The actor Hudson Williams has built up a steady presence at TIFF over the years, and he made that clear on Sept. 17, when a career-spanning conversation drew the longest lines of the entire festival. The event started late after his talk with TIFF’s vice president of public programming, Keith Bennie, at the Royal Alexandra Theatre in downtown Toronto was so popular that the ushers’ ticket readers broke down. Once it began, however, Williams received more “Woo’s!” and “We love you’s!” than the rest of the festival’s talks combined.
Before a single person entered, the trouble had already begun. A line for “Making Waves With… Hudson Williams” wound its way around four city blocks an hour before showtime. Then the scanners broke down, and the opening remarks came late — a pattern that kept repeating at this year’s event. When Williams stepped onto the stage, though, the crowd let all the earlier problems go.
From Closeted Hockey Star to the A-List
Williams rose to fame as Shane Hollander in “Heated Rivalry,” Jacob Tierney’s decade-long romantic saga about closeted hockey stars Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov. The series premiered in November 2025 on Crave and HBO Max, adapted from Rachel Reid’s “Game Changers” series of novels. The books explore toxic masculinity, internalized homophobia and the closet, and the show delivers an addictive mix of yearning and forbidden love.
At the 2026 Canadian Screen Awards, Williams claimed Best Leading Performance in a Drama Series for his work as the autistic Hollander, becoming the youngest winner ever at 25. That recognition carried both him and Connor Storrie to the upper tier of television stars.
The Autograph Hounds of Paris
Not all of it has been without trouble. A rabid gang of autograph hounds followed Williams to his apartment in Paris, and the gossip blogs have fixated on his relationship with his long-term girlfriend Katelyn Larson.
Horror, Dogs and Underwear
Bennie asked Williams about attending a screening of “Obsession” at TIFF, which led to the actor promoting his part in “Yaga,” an upcoming horror series from Kat Sandler set to premiere Oct. 23 on Crave and AMC. Williams had already seen the film prior to that, but he and star Inde Navarrette share a lawyer, so he went to see it again. This time around, he said he was just as scared.
“I love horror. I could be up here for a long time talking about my favorite horror movies, but it’s definitely a genre I want to get into,” he said. “I think I had a high horror threshold when I was a kid, so I was looking for something that could truly rattle me.”
Williams also shared his early years at a performing arts elementary school where the kids performed “dumbed-down Shakespeare” and “poetry recitals.” That laid the foundation for revisiting acting in high school and beyond. His biggest inspiration as a young actor was Heath Ledger’s turn as The Joker in “The Dark Knight.”
People were renting out Williams’ short films, including “Dogging,” a documentary spoof featuring him in underwear and a dog collar. In it, he plays a man grieving his overbearing mother’ after her death, treating him as if he were a dog, which is what the audience was shown.
“All of us were working jobs. We did not get paid to do anything. But that’s what brought us all together. We wanted to make things that were fun to us and challenged us in different ways, even though they were completely ridiculous,” Williams explained.
The Least Favorite Movie
When Tierney asked about his “least favorite movie,” Williams confessed it was David Ayer’s 2016 superhero flick “Suicide Squad.”
“The first ‘Suicide Squad’ I was excited for… the trailer was so good and I was just disappointed,” he admitted. “Everyone who’s in it was good!”
Revisiting Hollander’s Closet
Williams said he was “just waiting by a phone for five years with no promise of it going well, but obviously ‘Heated Rivalry’ changed things.” The audience saw a clip of Hollander coming out to his girlfriend Sophie, played by Sophie Nélisse.
Bennie wondered how to play someone so deeply in the closet, and deliver such a restrained performance. Williams explained the inner conflict involved.
“Underneath, I think it’s the excruciating pain of knowing exactly who you are and what you like and it reading as wrong up here, and those two things being so out of tune and not being able to go, ‘I know what I am… and that is OK,’” he said.
“It was clear to me that Shane has never been vulnerable in front of another person about the biggest thing that looms over him and has followed him for over a decade,” Williams continued. “Sophie/Rose makes it so easy, but he’s not comfortable feeling that vulnerable, so [I was] just trapping it underneath the surface and making sure you’re feeling all of it.”
Fans Got Him
Williams spoke warmly of the “Heated Rivalry’s” fans who were able to pick up on precisely what he was attempting to achieve through his portrayal of Hollander, especially regarding the character’s struggle with his feelings for Rozanov.
“This guy’s kind of this little loser boy. You’re kind of like, come on, man! Just tell him! Stand up for yourself! Stop giving in! Say what you’re feeling!” he joked. “And he doesn’t do it. He’s just too fucking smitten. But they somehow picked up on all the things that I was using to justify why he’s not standing up for himself.”
Season 2 Is Coming
The man behind the character known as Hollander has returned to the role for a new season, and he described the experience as strange. Season 2 of “Heated Rivalry,” which is presently being filmed, was briefly shown off, with an April 2027 release now expected.
“It’s a sad book. If Season 1/Book 1 is the yearning season, Book 2 is external adversity and interrelational communication problems that feel very real and human,” he offered. “Just to be able to play those as Shane is going to be frustrating and annoying to leave set with things that are left unsaid, but hopefully it will make for good TV.”
Key Facts Box
- Premiere: “Heated Rivalry” premiered Nov. 2025 on Crave and HBO Max
- Award: Best Leading Performance in a Drama Series, 2026 Canadian Screen Awards
- Youngest winner: Williams, 25
- Season 2 premiere: Expected April 2027
- “Yaga” premiere: Oct. 23 on Crave and AMC
Moments From the Talk
- The crowd’s reaction — more “Woo’s!” than the rest of the festival’s talks combined
- The “Suicide Squad” confession — “Everyone who’s in it was good!”
- The “Dogging” short film — Williams in underwear and a dog collar
- The Season 2 tease — “It will make for good TV”
The talk was delivered with warmth, humor and genuine appreciation for the people who watch him, and Williams handled it all with ease. The scanner failure and the long line were part of the package, and the audience responded anyway.
Get the Notebook.
The day's best stories and every fresh verdict, in plain English, in your inbox by seven. One email a day, no more.