Heated Rivalry’s secret sauce
Heated Rivalry’s creators Jacob Tierney and Brendan Brady, along with stars Hudson Williams and Sophie Nélisse, share behind-the-scenes moments about the making of the hit show
Heated Rivalry’s success is simply staggering – it’s safe to say this is a tad surprising.
A sexually suggestive series about two queer hockey stars hooking up and falling in love had never been seen before, but that’s exactly why writer/director/producer Jacob Tierney and his producing partner Brendan Brady decided it had to be made.
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It felt authentic to Tierney, a veteran of Canada’s television and film industry who also happens to be a gay man who loves hockey.
“It’s my algorithm,” says Tierney during a panel in Ottawa at last month’s Prime Time conference hosted by the Canadian Media Producers Association. Tierney was onstage with long-time friend and co-producer Brady, who both created Accent Aigu Entertainment a few years ago.
The duo are speaking to a receptive audience of Canadian and international creators eager to hear how they managed the seemingly impossible – create a worldwide megahit.
Not only has it become Crave’s most-watched original series, but it’s also a global streaming juggernaut. Audiences around the world have spent millions of minutes (the number is creeping towards a billion!) viewing the show. It’s a massive hit on HBO Max and it’s topped the charts in Australia, the Philippines, Singapore and Taiwan. Its stars, Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie, are social media superstars and by the summer you’ll be hearing “I’m coming to the cottage” on repeat.
But what we hear is not about replicating that level of success; instead, we get a glimpse into their work ethos that can serve as a roadmap to other creators looking to make high-quality, salable productions.
IP IS EVERYTHING
It begins with the story, or in Heated Rivalry’s case, intellectual property (IP).
“Brendan and I had just started our company and we were very aware that the game is IP,” says Tierney. “Everybody wants IP, but how does a nascent production company with no money acquire IP?
“The kind of IP that producers like Brendan and I could get in that moment is IP that nobody else is going for. And there's fucking loads of it, because you have to look at marginalized communities that are not being represented in mainstream entertainment.
“So, I called Brendan and said I think we should option this book, and by this book, I mean these books, because there's a lot of them. And then I followed Rachel Reid, the author on Instagram, and she followed me back. I slid into her DMs, and I was like, ‘What’s up, girl,’ and the rest is history,” he says with a laugh.
“We then came in with a vision of how we can get it done,” adds Brady. “And it speaks to what we think is a way in which our business could help with the costs of making TV. We're going to do this crazy thing where we shoot all six episodes in just one block with one director, one writer, treat it like a movie and keep the cost down that way.”
Bell Media, Sphere Abacus and the CMF stepped up with major funding. “That [funding] system is what keeps Canadian television alive,” says Tierney. “And a show like Heated Rivalry, which was not an obvious bet for anybody, we would absolutely not be here without them.”
CLOCKING OUT
The checklist so far reads: find a solid IP, do intensive pre-production planning, enlist the help of funders who get what you are doing and finally treat the cast and crew with respect by adhering to reasonable work hours.
“We shot this show in 36 days, primarily on 10-hour shoot days. I'm not going to say every day was a 10-hour shoot day,” Brady says. “For us, that's one of the core principles of what I think our business needs to kind of change fundamentally, is to get away from these ridiculously long hours.
“My wife is an assistant costume designer, and she's five months pregnant. And she can't come to set and work 15 hours when she's pregnant. Or she can't do it when we have a kid. So, we need to stop these insane hours that we have.
“Also, from a financial perspective it makes so much more sense,” continues Brady. “Because when you shoot 10 hours, assuming you go into 12, 13 hours a day, you're paying for an additional day. People don't remember that. And I get that gear is expensive, and I get that putting people up in hotels is expensive. But in this country, we're never going to be able to compete with the budgets of the U.S. But what we can compete with is an environment that people actually want to show up and work in.”
CHOOSING LOVE
Later that night, Tierney, Brady and Heated Rivalry actors Hudson Williams and Sophie Nélisse reunited for a surprise behind-the-scenes event that also welcomed special guest Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney. Like almost everything associated with Heated Rivalry, their red-carpet arrivals went viral.
Hosted by Lainey Lui, the evening allowed the cast and producers to reminisce about making the show, and it was especially moving when Williams and Nélisse watched a clip from his “first coming out” – the restaurant scene in which Rose gently prods Shane about his sexuality.
Nélisse gives a tender, nuanced performance.
“I really thought about how support can be so quiet,” she explains. “And I really wanted the scene to have this sort of stillness. I mean there was a lot in the eye contact and these pauses. I think Rose shows that one of the most generous things you can do for someone is to let them process their feelings without any sort of judgement or commentary. I just wanted her to be that safe space for Shane, for him to be able to open up, but at the same time showing him unconditional love.”
“I remember thinking she was the best person I would want there, across from me, doing this scene,” remembers Williams. “It was very easy to open up. Emoting and having to get vulnerable is hard especially because I think that was our second day, we hadn’t known each other for very long, but instantly I was able to open up.
“I even remember the rehearsal we did right before we got into it, we went off script. We were spitballing and I think the crew had zero faith that we’d have emotion or vulnerability and then we came and instantly the floodgates opened. It was great.”
“They were both amazing in this scene,” says Tierney. “It’s an extraordinary scene and I am so grateful to both of you and I am also super grateful to my editor Véronique Barbe who chose moments I would not have chosen. It was so interesting to watch the scene through her eyes. I basically left her cut in because it surprised me so much and because it revealed things to me that I didn’t expect.”
“Really, Jacob’s writing in this scene is a testament to love,” concludes Brady. “At every moment, the choice is love, and that’s what people are resonating with. That’s what we resonated with throughout this whole experience.”
