shane Hollander while Connor plays the other romantic lead, both relative newcomers gaining visibility. Speculation emerged about the actors' real-life sexual orientations because both portray queer-identifying characters. Jacob Tierney emphasized that casting should focus on enthusiasm and willingness to do the work and noted legal constraints around asking about personal identification. The casting prioritized chemistry between the leads, and two new Heated Rivalry episodes premiere every Friday on HBO Max.
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