In his debut fashion campaign for Balenciaga, the Heated Rivalry star exclusively tells GQ about choosing his next roles, his hopes for Shane Hollander, and what’s keeping him “most zen” these days
In the weeks since Heated Rivalry catapulted Hudson Williams into the upper echelons of celebrity, I’ve become convinced that his 24 hours must be longer than my 24 hours. It’s been a little less than two months since the show’s finale and, in that time, the Canadian actor has presented at the Golden Globes, met with world leaders, attended two fashion weeks (plus hosted a hell of a party), carried the Olympic torch, and done more interviews than I can count on two hands – possibly even three. All the while, fans have speculated about how he would approach what has become an increasingly shrewd fame-o-meter metric for rising stars: which luxury fashion brand would officially partner with Williams first? (For example, his Heated Rivalry co-star, Connor Storrie, recently inked an exclusive deal with Saint Laurent.)
Now, Williams is joining the ranks as an official “Friend of the House” of Balenciaga, with a debut appearance in creative director Pierpaolo Piccioli’s first campaign for the label.
“Balenciaga paired with Pierpaolo was a no-brainer,” Williams exclusively tells GQ via email. “Their history of inventing new silhouettes mixed with Pierpaolo’s bold designs and taste really excited me and felt like a great fit.”
A no-brainer to some, perhaps, though the actor certainly made other fashion inroads prior to Balenciaga: He wore Giorgio Armani to the Globes, walked the Dsquared2 runway and made a highly publicised stop at Armani’s autumn 2026 show during Milan Fashion Week, and co-hosted a NYFW bash with designer Prabal Gurung, Kim Shui, and Bach Mai last week. But he’s in good company in the Balenciaga campaign, which was shot by photographer David Sims and also features established brand ambassadors like Winona Ryder and Harris Dickinson, as well as fellow new “Friends of the House” Havana Rose Liu, Labrinth, Danielle Deadwyler, and more.
Though Williams was just in New York late last week, he is currently in Canada to begin shooting a new project. When asked to describe this new project, he replied with a single word: “Freaky.” Whether it’s freaky in a “Shane and Ilya at the cottage” way or a “This is actually, like, weird” way remains to be seen; the actor was tight-lipped (or rather, light-fingered) on sharing further details about the script. But he did share what he looks for when choosing his roles now.
“It starts with the script, and comes down to the director/creator,” he says. “No actor can turn shit writing into something great. And at the end of the day, a subpar director can butcher a good performance – and even a good script if they’re really bad – by fumbling the movie at so many points along the way.”
(This, historically speaking, is not something Heated Rivalry fans need to worry about. Although creator Jacob Tierney announced late last year that he had yet to start working on scripts for season two, Williams is already looking ahead for Shane Hollander’s arc: “I want to see what Shane looks like when he comes into himself and moves away from fear and stifling of his emotions,” the actor says.)
