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Connor Storrie and Hudson Williams at the premiere of ‘Heated Rivalry’ in Toronto on Nov. 24, 2025.Credit :
Harold Feng/Getty
There’s nothing keeping these two apart.
Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie have been making a splash onscreen on the steamy HBO Max series Heated Rivalry, based on the 2019 Rachel Reid novel of the same name. And what better to commemorate their onscreen chemistry by getting tattoos in real life.
In an interview shared by HBO Max, the costars shared the meaning behind their “sex sells” tattoos, which they got done after filming. Storrie, 25, revealed that his lies on his shin and is outlined by a heart, while Williams, 24, shared that his is on his upper thigh.
“We settled on ‘sex sells’ because I think it was just kind of like a tongue-in-cheek, kind of winky view of being a part of something like this,” explained Storrie, adding that, for some viewers, getting to “watch these to [characters] fall madly in love” is the “cherry on top of the cake.”
“There’s sex that is selling and it’s a very sort of alluring factor,” added Williams, “but we believe it’s sort of the worth and the merit beyond that.”
Heated Rivalry follows rival hockey players Ilya Rozanov (Storrie) and Shane Hollander (Williams) who can’t escape their chemistry over the course of several years of their careers. Amid the series’ successful debut, its creator, Jacob Tierney, has made it clear that both the actors’ boundaries must be respected.
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In an interview with Xtra, Tierney said there isn’t “any reason to get into” Williams and Storrie’s real-life sexuality, as he instead shifted the focus to how well they played their roles.
“You can’t ask questions like that when you’re casting, right? It’s actually against the law,” Tierney said of the Storrie and Williams’ sexuality.
“So what you have to gauge is somebody’s enthusiasm and willingness to do the work. And that’s what’s so impressive about both of these guys is they came into this being like, ‘Yeah, we’re here to do this, and we are here to make this story feel authentic and to be as real as possible.’ And they f—— hit it out of the park.”
