François Arnaud, Heated Rivalry
Crave
[Warning: The following contains spoilers for Heated Rivalry, Season 1, Episode 3. Read at your own risk!]
Heated Rivalry, the new Canadian show that chronicles the years-long clandestine romance between two rival professional hockey players, may just bring explicit sex back to television.
Ever since the first two episodes of the six-part romantic drama debuted last Friday on Crave in Canada and HBO Max in the U.S., legions of viewers have flocked to social media to express their shock over the level of physical and emotional intimacy depicted between Canadian Shane Hollander (Hudson Williams) and Russian Ilya Rozanov (Connor Storrie). (The words “we didn’t even kiss” have been seared into the brains of every viewer for the last week.)
But those who were expecting an immediate continuation of Shane and Ilya’s story in this week’s episode of Heated Rivalry were given a bit of a rude awakening or a pleasant surprise, depending on how familiar they were with Rachel Reid’s original Game Changers book series.
“I think the left curve of Episode 3 indicates a little bit also that we’re going to see other angles of this story,” star François Arnaud, who admits that he was worried that fans were “going to hate me for hijacking a whole week of the episodes,” tells TV Guide. Series creator Jacob Tierney “really uses hot sex as a hook and I think that’s great, but it’s really not all there is to that show. I think people will be pleasantly surprised, even if they want hot sex. There’s still hot sex!”
More on HBO and HBO Max:
While offering brief cameos from Shane and Ilya, the third episode focuses entirely on the whirlwind courtship between New York Admirals star center Scott Hunter (Arnaud) and local-smoothie-bar-barista-slash-cater-waiter-slash-aspiring-grad-student Christopher “Kip” Grady (Robbie G.K.), who are the protagonists of the first book of Reid’s series, Game Changer. (The episode title is six asterisks, likely meant to represent Scott’s last name.)
What begins as a regular flirtation over blueberry and banana smoothies on Scott’s home game days quickly transforms into a full-blown romance, with Scott asking Kip to stay in his luxury apartment after just one night of sleeping together. But as he begins to fall deeper in love with Kip, Scott is forced to decide between coming out publicly (and possibly being alienated within the hockey community) and staying closeted. After realizing how much hiding their relationship has hurt Kip, Scott — who lost both his parents in a car accident at age 12 and used hockey as a way to create a new family for himself — decides he has to let the love of his life go.
But viewers can obviously expect to see more of Scott and Kip in the back half of the season. “What changes the game for Shane and Ilya happens later in the season, and I would say that the emotional climax of the season involves all of these characters, and the stories are intimately connected,” Arnaud says before quickly clarifying: “It’s not a foursome!”
Below, Arnaud opens up about the origins of Scott and Kip’s love story, how he thinks the “Skip” relationship contrasts with the “Hollanov” dynamic (and whether he thinks Scott has clocked that there is something going on with the two younger hockey players), and what he has made of the overnight success of the show.
You and Jacob Tierney both grew up in Montreal and have known each other for 17 years, and he actually called you personally to ask you to play Scott in Heated Rivalry. At the time, you admittedly had very little knowledge of Rachel Reid’s books. What do you remember from your earliest conversations with him about the project, and what did you think of the way he chose to adapt the IP?
François Arnaud: First, I was like, “Wait, you want me to play a star hockey player? You’re calling the only Canadian actor who doesn’t fucking skate.” But it turns out he didn’t care because the three guys he cast as hockey players were not skaters. [Laughs.] So he called me and the call kept breaking up, because I was on the road in upstate New York. He sent me [the scripts for] all six episodes, and he said, “Listen, you’re not very much in [Episodes] 1 and 2, but 3 is all yours, and then there’s more to come afterward. Just read all six and trust me.”
And when I started reading, I was a bit shocked because it’s so unlike the rest of his work that I knew. Jacob is very much an intellectual and he’s not sex-negative in any way, but I was reading the first episode, and I couldn’t wrap my head around what he was doing. I thought, “Just trust [him],” and it really does unfold quite magically over six episodes. I think the left curve of Episode 3 indicates a little bit also that we’re going to see other angles of this story. He really uses hot sex as a hook and I think that’s great, but it’s really not all there is to that show. I think people will be pleasantly surprised, even if they want hot sex. There’s still hot sex!
You said at a recent premiere that “there was something in the writing of this alpha-strong-Captain-America-male that is just profoundly good.” Using Jacob’s writing as a guideline, how did you think about building your own interpretation of Scott? What did you find most appealing about playing him?
Arnaud: I actually connected to the words so much instantly. The spiel he gives Kip that morning [after they first have sex] where he was asking him to stay, it just rang so true. That’s actually what Jacob had said to me on the call. He was like, “I didn’t write this for you, but I keep hearing your voice say these things, and I can’t think of anyone else. Will you do it?” So, yeah, there’s the Captain America [aspect]. That’s actually something that would probably deter me from playing something because I usually like edgier characters — people that depart a little bit from my sane self, that are an outlet for my chaos. [Laughs.] But I think what I really like about Scott is that that chaos is right there. It’s just bubbling right under his skin.
And there’s something that is moving to me about seeing someone who’s got a decade on our younger protagonists who are going through something similar, but he’s repressed it for so long that there’s just something really sad and tired [with him]. With Jacob, we kept talking about how tired he was of wearing this mask. And he doesn’t have any regrets. He’s not bitter, but he weirdly feels completely emotionally available to that new person coming into his life… until he’s not, and there are complications. But there’s something [about him] where he’s actually really ready for it, and it’s easy for him to slide into [a relationship]. I think it’s a bit of a cautionary tale for the younger rookies. It’s not cute forever. It takes a toll.
ALSO READ: What’s new on HBO Max
Did you do a chemistry read with Robbie?
Arnaud: Yeah, we did one chemistry read over Zoom, as so many things are, unfortunately, now.
What do you remember from that read? Could you immediately tell that Robbie was the right actor to play Kip?
Arnaud: Well, I texted Jacob right after, and I was like, “Oh my God. He’s so open and simple,” and that’s what I like about his performance in the episode. It’s really built like a rom-com, albeit a sad one. It reminds me of Notting Hill a bit. I get to be Julia Roberts! [Laughs.] Anyway, I think that he plays all those rom-com beats but delivers them so that you forget [there] was ever a line — and it’s really not the case, I think, for all rom-coms that I see. I often feel the dialogue too much for my taste, and he has a way to just bring it to him and show up in a really open way. He sustains eye contact. There’s something really beautiful and easy about him.
Scott and Kip have a really memorable meet-cute at the smoothie shop where Kip works. What do you think those two characters see in each other that makes them fall as quickly as they do for each other?
Arnaud: That’s a really good question, because I asked myself that many times. I was like, “Is there [a spark]?” And I think that it was almost like a problem for me in the script at first that it wasn’t more explained. I don’t know what Kip sees in Scott, but I think what Scott sees in Kip is that openness, because Kip is living an open life. He’s unashamed, and his walls aren’t up like [Scott’s are], and that’s the tragedy of it. Scott is essentially asking someone else to go back in the closet for him, to go on that journey that [Kip’s] already done. But there’s something where I think both are just available. It’s like the right timing — or not quite, unfortunately — but at first, it certainly does feel like that. I think people who live vastly different lives go through these moments where they’re suddenly like, “I’m ready for whatever this is, and I’m ready to take this on.”
Between Scott and Kip, who do you think fell first, and who fell harder?
Arnaud: I think Scott falls first and harder, but then has to face his own demons. I think Kip is very aware of the danger of that relationship, so he’s holding back a little bit — hence [there are] all those moments where Scott is telling him that this is what he wants. And then as soon as [Kip] gives in, unfortunately, Scott pulls back not because he’s a narcissist, not because he’s manipulative, but because he’s unable to overcome his own demons… yet.
A lot of viewers who watched the first two episodes probably watched the third episode expecting more of the same in terms of sex, but the intimate scenes between Scott and Kip don’t feel as explicit or as graphic as the ones between Shane and Ilya — which I assume was by design to contrast the two relationships.
Arnaud: I don’t know. They’re just shorter. The episode was too long and they had to cut into it, but we sure as hell shot them! And people can freeze frame too many things for my liking. But yeah, it’s a completely different style of sex. We see just as much nudity as in the other ones. It’s not built like this kind of titillating eroticism in the same way that their sex scenes in the first two episodes are. And that’s not to say that they will remain like that. That’s why I think Episode 3 is a really good segue for the next steps in Shane and Ilya’s relationship, because as much as people liked the first two, I think if it’s just that [explicit sex] for six episodes, then it stalls a bit. It really does go to other places.
But for sure, [Shane and Ilya’s relationship] is built on tension and secretive, locker room machismo and all of that, whereas our sex scenes are about liberation and love. So it might not be as hot. I don’t know. It depends who you are, I guess, but I think that the point of these sex scenes in our episode is to illustrate the joy of them and actually how freeing it is.
You’ve been nude on camera and done intimacy scenes in the past, but those kinds of scenes always require a lot of physical and emotional vulnerability. How did your experience on this show compare to past experiences, and how did you and Robbie approach those intimate scenes?
Arnaud: We had a few conversations. Also, there wasn’t a lot of time to get to know one another, which kind of worked for the characters because they were just meeting and falling. So it was nice to be surprised by whatever the other person brought and have the little butterflies and the spark, and I think that’s good in that context because we’re not playing people who have been in a relationship for very long, so that was useful.
We worked with an incredible intimacy coordinator [Chala Hunter]. I think we’re still figuring out what that role is, but I’ve had intimacy coordinators that have made me feel and certainly made other people feel more uncomfortable about the scenes we were supposed to shoot. Sometimes it’s so serious that you’re just now like, “Oh my god, am I supposed to feel assaulted or something?” And Chala was amazing. She’s a friend of Jacob’s, and she was just with us and really reading the room, and we were able to joke about them if we needed to. It wasn’t hyper-serious and careful. It was respectful of everybody, but also was in the spirit of the show, which was, in general, maybe the loveliest set I’ve ever been on.
The entire arc of the third episode is about Scott falling in love with Kip and then realizing that he can’t go public with their relationship because he doesn’t want to risk losing this other adopted family that he created through hockey. How did you think about playing out Scott’s inner turmoil over not being able to reveal a part of his personal life that clearly makes him so happy?
Arnaud: I think for definitely the first half of the episode, he feels so emotionally available to this [relationship] and thinks he can just have his cake and eat it too, and he is a bit selfish because he’s so consumed by his own feelings that, until [Kip’s best friend] Elena tells him how miserable it’s making Kip, he’s not really taking that into consideration how hard it is for him. So he thinks he can just have this double life and that that’s enough for now, and he doesn’t understand the toll that it will take on Kip to do that.
But I think that’s what’s heart-wrenching at the end for me, because he wants to be ready but he understands he’s not ready. He has to let the person he loves go because he loves him — and he does. People do that for different reasons in real life. This is a pretty unfortunate one, but I didn’t judge him at that point in his life. He’s an orphan. He’s sacrificed so much of his life for hockey, which gave a lot back to him in return, and [coming out] is just not something that he sees that he can do. But it tortures him and it makes him really miserable. And you’ll see, at some point, there’s a breaking point.
The shot of Scott looking at Kip and his friends through the window of that gay bar was brutal. He was so close yet so far.
Arnaud: Yeah, it’s pretty brutal. I do think that the very final shot though, covering the banana socks with the hockey socks — that’s what gets me. [Laughs.]
François Arnaud and Hudson Williams, Heated Rivalry
Crave
There are a couple of moments in the first two episodes where Scott jokes with Shane about Ilya — first on the bench at the All-Star game, and then at the open bar during an awards gala. A lot of viewers are convinced that Scott immediately noticed that there was something weird going on between Shane and Ilya. Did you choose to play it that way?
Arnaud: Yeah, it was a very vague conversation. We purposefully wanted to play with the tropes of casual homophobia in sports too, like [imitates a deep voice ironically], “Oh, how close are you two guys?” I don’t think Scott has spent much time thinking about it, to be honest, but I think there’s a feeling. There’s a connection that he sees something in Shane of himself.
Whether he knows that that’s what it is — it’s weird because the scene on the bench, I know that people are like, “Ooh, yeah, Scott clocked that.” But on the day, I did not hear Ilya say the room number. I was turned away, and we wanted it to be like a slow reveal. [Laughs.] I’m not actually hearing the room number, so it’s there or not there. I think it plays exactly the way that I wanted it to play, which is like there’s doubt and it exists on a subconscious level.
Have you seen the posts about Scott being in the hotel room right next to Shane’s in Las Vegas as Shane and Ilya are going at it?
Arnaud: Yeah, I’ve seen a little bit of that. Social media takes a toll on my life. I try to dip in and out, so I delete Instagram and then I’ll not go on it for a few days, and I’ll go on and make a post and leave. But yes, I have seen that. Yeah, I don’t know. I don’t think he was jerking off in the next room to it. [Laughs.]
The success of the show in the last week is unlike anything I have ever seen, and the amount of discourse about the first two episodes alone has been dizzying — and maybe even bordering on invasive. What have you made of the rabid response to the show, and how have you, Jacob and the rest of the cast been handling the influx of attention?
Arnaud: I’m really surprised at how well Connor and Hudson are dealing with it because they really seem to have their heads screwed on right, and I know they do the same [thing]. They delete social media. They weren’t online when it first premiered. They were like, “We did all our press. We don’t want to know. We’ll check in. We’ll dip in and see what [the reaction] is.” I know Jacob is in shock. Nobody expected this much attention, for sure. I always thought it would find its audience, but I did not think it would be overnight and this quick, for sure. But it’s nice to be part of something that people are watching and that people care about.
I’ve been doing this for almost two decades now, and I never really thought very much about visibility of a project. That’s not why, necessarily, I choose a project. I always go with the artistry and creativity of the people who are involved, but it’s really nice to know that it’s reaching eyeballs. Yeah, it’s a little overwhelming. I guess this week I had a bit of a panic. I was like, “Oh my god, these people are so in love with Shane and Ilya. They’re going to hate me for hijacking a whole week of the episodes.” And if it happens, whatever. But yeah, they can just go check porn online if that’s what they want.
You came out publicly as bisexual in 2020, and you have been outspoken about the cultural invisibility of bisexual men in media and how that has contributed to pervasive and harmful beliefs and stereotypes about bisexuality. How are you hoping the way you choose to live your life publicly and the kind of work you do will help dispel those harmful stereotypes?
Arnaud: I’m not working actively to do that. I think what I wanted to contribute was just being myself and disclosing and not hiding, because it’s easy. And if I was in a long-term relationship with a woman, for instance, it has been easy in the past to just not say anything about it. [Being] bisexual is not like going from one to the other. It’s not turning gay and then turning straight again. It’s just a part of your identity.
And I think that you’re right — especially in men, I think straight privilege and masculinity is a real currency, and people are afraid to lose that value for themselves. And I just thought, “Hey, I can do that.” I don’t want to invite people and I don’t want to have public conversations about my private life constantly, but I just want to live. I mean, I love telling stories. I think these stories are important, but I also want to live my own story.
A new episode of Heated Rivalry drops every Friday on HBO Max in the U.S. and Crave in Canada, with the finale dropping on Dec. 26.
