‘Heated Rivalry’ puts their spin On Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce with the addition Of ‘Yellowjackets’ star Sophie Nélisse
Ever since HBO Max‘s Heated Rivalry premiered a few weeks back, Canadian hockey star Shane Hollander (Hudson Williams) has only ever had eyes for one person: his professional rival and secret lover Ilya Rozanov (Connor Storrie).
That all changes in Heated Rivalry Episode 4 “Rose.” The episode takes its name from in-universe movie star Rose Landry (Sophie Nélisse), an actress so beloved, so famous, so talented, so beautiful, and so charming that she manages the unthinkable. She sweeps Shane Hollander off his feet.
**Spoilers for Heated Rivalry Episode 4 “Rose,” now streaming on HBO MAX**
Soon, Shane and Rose are canoodling over french fries at private parties, showing up on the covers of tabloids, and taking over dance floors. There’s even one moment where Rose, a Michigan-born hockey fan, shows up in Shane’s box wearing his Montreal jersey for a game. She happily twirls for photographs while fans freak out over the fact that Shane’s caught stretching on one knee on the ice.
It’s a scene that doesn’t pop up in Rachel Reid’s book, but feels authentic to the world because we’ve seen similar situations bear out with our real life mega-stars dating high profile athletes. In fact, Rose’s jersey moment in the suite feels so similar to the many viral clips and shots of Taylor Swift supporting fiancé Travis Kelce on the field, DECIDER had to ask Heated Rivalry star Hudson Williams if that was intentional.
“Oh, no, there was no mention of Taylor and Travis,” Williams said, before adding, “but I see the similarities now.”
Rose enters Shane’s life just as his clandestine romance with Ilya seems to hit the skids because it threatens to become too serious. While Rose offers Shane a chance to have a public relationship that fits his squeaky clean image, it’s that oh-so-public relationship that seems to drive Ilya mad. He scoffs at the initial reports that Shane has fallen in love. Rose quickly becomes an additional wedge between the young men at the exact moment when they should be communicating their feelings more openly.
While Rose might be causing friction between Shane and Ilya, Williams shared that Yellowjackets star Sophie Nélisse fit in seamlessly on the Heated Rivalry set because of the way she fit in with him and Connor Storrie.
“Working with Sophie was great,” he said. “You know, Connor and I were just such goofballs and we already had, like, the unwritten rules laid out of how we engage and how we create and craft these intimate scenes.”
“With Sophie, I had to make sure I was very consciously going, ‘Okay, let’s be safe. This is a different person. We have to start from square one.’ And then she came in and was just as, you know, raunchy as the set was,” Williams revealed. “You know, she joked. She was very comfortable. It was just nice that she could match that energy and, and that sort of work style that the set had established, which was like you could go from joking one second and then we go into the heaviest scene.”
Williams went on to say that Nélisse’s ability to match his and Storrie’s energy on set was particularly “helpful” on days when the actors had “heavy scenes” to shoot.
“In between [shots], you don’t want to go in a corner and just listen to sad music, and she matched that style perfectly,” Williams said. “She’s become a really good friend. And yeah, I love working with her.”
