Connor Storrie, Tonic Masculinity, and the Rise of a New Male Star

The rise of the "Heated Rivalry" star gives us cause to hope for a better future for men, for Hollywood stardom, and for all of us.

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It’s no secret that I was a huge fan of Heated Rivalry. I mean, it’s an MM romance, it has jocks, and it had all the sex and yearning and feelings you could possibly want out of a romantic story. In the months since it wrapped its first season its two stars, Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie, have become true pop culture icons. This isn’t idle puffery, either. These two actors have become genuine stars, not just because they’re famous and everyone knows their names–though that’s obviously true–but because they’ve become objects of affection and desire for audiences, because they represent something larger than themselves, and because all of these factors will influence how they and their future roles are read and understood.

Today I want to focus in particular on Storrie, not because I don’t also admire Williams, but merely because he’s been the one who’s been in the public eye the most recently (thanks to his performance on Saturday Night Live and his recent fashion coverage). With his angelic looks, his infectious smile, and his undeniable charm, Storrie is the kind of star that Hollywood once produced by the pound. These days, though, male stars that are this beautiful and this talented are increasingly rare, and those that don’t take themselves too seriously are even rarer (yes, I’m looking at you, Mr. Chalamet).

Indeed, that’s what’s so refreshing about a star like Storrie. You can tell just from the way he moves through the world how much he’s enjoying this, and one also gets the sense–though it’s always hard to tell with stars–that he’s grateful to have been given this tremendous opportunity. After all, it’s not everyday that you become a household name for playing a bisexual Russian hockey player, is it? One could hardly blame him if he became an arrogant prick like so many other stars with meteoric rises. Instead, every time I see him I’m amazed anew at how genuine and humble he really seems to be.

Much of this came home to me while I was watching Storrie’s stint on Saturday Night Live. Storrie moved with a grace that was undeniable, and from the moment he stepped onto that stage to deliver his monologue it was clear just how skilled he is at delivering comedy. That skill was in ample evidence throughout the rest of the night, as he shone in every single sketch, even the ones that were otherwise unremarkable or just plain weird. He really shone, though, in the stripper sketch, where he went to great lengths to get the laugh. Indeed, I don’t think anyone since Tim Conway has made such effective, and committed, use of his body to get the comedy just right. The fact that he rendered his beautiful body into a figure of fun, and that he had a key part in writing the sketch itself, just shows how gifted Storrie is when it comes to comedy.

It was more than just his comedic talent, prodigious though that was. There’s a joy that seems to radiate from Storrie any time he’s on the screen, and while that was certainly the case at times in Heated Rivalry, you notice it even more in those moments when he’s not inhabiting a character. It’s there when he flashes that megawatt smile on the stage of Saturday Night Live, and it’s there anytime you see him on the red carpet or at an awards show. It’s in these less guarded moments that the magic of Storrie as an actor shines through. I’m sure I’m not the only one who has found himself falling in love with him, not just because he’s beautiful, but because he seems so kind and gentle and genuine. (That these are traits we’ve been trained to see as antithetical to masculinity says a lot about how we’ve failed our men).

Indeed, the consequences for this type of stardom go far beyond the impotence of Ilya Rozanov and bisexual representation, important though that is. I would argue that Storrie is an important cultural figure because he represents what masculinity–particularly Gen Z masculinity–might look like. By this time it’s no secret that our young men are very troubled, indeed. Among other things, far too many of them seem to have fallen under the sway of toxic influencers who are happy to exploit a generation of disaffected men and turn them into culture warriors in a futile and misguided crusade against “wokeness.” The fact that Storrie exhibits so many of the traits that we associate with traditional masculinity while also being unafraid to show feelings holds out, I hope, a different model, one that might lead our young men in a more productive and emotionally healthy direction.

It’s not every day that you can be present at the beginning of a star text’s creation, but I’d argue that’s just what’s happening with Storrie. We’re seeing the ways in which his various roles are starting to congeal into a coherent star text, and there’s no doubt that his radiant smile, his curly blonde locks, and his incandescent charm have opened up more doors. When you’re beautiful and charismatic and you have such megawatt talent, there’s truly no limit to what you can do. I daresay that, at an acting level, we’re going to see Storrie get the chance to show just how versatile he is, and thank goodness for it.

Are some of these attributes–the humility, the joy, the genuineness–themselves creations of an industry desperate to create the next hot commodity? Almost certainly some of them are. At the same time, it’s important to remember that Heated Rivalry, though distributed in the US by HBO Max, is a Canadian production, and I honestly think that its enormous popularity, and that of its stars, came as a surprise to everyone, including its stars. It’s for this reason that I find Storrie–and Hudson–so very fascinating and, honestly, so encouraging. Storrie’s rise gives me hope that there’s still some magic in the entertainment world, that there’s still a reason to cling to the joys that stars and the fictions they create can bring us.

Connor Storrie is a star, and I’m so glad to see his rise.