During his splashy late-night debut on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon Wednesday night, Heated Rivalry star Hudson Williams reflected on his rapid rise to success after the HBO series’ release — and he teased what fans can expect from the NSFW sport romance’s second season (spoiler: things are about to get even more heated).
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the 24-year-old mediated a Heated Rivalry debate between host Jimmy Fallon and The Roots’ Tariq Trotter — also known as Black Thought — and even demonstrated viral hockey stretching exercises alongside Fallon.
Here’s what he shared about his newfound fame and what’s next for the show.
Williams reflected on his newfound fame and close relationship with co-star Connor Storrie
Williams kicked off his debut on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon by appearing in Fallon’s opening monologue, in which the 51-year-old and Trotter argued about Heated Rivalry lead characters Ilya and Shane. After things got heated, Williams joined them on stage to roars of applause and helped resolve the conflict.
“You’re both right,” he told them.
Later, he opened up to Fallon about the show’s popularity and how he turns “into a deer in headlights every time” when he’s in the public eye. He also recounted auditioning for the show, which is based on a book series of the same name.
“We didn’t even know about hockey smut,” Williams said, confessing he and his co-star Connor Storrie were unfamiliar with the book series. “We didn’t know that it existed. But I was reading the book as the audition process went along. And it was way too long, you know, it took way too long for me just to get that call. So by the time I got the call, I was like, ‘Finally!’”
Williams also commented on the hockey industry’s support of the show.
“There are podcasters who are used to analyzing this very masculine sport getting to analyze our show,” Williams he said before Fallon added, “There’s a lot of love.”
On working with Storrie, Williams said the two became “besties right away” — so much so that playing up their characters’ rivalry was actually a challenge.
Williams teases that Season 2 would be ‘an external battle’
Thrilling both the in-studio audience and viewers at home, Williams showed Fallon the hockey stretching exercises taking over the internet, thanks to the show — and even persuaded the late-night host to get on the ground for a live, face-to-face demonstration.
“This is the best it gets,” Williams joked before adding, “Carson didn’t do this.”
Williams offered Fallon suggestions on how to improve his form and asked him to go to another part of the stage to do the next step of the stretch, The Hollywood Reporter reported.
“Hi, mom,” he said mischievously as he got into the stretch.
The 24-year-old also teased what’s to come from the show’s second season.
“There are some meanies. There are some big baddies,” he said. “If Season 1 is an internal battle, Season 2 is an external battle.”