YouTube: Shut Up Evan Podcast
Hudson Williams has peeled back the curtain on his sudden rise to fame following the release of Heated Rivalry.
Over the last few weeks, the world has been absolutely obsessed with Crave’s acclaimed gay hockey romance series.
Created by Jacob Tierney and based on Rachel Reid’s book of the same name, the gay hockey romance series follows Shane Hollander (Williams) and Ilya Rozanov (Connor Storrie), two elite professional hockey players who embark on a passionate, secret romance while maintaining a fierce rivalry on the ice.
Since its November premiere, Heated Rivalry has become both a viral sensation and a critic darling, earning praise for its faithfulness to its source material, its romantic story, and its steamy sex scenes.
The show has also led to the overnight success of Williams and Storrie, skyrocketing them to super-stardom, resulting in the pair being booked and busy with magazine shoots, high-profile public appearances, and various interviews.
While Heated Rivalry has helped the talented pair break into the industry and gain thousands upon thousands of adoring fans, the transition from unknowns to superstars hasn’t been without its downsides.
In the recent episode of Evan Ross Katz’s Shut Up, Evan podcast, Williams opened up about navigating his sudden rise to fame, including the “Beetlemaina” response he and his co-stars have received from the public.
“It doesn’t feel like anything you could prepare for— it’s a different existence now, not based on worth or quality of human, but it’s a different life,” he explained.
“When you see these people, like when you see the Beetles, when you see BTS, there’s an element of, ‘that’s not another human, that’s a celebrity,’ which exists in this weird definition that is very abstract that you can hear them talk about, but you don’t necessarily… I couldn’t empathise— I thought I could empathise with it, but I couldn’t fully feel what they were going through until now.”
Williams went on to say that he gained a “new wave of sympathy” for the aforementioned stars and other big-name celebs, adding that it’s difficult to constantly have the public’s eyes on him.
“It’s not easy having papparazzi, people constantly go, ‘sign this, do this, do this.’ Because, although it feels good that people admire your work, we can go to pockets of places I never thought we would be found and still pulled aside for a photo, something to be signed,” he continued.
“You have to look nice because you can’t just roll out in sweat pants, which I used to always do. You don’t want to be ‘caught.’ There are all these things that are just sort of exhausting. So a lot of me just wearing the glasses, too, I just don’t want to have an eye twitch, and I don’t want them to see my three hours of sleep.”
While he admitted to previously being sceptical of celebrities who wore sunglasses in public, Williams added that he has developed a new appreciation for them, as they give him a “semblance of privacy” and control.
Elsewhere in the interview, the 24-year-old talent revisited the topic of privacy, addressing the unsolicited photos well-intentioned fans have taken of him out in public.
After Katz admitted to understanding the inclination since he’s interacted with and shared similar photos of other celebrities, Williams agreed, adding: “Yes, me too. Because those are the photos that I have engaged with. All paparazzi is unsolicited. There’s a whole market for it, and I’ve engaged with it before.
“I still engage with it. It piques my interest. It plays in something sort of base in me that gets me excited and titillated. But also, when it comes to there was no consent there. That person didn’t necessarily want that photo taken. It is, maybe not nefarious, but it’s not sweet, and it’s not fully welcomed. It doesn’t make us feel safe or like we can disarm. We feel very always on defence.”
Towards the end of his statement, Williams revealed that his newfound fame has resulted in him experiencing bouts of social anxiety, which is something he hasn’t dealt with since he was in high school.
“Sometimes the photo is kind of harmless, but there were other videos of my co-stars, other actors that I’ve seen that are a grey area. That person should know better than to post that. But it kind of comes with the territory,” he said.
You can watch part one of Hudson Williams’ Shut Up, Evan podcast interview here or below.
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