The showrunner shares his secrets to good sex…on TV.

The sex talk with Heated Rivalry creator Jacob Tierney: ‘We’re making a horny show. Let it be horny. Enjoy!’

The showrunner shares his secrets to good sex...on TV.

By Nick Romano

Nick Romano is a senior editor at ** with 15 years of journalism experience covering entertainment. His work previously appeared in *Vanity Fair*, Vulture, IGN, and more.

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December 25, 2025 2:00 p.m. ET

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Connor Storri as Ilya Rozanov and Hudson Williams as Shane Hollander on 'Heated Rivalry'. Credit:

- *Heated Rivalry* series creator Jacob Tierney shares his vision for the hit romance's steamy sex.

- "We were very aware we're making a horny show. Let it be horny. Enjoy! That's part of the fun of this, right?" he says.

- Tierney's philosophy is simple: "Sex is not supposed to be trauma here."

Let's talk about sex...

No, this isn't the classic Salt-N-Peppa song of 1991. It's *Heated Rivalry*. Though, series creator Jacob Tierney feels it's a missed opportunity not to finish that line with, "...Baby! Let's talk about you and me."

"This is your interview, man. You make the rules," he responds, playfully.

Tierney, who previously gave us sitcom *Letterkenny*, has taken the world by storm with his TV adaptation of Rachel Reid's *Game Changer* romance novels. What began on Canada's Crave streaming platform has since exploded all over the world (on HBO Max in the U.S., Australia, and soon the U.K.). And, yes, sex plays a heavy role in all this.

Tierney is open to chat about mostly anything related to the show, which stars Hudson Williams as Shane Hollander and Connor Storrie as Ilya Rozanov, two rival professional hockey players who start a sexual relationship behind closed doors that rapidly turns to love.

Shane Hollander (Hudson Williams) and Ilya Rozanov (Connor Storrie) on 'Heated Rivalry'.

The sex of Reid's books, which include first entry *Game Changer* (adapted in episode 3 and parts of 5) and second novel *Heated Rivalry*, is quite explicit. It's par for the course when it comes to MM romance, but not typically standard of Hollywood. So he knew these physical moments would also play a role on the show.

"It's this very limiting, puritanical way of looking at sex scenes of, you either pan away and 'I don't wanna watch this,' or you omit people's sex lives entirely as though that's not a part of who they are," Tierney tells **. "We were very aware we're making a horny show. Let it be horny. Enjoy! That's part of the fun of this, right? That's also part of the reaction we're seeing here, is that this show is different because of that. Sex is not supposed to be trauma here, and that was something I really wanted to avoid. I want it to be beautiful."

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He does, however, want to debunk something one of his actors put out there. In a previous interview with EW, François Arnaud, who plays another closeted gay hockey player Scott Hunter (well, not closeted anymore), said he and costar Robbie G.K. (Kip) shot "like two days of sex scenes."

"He didn't. He's lying," a comically frank Tierney comments. "I mean, he's not *lying*. He's being an actor." (Meaning actors are prone to exaggerate.) "His two days were like one afternoon. We did shoot more than what was in there. Sweet François. As soon as I saw the interview, I was like, 'People are gonna f---ing come at me now.' ... I texted him, 'What are you talking about?' He was like, 'Didn't we?' And I was like, 'No, we didn't.'"

Kip Grady (Robbie G.K.) and Scott Hunter (François Arnaud) on 'Heated Rivalry'.

The series has a hockey coordinator for the hockey elements and an intimacy coordinator for the sex scenes. Chala Hunter is the latter, that special sauce when it comes to *Heated Rivalry*'s bedroom tussles. "The fans get spontaneity, but we see mechanics," Williams says, adding he and Storrie "see technique, rehearsal. We see Chala going, 'Knee little higher! Knee little lower! Hide your, like, little ballet slipper.'"

"Less face! More face!" his costar adds, imitating Hunter's direction on set.

What Tierney refers to as "the cutest thing in the world," however, is when he's watching the rushes, a.k.a. dailies, the raw, unedited footage shot from a day on set. "Listening to them check in on each other in low voices during the sex," he recalls. "Like, 'You good?' 'Do you want me to move something?' They're so aware of each other."

Comfort was key between the two leads. Anyone can tell by the flurry of marketing materials and videos on TikTok that Williams and Storrie are physically at ease around each other. The showrunner recognized that connection instantly. The pair performed a chemistry test in the casting process, reading a scene from episode 5 where Shane and Ilya are in Tampa Bay. Everyone seemed to know right then that they were the ones for this job.

Connor Storrie and Hudson Williams on 'Heated Rivalry'.

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Tierney didn't have a specific philosophy when it came to shooting the sex of *Heated Rivalry*, but he did script it with the same specificity that Reid writes in her books.

"I wanted them to be choreographed like a dance," he explains. "What I know as an actor myself is that I don't want to improvise a sex scene. It's not fun. I don't want to do that. It's way too much freedom.... And also because the sex is so important to advancing the narrative. There are story elements. I need specific moments from the beats from them."

The showrunner actively acknowledges, however, the other function sex plays on the show. Sometimes it's just hot for the sake of being hot. You don't always have to over-intellectualize it.

"I want them to be gorgeous," Tierney says of Williams and Storrie when they're on camera. "I want the boys to look amazing and I want them to be hot because, what the f--- are we doing here? We're making smut. Let's go! Of course it should be hot. I think it can be all those things at once."

The *Heated Rivalry* season 1 finale will arrive on HBO Max Dec. 25 at 10 p.m. PT/Dec. 26 at 1 a.m. ET.**

Original Article on Source

Source: “EW LGBTQ”