Hudson Williams, star de la série « Heated Rivalry », continue son incroyable ascension vers la gloire. Mais à son succès s’ajoute une haine de plus en plus difficile à ignorer. https://t.co/VWGKuofgmO
— Paris Match (@ParisMatch) February 20, 2026
The original article is in French but I am gonna post some excerpts in English:
Women and people of color are most often the targets of this cyberbullying. This is currently the case for actor Hudson Williams, star of the series “Heated Rivalry.” The 25-year-old Canadian has become the scapegoat of one platform in particular: X. Every day, hateful tweets are posted about him, sometimes garnering hundreds of thousands of “likes.” Even more surprisingly, media outlets and journalists themselves have begun to participate in this discourse, some calling the actor—like Anne Hathaway in her time—annoying, others going so far as to compare him to his co-stars in the series, Connor Storrie or François Arnaud.
Naturally, his fans are now wondering if he’s the victim of an orchestrated campaign, known as astrosurfing, which aims to manipulate online discourse to defame a celebrity, create artificial waves of hype, or support disinformation. Hundreds or thousands of accounts, every day, take pleasure in insulting Hudson Williams. Some pages, dedicated exclusively to attacking him, spread such hateful rhetoric that their messages are even censored under European Union law. Recently, it was also revealed that several users had joined forces to post their attacks simultaneously and garner thousands of “likes,” thus climbing the algorithm’s rankings. Private messages showing them wishing harm upon the actor have also leaked online, while his family, including his mother, are also being insulted.
It’s difficult, however, to see this as merely a way to make money by attacking a young actor. Hudson Williams, since the release of the first episodes of “Heated Rivalry,” has been attacked for his heritage; his father is Canadian and his mother Korean. This is a recurring problem in show business, affecting actors of color who are isolated members of a cast that is often predominantly white. Fans of actor Taylor Zakhar Perez, from the film “Red, White & Royal Blue,” remember the attacks he faced because of his Mexican heritage. Regé Jean Page, the star of the first season, was attacked online for his skin color. He was then insulted again after announcing his departure, which many now attribute to the lack of support from the team in the face of the wave of hate he was enduring.
And it’s in the form of “microaggressions” that these conversations most often spread, making the underlying racism more insidious but no less painful. For example, Hudson Williams’s co-stars are deemed “classy, elegant, and Hollywood-ready” while he himself is labeled a “K-pop idol” or a “vulgar influencer.” A selection of these attacks: “It has nothing to do with skin color, it’s about how they carry themselves. Connor does things tastefully and with good manners, in moderation, at the right time and in the right place,” “You’re treating Hudson like an influencer while Hollywood is going to make Connor its next big star and he’ll become a serious actor,” “I understand Connor’s team’s strategy. Precision, restraint, luxury. They’re aiming for the premium, high-end market. I don’t understand Hudson’s strategy. Who is he trying to attract? Teenagers? K-pop fans?” “I see nothing but chaos.”
So what exactly is Hudson Williams being criticized for? In reality… nothing his on-screen partners haven’t also done: smoke, party, tell jokes in interviews, make his appearances go viral online. These are criticisms often leveled in Hollywood at people of color, who are expected to be discreet and adaptable, yet must be seen twice as much, in twice as many places, to have the same opportunities as white artists.
In an interview with Wonderland magazine, Hudson Williams reacted to the hate he receives: “I didn’t think there would be so many disrespectful people. But I also didn’t think there would be so many kind people. […] But these disrespectful people are like, ‘Fuck this guy,’ and I’m like, ‘Damn, why do people hate me?’ And there’s all this fake news about me. And I wonder why I even have fake news in the first place.” The attacks are all the more surprising when you listen to his colleagues, friends, and acquaintances, who only have good things to say about him. “Hudson is so warm and kind,” actress Sophie Nelisse said in an interview. “Among our group of friends, he always seemed like a bright star and the one to watch. He had this raw talent that you knew would go far,” Mark Masterton, with whom he studied at university, told USA Today.
While neither the show’s producer, Jacob Tierney, nor the book’s author, Rachel Reid, nor his co-stars have yet spoken out about the racism Hudson Williams has experienced, he continues to navigate his burgeoning career with intelligence. Taken under the wing of “Gold House,” an organization dedicated to promoting the interests of people of Asian and Pacific Islander descent, he was recently invited to host a Lunar New Year’s Eve party alongside other prominent Asian figures in the industry. A fitting response to those who dismiss him as “not Korean enough” to be a victim of racism.
Balenciaga, for its part, has just made him one of the faces of its new campaign, while Crave—the Canadian platform behind “Heated Rivalry”—announced his role in a series based on the Slavic myth of Baba Yaga. This announcement, of course, provoked a reaction from his detractors, who claimed that Crave wasn’t prestigious enough, proving that he would never have a career in Hollywood. But perhaps the irony of it all is that this hatred is actually allowing Hudson Williams to rally loyal fans, ready to follow and defend him, no matter what?
Shortly after the article dropped, fans of his co-stars Connor Storrie and François Arnaud (who are mostly behind the hateful tweets in the first place) started attacking and harassing the journalist behind the article Clémentine Rebillat going as far as to say that she was being paid to write the article, causing her to go private for 24 hours
Omg she went private now!
They are bullying her now, she the journalist who wrote the article about Hudson 😭 pic.twitter.com/AwOIZTpE87— boysbeauty (@gianicri_beau) February 20, 2026
A few days ago, an opinion piece also went up on The Mary Sue about this topic and that one includes screenshots of several disgusting racist and hateful tweets against Hudson, including details about a leaked Twitter group chat filled of his haters discussing how to spread hate against him, going as far as to say that they should accuse him of a crime so he can get kicked off the show. You can read that below.
upon much introspection, this needs to be posted and kept here. because there IS a problem, regardless of whether or not you want to admit ithttps://t.co/kgB8Uyr9Zp
— rachel tolleson (@tempeststeacup) February 19, 2026
