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20 Jan 2026 6:00
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  •   Home > News > Entertainment

    Connor Storrie doesn't think his dad "needs to see" Heated Rivalry

    The 25-year-old actor plays closeted Russian hockey player Ilya Rozanov opposite Hudson Williams as his love interest Shane Hollander in the show, and while his mom is his "number one supporter", he won't be forcing his father to watch the steamy HBO Max series, in which he appears nude multiple times.


    Speaking on Today, Connor said: "My mom is my number one supporter.

    "My family's crazy. From a young age, when I was like, 'I wanna be in movies' and stuff, they were like, 'Yeah, go do it!'

    "They've always believed in me, and I think it's probably pretty surreal to watch things like this happen.

    "My dad hasn't seen it, and I'm not asking him to see it. I don't think he needs to see it if he doesn't want to."

    Connor noted how it is easy for TV shows and movies to be missed by audiences in the streaming era.

    He said: "Streaming and the way that television and movies work now is so different than it was, even when I was little.

    "Even me sometimes, I'm like, 'Oh, this isn't real because I don't see it on commercials, necessarily, and I don't see it on billboards.'

    "When I was little, we all had specific channels, and it was like, you only see the movie stars on these things. And now that streaming is a thing, it's not the same. We don't take media the same way, so it doesn't always feel real."

    Connor and Hudson both previously admitted it took some time for them to realise how big the show has become.

    Connor told Entertainment Weekly last month: "Even before the show was coming out, my algorithm, anything online has been so geared towards Heated Rivalry that I've convinced myself this is just my device.

    "Then the moment I came back from Canada, every single day I feel like someone's stopping me and being like, 'I love the show.' "

    Hudson added: "We were doubting the reception of it because we were like, 'We're just in some bubble. This is just what we're hearing because we're in it. Our algorithms are just catering to us.'

    "But I'm in LA now and we've been stopped in the street. And then I was recently in Whistler in Vancouver and people are coming up.

    "It's now starting to hit that maybe it's not a micro-bubble and it's becoming this bigger thing, but even then I can't really fathom it. But it sure means a lot."

    © 2026 Bang Showbiz, NZCity

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