On Monday, several members of the Heated Rivalry cast, including Hudson Williams, posted a statement decrying bigoted behavior by some of the show’s most rabid parasocial fans. “Don’t call yourself a fan if you share racist/homophobic/biphobic/misogynistic/ageist/ableist/parasocial/bigoted comments of any kind,” the statement read. “None of us need your hateful ‘love.’”
Williams and François Arnaud (who plays Scott Hunter on the show) shared the message, and it was also reposted by a slew of their co-stars, including Robbie G.K., Sophie Nélisse, Nadine Bhabha, and Ksenia Daniela Kharlamova. In her repost, Kharlamova called on fans not to make “a show that’s about love” turn “hateful online.” “So much love was poured into this project, and we all genuinely have so much respect for everyone involved in making this,” she wrote. “We’re not characters and neither are our real friends, partners, family, and making up false narratives about us isn’t ‘love.’”
The show’s creator, Jacob Tierney, and the author of the book it was based on, Rachel Reid, also shared the statement on their accounts. Harrison Browne, a former pro hockey player who became the first openly transgender pro hockey player in 2016 and briefly appeared in Heated Rivalry, also reposted the statement, adding, “Agreed. Also transphobic comments.”
Since the show came out, the stars of Heated Rivalry have faced online hatred from people professing to be fans of the show. Williams has been targeted with racist comments online, while Arnaud has been attacked over rumors that he’s dating Connor Storrie. In an appearance last month on the fan podcast Loon Call, Tierney slammed this corner of the show’s fandom. “The segment of the fandom that have become toxic and saying horrible things about my actors and about characters and demanding I do things to either denounce or stand up for some imaginary fucking Twitter fight — I’m not here for this. I’m not participating; I’m not paying attention,” he said.