“Heated Rivalry” Author Rachel Reid Talks Casting, And The Speculation About Her Own Sexuality
Rachel Reid, the Canadian author behind the Game Changers book series that inspired the Crave hit Heated Rivalry, sat down with Tommy DiDario on his podcast I’ve Never Said This Before earlier this year. The episode runs over an hour and is one of the more substantive long-form interviews Reid has given since the show landed.
Reid walked DiDario through why Connor Storrie and Hudson Williams were the only options she could picture for Ilya Rozanov and Shane Hollander, the years between the books and the screen, what fans can expect from season two, and whether more Ilya and Shane novels are coming.
The conversation also turned to something Reid has largely avoided in public. She addressed the online speculation about her own sexuality and the question of whether a woman has the right to write closeted gay male hockey players in love.
On the discourse about her sexuality, Reid told DiDario:
“The thing that I haven’t said before, and I’m gonna say it carefully, is that I think I’ve seen a lot of talk online about my own sexuality, and that of members of my family as well.”
On using her identity to defend her work:
“I would not ever try to use my sexuality as a way of being like, ‘See, I have the right to write these books,’ because I don’t think that that’s how it works.”
On how readers should engage with the books and the show:
“Criticise the work,” she said, adding, “Criticise the person making it if they deserve it, but criticise the work first.”
Where to find it
The full episode is on iHeart, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts. The video version sits on the I’ve Never Said This Before YouTube channel.
