SPOILERS: This post contains details about the Heated Rivalry episode ‘Hunter’
With Heated Rivalry getting LGBTQ fans hooked on the erotic hockey drama in its first two episodes, François Arnaud‘s Scott Hunter bares his soul (among other things) in is this week’s bottle episode.
The actor joked to Deadline that ‘Hunter’, which is now available to stream on Crave and HBO Max, is “a different kind of porn category,” as his closeted New York Admirals captain explores “a spark” with smoothie artisan (Robbie GK), which quickly becomes a whirlwind romance.
“It’s cute, but I think he just goes along with it because he is emotionally ready for that,” he says of the pair, who moves in together after one date. “He can’t do it anymore. It’s making him sick, it’s killing him, and making him a bad player. So, everything he sacrificed for hockey actually ends up costing him.”
Arnaud notes, “I think I’ve seen that in other fields of work. I think I’ve seen it in movie stars, I’ve seen it happen. I think that to be good and happy in what you do, you kind of have to ultimately live authentically, whatever that means. And I think Scott is just in the process of figuring that out.”
Following the steamy affair between Shane (Hudson Williams) and Ilya (Connor Storrie) in the first two episodes, which spans several years and runs the full gamut of emotions for the friends with benefits, Arnaud explains that Scott and Kip’s dynamic is “integral to the story of Shane and Ilya.”
François Arnaud as Scott Hunter and Robbie GK as Skip Grady in ‘Heated Rivalry’
“Because it’s a bit of a cautionary tale, almost,” says Arnaud. “It’s like, this is what happens—it’s kind of cute at the beginning, but it’s actually not that. It takes a really heavy toll, and this is what it looks like 10 years later if you haven’t [come out].”
Based on Rachel Reid’s Game Changers novels, Arnaud “didn’t know” the Jacob Tierney-created series has riled up a passionate response from gay viewers since it debuted last week, with new episodes available on Fridays.
Read on about François Arnaud’s gay romantic-comedy moment in the Heated Rivalry episode ‘Hunter’, the “potential for a foursome” and why the show is “not actually about the sex.”
DEADLINE: Heated Rivalry has immediately become a huge hit, especially amongst the gays. What’s it been like seeing their reaction to the first two episodes?
François Arnaud: Oh, I didn’t know that it was among the gays. I thought because we, when we went to the first screening, it was, I guess fans of the book and it was 95% girls between like 17 and 25. I was like, this is an Olivia Rodrigo concert. But yeah, it’s a bit crazy. I dip in and out of social media. It’s the kind of thing that I’m already like, my cortisol levels are pretty high naturally. So, I like to keep it at arm’s length, but I mean, I’m aware of the reaction, and it’s insane. And I always believed in the show from the moment I read it, I knew that it would find an audience. I had to convince people that I was working with to let me do this, because I was like, “No, no, this is not just a small Canadian show. There’s nothing like it, and for sure it’ll be like a brush fire.” I did not expect it, even though I believed that, I did not expect it to go this fast overnight. It’s crazy, especially for Connor and Hudson, and Jacob, I think, is still in shock. But I’ve known Jacob for so long and admired his work, and worked with him briefly once, but very thankful for the opportunity to tell this story.
François Arnaud as Scott Hunter in ‘Heated Rivalry’
DEADLINE: What was the audition process like? Did you have to do a chemistry reading to cast Kip?
Arnaud: Well, no, Kip was already cast. He had auditioned people, and Jacob called me to ask me if I wanted to do this. I was doing some other movie that fell through, and I suddenly became available, and then he called me and he was like, “Can you read this today?” It was maybe 6 weeks before shooting. He’s like, “I’ve auditioned people for this, but I keep hearing your voice. I didn’t write this for you, but whenever I read it, all I hear is you saying it.” And so, then we did just like a formality, we did a chem read with Kip, and it worked. Right there and then, they were like, “Great, see you next week.” And so, there was a Zoom chem read. This is what this industry has become. But already, even on the Zoom, I thought Robbie was just so open, available, able to sustain eye contact, and charming in a way that—I think that episode, unlike the first two, as you know, follows a more classic rom-com structure. And there’s these flirty rom-com lines, and I think he just grounds them and makes them all just sound like it’s all coming out of his mouth. Like, I forget that there’s a script, and that’s not always a given, I think with this style of flirty talk, and I just believed it all. And we didn’t get to spend much time together before shooting at all.
DEADLINE: Well, it’s cool getting to see Scott get his own forbidden romance after the first two episodes, cause I feel like viewers were starting to suspect that he might be on the downlow or something.
Arnaud: I think it certainly got out because people who have read the books, Scott and Kip have their own book. But I think I’ve also heard that people were thinking that he was just suspecting Shane and Ilya’s thing.
DEADLINE: Yeah, I can see that, like he was kind of clocking them with, “Oh, Ilya’s right next to my hotel room” and stuff like that.
Arnaud: Yeah, but it’s so funny because on that day, I didn’t actually hear Connor when Ilya like comes by and he says, “1221.” I couldn’t hear it. There’s so much sh*t going on in the arena, I didn’t hear it. So, it was not in direct reaction to that, but I think the way it plays is really—what we’d said with Jacob was that it was like on a subconscious level, he feels like Shane is of the same ilk, whether that’s sexuality or something, like there’s something there, but I don’t think he overthinks, I don’t think he thinks about Shane very much.
François Arnaud as Scott Hunter, Hudson Williams as Shane Hollander and Kolton Stewart as Carter Vaughn in ‘Heated Rivalry’
DEADLINE: Yeah, he just recognizes something kindred, maybe.
Arnaud: Yeah, totally.
DEADLINE: I do like that this one episode, I guess, is more relationship/romance focused than the whole Ilya/Shane chaos, which is fun too, but—
Arnaud: A different kind of porn category.
DEADLINE: Exactly. But it also makes me wonder, is there a potential for a love triangle?
Arnaud: Is there a potential for like a foursome?
DEADLINE: Maybe, or love quad, whatever—
Arnaud: Certainly not this season. I know that in the books, I think Scott and Ilya get close. I don’t know in what capacity. Well, [Ilya] says it in the first episode, “He’s hot.”
DEADLINE: Scott and Shane, I could see just because I feel like Ilya is starting to treat Shane like crap.
Arnaud: No, I think Shane is like a younger version of Scott in his head.
François Arnaud as Scott Hunter and Robbie GK as Skip Grady in ‘Heated Rivalry’
DEADLINE: That makes sense. And one thing about Scott, he comes clean right off the bat that people call him “too intense”, and I definitely feel like he’s majorly love bombing. But it’s kind of explained at the end, with him losing his parents. So, can you tell me about going on that emotional journey?
Arnaud: It’s funny, I think I’ve been accused of being too intense. So, I can relate to that—by everyone in my family mostly, so, I very much related to that. That speech for me is the thing that sold me on it, like when I read it, I was like, “Oh, this feels like I know what this is about.” Like, I can say this, all I need is to memorize it, and then delivered, but yeah, I felt like that’s the closest I feel to Scott. Love bombing, yeah, I can see that. I never thought about it. When I watched the episode, I was like, “Oh yeah, sure, a little bit.” But I don’t think it’s in a manipulative way or a narcissistic way. I think it’s a bit selfish because he’s not considering that he’s actually asking someone else to go back in the closet, to go back on the path that he hasn’t taken yet. But for Kip to be with him, he needs to sort of regress as a person, and I think that’s a pretty cruel thing to ask. I think ultimately, he understands that that’s what it is, then he lets him go, even if it’s full of love, and that’s the heartbreaking part. But that’s what we discussed a lot with Jacob, is that Scott is tired, and that’s why I think it’s so well integrated into the script, even if it is a bit of a left curve, a bit of a curveball, episode 3. But I think it’s integral to the story of Shane and Ilya, because it’s a bit of a cautionary tale, almost. It’s like, this is what happens—it’s kind of cute at the beginning, but it’s actually not that. It takes a really heavy toll, and this is what it looks like 10 years later if you haven’t [come out]. So, I think that he’s so tired, that when he meets Kip. He can’t pretend anymore, and he feels a spark, and he just decides for whatever reason. I mean, his game is suffering, right? There’s a bit of this magical element where the smoothies are making him better. It’s cute, but I think he just goes along with it because he is emotionally ready for that. He can’t do it anymore. It’s making him sick, it’s killing him, and making him a bad player. So, everything he sacrificed for hockey actually ends up costing him. I think I’ve seen that in other fields of work. I think I’ve seen it in movie stars, I’ve seen it happen. I think that to be good and happy in what you do, you kind of have to ultimately live authentically, whatever that means. And I think Scott is just in the process of figuring that out. So, love bombing, sure, I think it looks like that. I do think it comes from a genuine place where he’s just like, “I have refused this for so long, and now it is presenting itself, and I don’t want to let it pass. I just can’t.”
DEADLINE: That’s fair.
Arnaud: I don’t know, maybe I’m defending him too much.
Hudson Williams as Shane Hollander and Connor Storrie as Ilya Rozanov in ‘Heated Rivalry’
Sabrina Lantos/Crave
DEADLINE: What was it like bringing those intimate scenes to life? Obviously, this episode is, like we said, a little more tender than the previous two.
Arnaud: I’m naked through a bunch of them. … Listen, I think we all knew what we were getting into. They chose people who believed in the usefulness of these scenes to tell that story. I don’t know if at 25, I would have been ready to do what Connor and Hudson are doing. But certainly, my part, I liked that our scenes with Kip were showing another side of sexuality, which is tentative and repressed and like role-play almost, and it’s just two people who are actually just giving in, and the joy of that. We talked a lot about that too with Jacob. I was like, “What do you see it as? What do you think it’s like tonally? Is it like Fellow Travelers?” He’s like, “No, the opposite. I just don’t want it to be doomed, cause it has to be just joyous. It’s always like, everybody dies, all the queer characters die all the time, and there’s always AIDS lurking.” And there’s something about those sex scenes in the whole show, even in the Shane and Ilya scenes, that it’s not actually about the sex. It’s about whatever’s going on between them. There’s still two characters sizing each other up or giving in, in our case. It’s communion.
