In a recent interview with The Ankler, casting directors Sara Kay and Jenny Lewis talk about what the process of finding the perfect actors to bring these characters to life. The short answer: It wasn’t easy. A lot of thought had to go into the search for Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov.

Connor Storrie, 25, and Hudson Williams, 24, became bona fide stars overnight. That isn’t common, in case you’re wondering. Prior to Heated Rivalry, both men were working as servers. Williams was working at an Old Spaghetti Factory, and Storrie was a server (and a clown) in Los Angeles.

“Discovering stars now in 2026 — it’s not like what happened with Connor and Hudson is going to happen like over and over again, because we have a lot of successful shows here where someone will be the lead of a show that goes on 10 seasons on Canadian television, and they’re still not considered a star,” says Kay, who alongside Lewis conducted an extensive search for the show’s stars in the spring of 2025.

It is no secret that Hollywood right is is playing it safe rather than taking risks. “You’re not tied down to the whole, ‘Oh, there has to be a star who’s going to bring this kind of box office to the show in order for the show to be greenlit or get made,'” said Lewis of working in Canada on the series.

“The specificity of the characters is not just like, “Oh, those people are just out there.'”

Author Rachel Reid’s Game Changers series is already a fan-favorite, which added to the responsibility of bringing Ilya and Shane to life. Storrie and Williams had incredibly large shoes to fill for such specific characters, and they knew the casting process would not be easy. However, once they saw the auditions, they knew.

Lewis says of Storrie’s audition:

“He just sort of had the it of the character.”

And of Williams:

“This is staying with me.”

On their chemistry test, Lewis is blunt:

“They’re hot. Like, it goes beyond chemistry. They’re hot together. You want to watch how hot they are together.”

Alongside testing chemistry, Lewis and Kay talk about he playbook of what casting directors really look for in a chemistry read. They also discuss what caught their eye about Storrie and Williams, and what their first set visit to Heated Rivalry was like. You can read the whole interview at The Ankler here.

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