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Connor Storrie said Russian-speaking background performers on Heated Rivalry assumed he had Russian parents or spoke Russian at home after hearing him perform as Ilya Rozanov. But Storrie said he was not fluent—and that skating convincingly was the tougher part of the role.
What surprising story did Connor Storrie tell Seth Meyers?
During his January 12, 2026, late-night debut on Late Night with Seth Meyers, Storrie recalled that Russian background performers believed he had Russian family or spoke Russian at home. As one published account quoted him, a performer thought, “my parents were Russian, and I speak Russian at home with a pseudo-American accent.” Mashable’s account recounts the anecdote.
The contrast was the punchline: Storrie said he was not fluent. When people assumed he spoke Russian well, he had a prepared reply: “I speak Russian really poorly.” The quote wording here follows published interview accounts, rather than an independently verified transcript.
How did Storrie prepare to speak Russian?
A 2026 report by Creative Collaboration / Mashable says Storrie took four one-hour Russian lessons each day for a month and a half while preparing for the role. That is a reported detail about his individual preparation, not a general measure of how long it takes to learn Russian.
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Why did Storrie say skating was harder than Russian?
Storrie said learning to skate convincingly was more challenging than the Russian work. “Everyone always talks about the Russian, but the jock-ness of it all…” he said, turning attention to the physical demands of playing a hockey player. He also joked that professional players start skating young, while he and co-star Hudson Williams had only about two weeks of skating training, according to an interview recap. The recap of the Meyers interview includes the skating remarks.
His reaction to seeing himself skate
After a costume designer shared behind-the-scenes skating footage, Storrie watched himself and quipped: “Oh, boy. I don’t deserve any accolades for this.” The self-deprecation fits the story’s unexpected turn: the on-ice performance, rather than the Russian dialogue, was what he singled out as the bigger challenge.
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What is Heated Rivalry based on?
The television adaptation is based on Rachel Reid’s book series, and Heated Rivalry is the novel most directly connected to Storrie’s story. Readers who want to follow the characters back to their source can start with Heated Rivalry by Rachel Reid.
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