As the Heated Rivalry fervor continues to grow, its stars are making clear that there’s no room for hate in the fandom.
On March 9, Hudson Williams and François Arnaud — who play Shane Hollander and Scott Hunter on the hit series — called out bullying in a shared message posted to their respective Instagram stories.
A Community Concern
“Don’t call yourself a fan if you share racist/homophobic/biphobic/misogynistic/ageist/ableist/parasocial/bigoted comments of any kind,” their statement reads. “None of us need your hateful ‘love.’”
The actors appeared to reference viewers who pit them against each other. “We all respect and support and love each other and are on the same side,” they continued, adding: “If you can’t accept that gtfoh.”
Shortly after, on Threads, Williams shed more light on the statement. “It was Francois’ idea and I helped write it! I don’t scroll comments so I did not see the hate,” he wrote. “I was vibing watching figure skating highlights.”
The Heated Rivalry Spotlight
The statement, which was later shared by several of the pair’s Heated Rivalry castmates, is not the first time the team behind the hockey romance has addressed the mean-spirited corners of their expanding viewership.
In February, creator and showrunner Jacob Tierney appeared on Loon Call (a podcast dedicated to Rachel Reid’s Game Changers series) and called out “toxic” viewers who are “saying horrible things about my actors and about characters.”
In December, Williams opened up to The Hollywood Reporter about navigating new levels of exposure as an actor, specifically calling out “sh*t posting” on X (formerly Twitter).
“People are just thought, or lack of thought, to speech [and] they’ll post it. It’s still mainly good,” he said. “I always doubted celebrities when they said, ‘There are going to be 200 good things, and you’ll remember the bad one.’ I was like surely that can’t be true, and it is true.”
Williams, however, said he tries not to pay too much attention to the discourse, good or bad. (See: his figure skating comment from earlier.) He also shared that both he and Connor Storrie — who plays his on-screen love interest, Ilya Rozanov — regularly delete their social media apps.
When it comes to particularly mean comments, “It’s so ridiculous to actually believe these people. To actually go, ‘Oh my God,’” he said. “To be offended would be to think they matter. It’s like, why be offended? Just kind of laugh.”
