Francois Arnaud in Scott Hunter sex scenes

SPOILER ALERT: This story contains details about Episode 3 of “Heated Rivalry,” now streaming on HBO Max.

When François Arnaud read the script for the third episode of the hit queer sports drama “Heated Rivalry,” he had the same reaction many viewers now have after watching it. Instead of more sexcapades between Shane Hollander (Hudson Williams) and Ilya Rozanov (Connor Storrie), the episode follows a fast and furious romance between Arnaud’s hockey player character Scott Hunter and a smoothie shop clerk named Kip (Robbie GK).

“It came completely out of left field,” says Arnaud. “And it’s a real tonal change.”

While Shane and Ilya’s story revolves around their relationships over many years, Scott and Kip actually start dating. In several scenes, Scott struggles with being in the closet. He flees an art gallery because he is afraid of being seen with Kip; he asks Kip to be patient as he thinks he can figure it out years later. The two eventually go their separate ways after Scott refuses to join Kip at his birthday party at a gay bar.

“There’s something sad about this guy, because in many ways he’s completely emotionally available to what’s going on with this new person,” Arnaud says. “He’s all set and ready, but he just can’t make it fit in with everything – all the sacrifices he’s made up to that point. He wants to, but he just can’t. There’s something really paralyzed about him.”

“Heated Rivalry” is an adaptation of the “Game Changers” novel series by Rachel Reid. The series, written and directed by Jacob Tierney, was created for Canadian streamer Crave and is now playing in the US on HBO Max. Since its two-episode season premiere on Nov. 28 — allowing viewers to watch over Thanksgiving weekend — “Heated Rivalry” has become a viral sensation, with clips and memes of Williams and Storrie flooding social media. “It’s like ‘Normal People’ on ice,” says Arnaud, referring to the Paul Mescal and Daisy Edgar-Jones Hulu series that attracted similar attention when it premiered during the COVID pandemic in spring 2020.

“I hadn’t read the books. I hadn’t even heard of the books,” says Arnaud. “Jacob said, ‘I didn’t write this for you, but I keep hearing your voice. I don’t hear anyone else doing it.’ He said, ‘Can you read these six episodes today? There’s not much in Scott’s first two, but 3 is all yours, with more to come later. ”

What did Arnaud think of it?

“At first I was a little overwhelmed, I think, by the intensity of the sex scenes, but I knew Jacob had something that he was going to rock,” says Arnaud, who is best known for Showtime’s “The Borgias,” “Midnight, Texas” on NBC and a guest role on “Schitt’s Creek” as David’s ex-boyfriend. “People are addicted to the dirty aspects of it, and there’s nothing wrong with that, but I think Jacob really uses that to peel back layers. I think the ending of it is quite emotionally affecting.”

Arnaud is no stranger to coming out. In 2020, he publicly announced that he was bisexual in a post on Instagram.

“The only reason I said anything… is because I wasn’t ashamed of it,” he says. “I felt that hiding it, actively hiding it, which I should have done at that moment, was an act of shame. I thought, ‘I don’t feel like that.’ I said it because I didn’t want to hide. But I’m not particularly interested in talking about my relationships or anything. I don’t want to invite people to my house.”

Just days before Arnaud and I spoke, Tierney made headlines when a reporter asked whether Williams and Storrie’s sexualities are relevant to the show. “I don’t think there’s any reason to get into that,” Tierney said. “I’ll tell you something about the casting of both roles: You can’t ask questions like that when you’re casting, right? It’s actually against the law. So what you have to measure is someone’s enthusiasm and willingness to do the job.”

Arnaud agrees. “It’s absurd to think that you can ask someone about their sexuality when they’re trying to get hired for a job,” he says. “It’s crazy, like we only hire you if you’re gay? And then it’s like, how gay are you? It’s a spectrum.”

Arnaud and GK only met on their first day together. “The first time I met him was with the intimacy coordinator,” he recalls. “I don’t think we’ve had dinner together before.”

They worked closely with intimacy coordinator Chala Hunter for their sex scenes, which they filmed over two days, but the awkwardness did lead to some laughs. “We were making dick jokes before the sex scenes, but as soon as the cameras were rolling, we were clocked in and attuned to the reality of these characters, and we didn’t feel like laughing,” says Arnaud.

One particular moment was “redesigned,” he says. “Scott, the superstar hockey player, was clearly the top and the smoothie boy was the bottom, but then we really wanted to reverse that dynamic in a surprising way,” says Arnaud. “I think this is a sign of a vulnerability to [Scott]which I think is much more relatable than just locking him in a box.

And there’s the nudity of ‘Heated Rivalry’. “Hockey players are not as ripped as these characters,” says Arnaud. “They are fatter. They have thick thighs that look like tree trunks. That’s not my body type. But I wanted to look like someone who is a professional athlete. So I trained a lot. But as usual, on the day when I was supposed to be naked, I panicked a little and ate a lot of donuts at craft services.”

Kip gives Scott a pair of blue socks with banana prints on them to remind him of the blueberry and banana smoothies he first ordered from him at the store. Scott wears them during his matches for good luck.

“They gave me a pair with hockey sticks, but I don’t have any banana socks,” says Arnaud. “Maybe they’ll keep them for a possible season 2?”

No, Arnaud doesn’t know if a second season has been greenlit: “But it’s a huge hit – I can’t imagine not. I just don’t know how involved I would be.”

Maybe a Scott spin-off? “I’ve heard stories about that,” says Arnaud, smiling.