For many, Day 8 of the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) was dubbed Hudson Williams Day, with the Heated Rivalrystar sitting down for a lengthy and intimate conversation with TIFF programmer Keith Bennie Thursday afternoon, ahead of the premiere for his new series, Crave’s Yaga, later that night. In the Making Waves With … Hudson Williams conversation, the star from Kamloops, B.C., talked about his desire to act, starring in Canadian productions and returning to the role of Shane Hollander for Heated Rivalry Season 2.
“Growing up in my household, it was more logic, do well in school, be good at these things, but that didn’t really feel like an honest way to express myself,” Williams said. “Everyone has childhood bullshit, trauma, whatever they’re trying to get over, that acting was a place where you could be supported and celebrated for trying to wear these things, trying to manifest it in a different character, in a different way, and then express it.”
“And then it became a really safe haven for all my darkness to exist.”
As Hudson shared, it was while taking a film acting class when he was in Grade 11, visiting his mom in Vancouver, when he heard people talking about making a living as an actor, not necessarily being a “star,” which gave him a particular goal that he presented to his parents.
“I told my parents my whole goal is to make as much as an elementary school teacher, but acting,” Hudson said. “That to me is the best success I could get, and they were like, ‘Yeah, that’s success to us too. Go for it.'”
Looking back at some of his particular influences as an actor, Williams highlighted how his parents let him watch “really messed up movies” when he was young, specifically calling out David Lynch and the John Cassavetes film A Woman Under the Influence, which were inspiring for him. In addition to the late Heath Ledger’s portrayal of the Joker in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight.
“I think the first person who epitomized everything I sort of appreciated about it was Heath Ledger. … He was a pretty boy [in] 10 Things I Hate About You, A Knight’s Tale, and then everyone hated him when he got cast as [the Joker], but he completely made it his own,” Williams said. “It was completely inspired and fresh. … The more I looked for him, the less I could see him, which is something that I think I really value in performance over a lot of other things. … I think transformation is just the coolest thing about acting that I just dig the most.”
In response to a question from Heated Rivalry creator Jacob Tierney, Williams also fielded an inquiry about his “least favourite movie, “choosing the 2016 film Suicide Squad, filmed in Toronto.
“The first Suicide Squad I was excited for as a DC fan, … the trailer’s so good and I was just disappointed,” he admitted.
‘Heated Rivalry’ Season 2
WithHeated Rivalry fans anxiously waiting for Season 2 of the show, Williams stressed that while the first book adapted for Season 1 was about “yearning,” the next installment is about “external adversity and interrelational communication problems that feel very real and human.”
“To be able to play those as Shane is going to be frustrating and annoying, to leave set with … [things left] unsaid, but hopefully it will make for really good TV,” Williams said.
“Jacob does a really good job making this set feel as tiny as it was in Season 1. It’s all the same crew, which is really great.”
The actor described the feeling of returning to the series as a “surreal” experience, but noted that both Williams and his costar, Connor Storrie, were confident about finding these characters and their dynamic again.
“We were both very possibly overconfident. … We know the characters like the back of our hands. We’re going to show up, and it’s just gonna be Ilya and Shane,” Williams said.
“It’s weird that our memory of playing Season 1 isn’t just our true memory of showing up and doing the scenes, it’s having watched them cut together. It’s fan reactions. Our memory isn’t ours, it’s everyone’s.”
‘It felt good to be playing the Canadian on the Canadian show’
After Heated Rivalry, Williams took on two other Canadian projects, the Crave series Yaga, working alongside Carrie-Anne Moss, Noah Reid and Clark Backo, and Apparatus, filmed in Ontario, also starring Dylan O’Brien.
When asked what being Canadian means to him, Williams said, “American with manners,” but then expanded by talking about Canada’s legacy in entertainment, particularly in comparison to the U.S.
“I always remember seeing people question or … curious as to why … a lot of good comedians come out of [Canada]. You have Mike Myers, you have Jim Carrey, Martin Short,” Williams said. “I think it’s sort of … our really weird neighbours. You’re like the person at the cookout, and there’s your weird uncle who’s just saying shit. You’re like, does he not know he’s a freak? And then you just find it funny.”
Williams added that he feels particularly proud to be “the Canadian in the Canadian show,” in reference to Heated Rivalry.
“Jacob wears Canada so proud. He puts it forward, and he doesn’t hide Canada,” Williams said. “And so it felt good to be playing the Canadian on the Canadian show. “
“It was something I never thought I would have to do. Always trying to sound American, or Vancouver is now Seattle, or whatever it is. But just a lot of pride for that crew who put Canada first and celebrated it, and then it paid off.”
