Does Connor Storrie Regret Working With Hudson Williams? Star Deletes Heated Rivalry Pics

On paper, the move is simple: after the breakout success of Heated Rivalry, Connor Storrie has deleted all his Instagram posts connected to the show. He plays Ilya Grigoryevich Rozanov opposite Hudson Williams' Shane Hollander, and the pair have been 'seen everywhere,' riding the kind of viral heat that can launch an actor into the room where bigger, stranger opportunities get floated.​

What makes the wipe particularly revealing is the timing. Season two of Heated Rivalry is expected to begin filming over the summer, continuing the story of Ilya and Shane as in the original book series — hardly the moment when someone would normally choose to erase their association with the very project still generating income. Unless, of course, the aim is to be a person again rather than a character, a ship, or a fan edit.

That is the unglamorous side of being 'the internet's new favourite:' an image stops belonging entirely to its owner. And Instagram, supposedly a scrapbook, becomes a shop window that others bang on, loudly, with their own expectations. Deleting is not always regret; sometimes it is simply self‑defence.

Connor Storrie's Golden Globes Pitch and the Awkward Silence After

Storrie, for his part, has been fairly open about wanting to stretch beyond the hockey-romance lane. At the Golden Globes, he described pitching himself to a prominent director, speaking about the moment on NBC's TODAY. 'I won't say who, but there's a director who I really, really want to work with that has a movie coming up soon,' he said, adding: 'And I was like, 'Hi, I love you, I want to be in your movie'.'​

It is the kind of anecdote that plays well because it is a little mortifying. Movie-star confidence is boring; mild humiliation is relatable. And Storrie did not try to spin it into a fairy tale, either — he immediately undercut the fantasy with the line that matters: 'Very quickly, he started talking about anything else,' he said.​

That tiny beat — the abrupt conversational swerve — lands because it is true to how power works in Hollywood. Doors do not swing open because someone is charming at an awards ceremony. They open because someone, somewhere, has decided a part needs filling and the person in question fits it. Storrie's story is funny, yes, but it is also an unusually frank reminder that even 'the new breakout' is still, often, just... waiting.

Connor Storrie's Other Ambition: A Film Made on an iPhone

More interesting than the Globes schmoozing, though, is the work Storrie says he is doing when he is not being photographed. In an interview cited by The Tab, he described pushing into filmmaking as well as acting: 'A big part of my career and what I want to do right now with the show is I write and direct myself. I'm in the middle of doing an iPhone feature, this super indie kind of Sean Baker-esque film, because I'm making it on an iPhone. I just want to develop as a filmmaker, too, alongside Heated Rivalry.'​

That is not the language of someone looking to be a neat little streaming heartthrob. It is the language of someone who is trying slightly recklessly, admirably to build leverage. And if the Instagram cleanse reads like a PR manoeuvre, the iPhone feature reads like the opposite: messy, personal, probably exhausting, and far harder to outsource.

Storrie has confirmed the film has been shot, with The Tab suggesting it is likely now in post-production. Whenever it arrives, it will test a question the industry pretends not to ask: is he merely the face of a phenomenon, or the kind of artist who can outlive it?​

For now, the blank Instagram grid sits there like a pause mid-sentence. Not an ending just a decision to stop letting the past do all the talking.