Although the TV show adaptation of Heated Rivalry quickly became an international hit, not everyone praised its explicit romance. One opinion in particular caught the attention of fans and actors of the show: comedian and actor Jordan Firstman.
The I Love LA actor found the show’s depiction of gay sex unrealistic and said that it was bad representation. As a result, stars Hudson Williams and François Arnaud, who play Shane Hollander and Scott Hunter respectively, pushed back at the negativity.
What is Heated Rivalry?
Heated Rivalry is a Crave Original TV show adaptation of Rachel Reid’s Game Changers novels that is available on HBO Max in the U.S. The TV series follows two rival hockey players, Shane Hollander from Canada and Ilya Rozanov from Russia, who enter a secret relationship as their professional hockey careers, and media-manufactured rivalry, take off.
Of the five queer relationships featured in the six Game Changers books, Ilya and Shane are the most popular in part due to the yearning and enemies-to-lovers trope inherent in their story.
Jacob Tierney, an openly gay screenwriter and director, created, wrote, and directed the series. Despite the fact that the show’s creator is a gay man, and Arnaud also came out as bisexual several years ago, Firstman argued the sex scenes felt inauthentic. During a Vulture interview, he criticized the early episodes.
“I’m sorry, I watched those first two episodes of Heated Rivalry and it’s just not gay,” Firstman told Vulture. “It’s not how gay people f**k. There’s so few things that actually show gay sex.”
He then compared the show to I Love LA, saying of the scenes in his series, “A straight guy could not write that. They [Heated Rivalry] don’t know what the camaraderie of gay sex is.”
Later in the interview, Firstman said, “I go to art to be confronted and to think, but a lot of people just want entertainment or to see two straight hockey players pretending to be gay and f**king.”
How the Heated Rivalry actors responded
As backlash grew, the show’s stars addressed Firstman directly, commenting on an Instagram post from @justjared about his quote. Arnaud responded first in an Instagram comment, asking, “Is there only one way to have ‘authentic’ gay sex on tv? Should the sex that closeted hockey players have look like the sex that sceney LA gay guys have? 🤔”
Williams shared Arnaud’s comment on his Instagram Story along with a link to the post and opted to kill Firstman with kindness.
Instead of adding on his own take to Arnaud’s words, he instead added diplomatically, “But truly go watch I Love LA! Jordan and the cast are great!!”
Not long after the Heated Rivalry actors’ comments spread, Firstman addressed the backlash himself on his Instagram Story.
“I love heated rivalry and ultimately I’m a [expletive] who can’t shut the [expletive] up but I’m gunna get better at that,” he wrote, complete with a blurry selfie.
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