In all the years that I’ve produced Variety‘s Actors on Actors conversations, I’ve resisted the temptation to divulge how exactly the sausage gets made. When fans gripe on social media, for instance, about how our magazine didn’t pair two obviously compatible actors together, I haven’t taken to X to explain that we really tried, but one (or both!) of the actors turned down what seemed like an undeniable idea. Sometimes, the reasons a pairing didn’t work out are scandalous. In other cases, they’re more mundane. But spilling the tea — however satisfying for a moment — would only take attention away from the talented actors who actually do participate in our series.
Of course, the magic of Actors on Actors, which returns to CNN’s streaming platform on June 3 (with an all-time great season premiere), comes from getting the right two actors to talk to each other. It might sound easy in theory, as evidenced by all those fan suggestions. But in practice, this is an incredibly tricky series to produce. Booking Actors on Actors is like playing matchmaker with the most famous people on the planet — and their coffee date needs to be approved by an army of publicists and awards strategists.
So now, I’m going to break my cardinal rule of Actors on Actors: I’m going to talk about a few of the stars who got away. When the lineup for our installment of episodes is announced on Monday — featuring some of the most-talked-about performers of this year on television — one incredibly important show will not be on the list. Sorry to disappoint, but we didn’t include any of the actors from “Heated Rivalry.” And it was not for a lack of trying. I invited all three of the breakout actors from the groundbreaking series about gay hockey players to participate: the extraordinary Connor Storrie, the charming Hudson Williams and the magnetic François Arnaud. These actors, as millions of “Heated Rivalry” superfans know, simply need to show up at an event to create mass hysteria on social media, and they have the talent to back up their overnight stardom. They deserve to be in our portfolio alongside some of the biggest names in the business.
And yet, they turned us down. I’m certain they would have accepted the invitation if not for one key fact: “Heated Rivalry” isn’t eligible for this year’s Emmys due to a rule technicality. Since it’s made by Bell Media’s Crave, a Canadian streamer (airing in the U.S. on HBO Max), the show and its stars weren’t submitted for consideration, and as a result, the actors aren’t campaigning right now. While Actors on Actors isn’t only about winning awards (Ryan Reynolds did it for two “Deadpool” movies and, more recently, David Corenswet, of “Superman,” happily landed on our set), the conversations are published in Variety during the early days of Emmy Phase One voting — and so, it’s perfectly timed to help with the nomination process.
Perhaps the stars were worried it would look presumptuous to take part in a campaign event for an award they categorically could not win. But the Emmys need “Heated Rivalry” more than “Heated Rivalry” needs the Emmys. It’s a genuine hit — not just among its core audience, but among casual TV viewers who swooned for its steamy romance and its carefully wrought character development. The TV Academy’s exclusion of “Heated Rivalry” is deflating on so many different fronts: For fashion houses wanting to dress recent Met Gala standouts Storrie and Williams for the red carpet; for fans and for NBC, which will be airing the Emmys this year.
Why is this happening? As my colleague Michael Schneider explains, the TV Academy mandates that a show must be backed by U.S. production dollars to qualify, whittling down the list of potential contenders for voters. Most popular international shows (from “Adolescence” to “Squid Game”) have sidestepped this rule by adding U.S. producers somewhere in the process before they screen (or stream), but for whatever reason, “Heated Rivalry” — filmed and produced in Canada — didn’t expand its list of backers when it sold to HBO Max. These hockey players stayed north of the border, and beyond the reach of the Emmys.
But when a show captures the attention and affection of so many stateside, why does it matter where it was produced? Aren’t the Emmys supposed to be a celebration of what we actually watch? And haven’t we learned over and over again during Hollywood’s streaming age reinvention that a new and important voice can come from unexpected places — and that old rules are made to be broken?
The Emmys will feel strange without any acknowledgment of a show that put us all under its spell. The famed cottage where the star-crossed lovers Ilya Rozanov (Storrie) and Shane Hollander (Williams) admit they’re in love is as iconic to viewers as “Friends” coffee house Central Perk, or Carrie Bradshaw’s studio apartment on “Sex and the City.” (Both of those series eventually won the Emmys’ top prize.) Under no circumstances should “Heated Rivarly,” which has become one of the defining cultural moments of this decade, be excluded from any awards ceremony that is meant to showcase the best of TV. I only wish it weren’t excluded, too, from our Actors on Actors portfolio.
I can only imagine the long line of veteran actors who would have agreed to sit across from three of Hollywood’s most exciting new stars. And there would have been no shortage of awards voters who would have pulled the lever for Ilya to take a victory lap on live TV.
Ramin Setoodeh is the co-editor-in-chief and co-president of Variety.