Heated Rivalry director Jacob Tierney is lifting the lid on one of the series’ most iconic moments.
Early on in the romance between Shane and Ilya – played in the Canadian series by Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie – the rival hockey players have a chance encounter at a hotel gym.
Long before things between them have turned sexual, viewers are given a taste of what’s to come when Ilya hands an exhausted Shane his water bottle, and mutters a subtle “more” while watching his rival drink.
During a new interview with Entertainment Tonight, Jacob – who created the show, and both wrote and directed all six instalments – confirmed that this was actually an improvisation from Connor in the moment.
Jacob noted that, generally, the pair “don’t improv a lot” because they “have so much dialogue to learn”, particularly for Connor, who has “an enormous amount of work with his accent or with Russian”.
However, he added that he “definitely” likes to give the series’ two leads leeway, which is how the fan-favourite “gimme kiss” moment came to be.
“Stuff like that, that’s really cute – I’m happy to leave that in,” Jacob noted. “The other one was ‘more’. When Connor was watching him drink from the water bottle for the first time.
“The camera was so close to him that we caught it – but I don’t even remember if I spotted it on the day. But when I spotted it in the edit I was like, ‘oh, we’re keeping that’.”
Heated Rivalry became an unexpected global phenomenon upon its release at the end of 2025, finally premiering on UK screens in January.
Production on its second season began earlier this year, with producers having already released a message addressed to “our incredible fans and everyone who’s been sharing in the excitement for the show”, urging them to “please give our cast and crew the space they need to do what they do best”.
“We promise it’ll be worth the wait!” they insisted.
