An Old Spaghetti Factory waiter turned 12-million-dollar breakout TV show star, Heated Rivalry has changed the lives of more than just committed Hulu and HBO Max users. Adapted from a romance novel, the binge-worthy series depicts a steamy romantic rivalry between star hockey players. Complicated themes of heteronormativity and masculine expectations convolute the narrative, spearheading “controversial” themes in the polarizing environment of professional men’s sports.
Hudson Williams: A Rapid Rise To Fame
Star actor Hudson Williams has earned praise for his stellar performance in Heated Rivalry. A British Columbia native turned Hollywood star, Williams’ appearance on The Tonight Show drew crowds of American fans, praising Williams. While many say fame doesn’t come overnight, for breakout star Williams, that rings true.
Before his visibility as Shane “Shade” Hollander, Williams supported himself by working as a waiter at Old Spaghetti Factory while he built his acting portfolio. Williams continued this job, working up until he was cast in Heated Rivalry. Filmed in just 36 days, Heated Rivalry changed William’s life in a matter of just over a year.
The Reality of Rapid Fame
Going from a food service worker to presenting at the Golden Globes, this stark rise to fame doesn’t come without its struggles. While Williams’ dream of becoming an acclaimed performer has been realized, Williams is vulnerable with the media about his struggles. With such a quick rise to fame, Williams struggles to choose projects that align with his passions, overwhelmed with an inbox full of potential scripts. As a new actor, Williams expresses a grounded sense of guilt for not accepting these opportunities, opportunities that he could only have dreamt of a year ago.
Williams claims that his rise to fame is not only overwhelming, but it’s also taxing on his mental health. His previous struggles with social anxiety have heightened with the taunting presence of the public eye. Williams even admitted to Variety that, until being the one in the spotlight, Williams never realized the inhumane treatment of celebrities. This rather swift switch from being a “normal guy” to being one of Hollywood’s hottest celebrities is the perfect catalyst for this realization.
Transforming Film, On and Off the Ice
Heated Rivalry undeniably changed the life of aspiring actor, Hudson Williams, but we would be remiss not to explore the show’s impact on representation in mainstream media. Heated Rivalry is based on the culture of the National Hockey League, an environment defined by aggression and masculinity. Heated Rivalry contrasts this environment with the vulnerability of the relationship between male players Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov. This evident contrast points to the lack of LGBTQIA+ representation in the NHL, the only men’s pro league that has never had a current or past openly gay player. This opens the door to anti-LGBTQIA+ narratives, urging many opposers to attempt to “preserve the masculinity” of the sport.
Yet another controversy reimagined in Heated Rivalry is sexual violence in the professional hockey sphere. Through the normalization of hazing and the intentional violence of hockey culture itself, Heated Rivalry, while explicitly sexual, focuses on the art of consent. By perfectly portraying mutual consent in sexual encounters initiated by both partners, the show carefully reimagines the culture of hockey, eliminating the normalization of sexual violence.
Despite the polarizing climate of today’s media and politics, Heated Rivalry‘s steadfast emergence into the mainstream media has the potential to change the traditional portrayal of LGBTQ+ representation in film. By rewriting both the expectations of “typical” sexual orientation in masculine environments and the acknowledgement of consensual sex, Heated Rivalry offers an exception to the heavy pitfalls of toxic masculinity in professional hockey culture.
A Limited View of the LGBTQIA+ Experience
As a common characteristic of theatrics, Heated Rivalry isn’t perfectly accurate to the queer experience. In using conventionally attractive, well-off, and athletic characters, the show’s primary demographic is women and openly gay men. While the show still works towards queer representation in the media, this depiction isn’t entirely accurate of the queer experience. Not only does this set unrealistic expectations for viewers, but it also doesn’t speak to the demographic that needs to witness the queer experience to reach acceptance, dimming its effect on the overall media.
However, this limited view of the LGBTQIA+ experience is better than an overall lack of representation. The “cultural earthquake” that Heated Rivalry has created, rocked the world of viewers, actors, and the media. Hidden behind the glorified experience of the alluring hockey players is a movement towards rewriting the portrayal of masculine energy in film as we know it today.