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\n\tIn all the years that I\u2019ve produced Variety\u2018s Actors on Actors<\/a> conversations, I\u2019ve resisted the temptation to divulge how exactly the sausage gets made. When fans gripe on social media, for instance, about how our magazine didn\u2019t pair two obviously compatible actors together, I haven\u2019t taken to X to explain that we really tried, but one (or both!) of the actors turned down what seemed like an undeniable idea. Sometimes, the reasons a pairing didn\u2019t work out are scandalous. In other cases, they\u2019re more mundane. But spilling the tea \u2014 however satisfying for a moment \u2014 would only take attention away from the talented actors who actually do participate in our series.<\/p>\n \n\tOf course, the magic of Actors on Actors, which returns to celebrity.land\u2019s streaming platform<\/a> on June 3 (with an all-time great season premiere), comes from getting the right two actors to talk to each other. It might sound easy in theory, as evidenced by all those fan suggestions. But in practice, this is an incredibly tricky series to produce. Booking Actors on Actors is like playing matchmaker with the most famous people on the planet \u2014 and their coffee date needs to be approved by an army of publicists and awards strategists.<\/p>\n \n\tSo now, I\u2019m going to break my cardinal rule of Actors on Actors: I\u2019m going to talk about a few of the stars who got away. When the lineup for our installment of episodes is announced on Monday \u2014 featuring some of the most-talked-about performers of this year on television \u2014 one incredibly important show will not be on the list. Sorry to disappoint, but we didn\u2019t include any of the actors from \u201cHeated Rivalry<\/a>.\u201d And it was not for a lack of trying. I invited all three of the breakout actors from the groundbreaking series about gay hockey players to participate: the extraordinary Connor Storrie, the charming Hudson Williams and the magnetic Fran\u00e7ois Arnaud. These actors, as millions of \u201cHeated Rivalry\u201d superfans know, simply need to show up at an event to create mass hysteria on social media, and they have the talent to back up their overnight stardom. They deserve to be in our portfolio alongside some of the biggest names in the business. <\/p>\n \n\tAnd yet, they turned us down. I\u2019m certain they would have accepted the invitation if not for one key fact: \u201cHeated Rivalry\u201d isn\u2019t eligible for this year\u2019s Emmys due to a rule technicality. Since it\u2019s made by Bell Media\u2019s Crave, a Canadian streamer (airing in the U.S. on HBO Max), the show and its stars weren\u2019t submitted for consideration, and as a result, the actors aren\u2019t campaigning right now. While Actors on Actors isn\u2019t only about winning awards (Ryan Reynolds did it for two \u201cDeadpool\u201d movies and, more recently, David Corenswet, of \u201cSuperman,\u201d happily landed on our set), the conversations are published in Variety during the early days of Emmy Phase One voting \u2014 and so, it\u2019s perfectly timed to help with the nomination process.<\/p>\n \n\tPerhaps the stars were worried it would look presumptuous to take part in a campaign event for an award they categorically could not win. But the Emmys need \u201cHeated Rivalry\u201d more than \u201cHeated Rivalry\u201d needs the Emmys. It\u2019s a genuine hit \u2014 not just among its core audience, but among casual TV viewers who swooned for its steamy romance and its carefully wrought character development. The TV Academy\u2019s exclusion of \u201cHeated Rivalry\u201d is deflating on so many different fronts: For fashion houses wanting to dress recent Met Gala standouts Storrie and Williams for the red carpet; for fans and for NBC, which will be airing the Emmys this year.<\/p>\n