'playing a pro hockey player has been a dream:' harrison browne on his role in 'heated rivalry'

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Harrison Browne is having one hell of a year. His short film, Pink Light, which he wrote about his own life, debuted at the Toronto Film Festival to rave reviews. He published his first book, Let Us Play: Winning the Battle for Gender Diverse Athletes, alongside his sister, Rachel. And he’s currently starring as Connors, a Boston Raiders teammate of Ilya Rozanov, in the hottest show on streaming, Heated Rivalry.

Browne is known for the being the first pro hockey player to come out as trans, doing so while playing for the NWHL’s Buffalo Beauts 2016. I first spoke to Browne in 2021 for my award-winning feature for Sports Illustrated on where non-binary athletes fit into the world of pro sports; his commentary to me in that article led to the PHF (the women’s pro league that was formerly the NWHL and has since become the PWHL) updating their gender participation policy to be more inclusive.¹ We’ve chatted several times in the years since, and I continue to be awed by the places his post-hockey career has taken him.

Browne was kind enough to speak with me about his experience filming Heated Rivalry, why men’s and women’s hockey players aren’t really all that different, and what’s next for Pink Light. This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

Out of Your League: I was really excited when I saw that you were going to be in the show. I've been following the reaction to the show online, and so many people feel like the show runner and the creators have really respected both the books, and the hockey world that they're entering. And though obviously you're an actor and I'm sure you auditioned for the role, I think, to a lot of people watching, your casting felt like another sign of respect and a nod to the world that this show exists in.

Harrison Browne: Yeah, I definitely agree.

OOYL: Could you tell me a little bit about what the audition process was like for you? Did they approach you? Is it something that came across your desk through an agent, and you were like, ‘Oh, yeah, I should go out for this?’

HB: It was just run of the mill—I’m definitely not in the space of getting acting offers all that often. It was just self-tape; I got an email from my agent and my manager and I was like, ‘Okay, great. A hockey role.’ I’d gone out for a few of those roles before—there's been a few hockey TV shows and hockey movies that have come out lately and shot in Canada, which has been great to see. But I felt a lot of imposter syndrome in those roles, and that was so strange for me, being a retired pro hockey player and being like, ‘Oh, I can't audition for this cis male hockey player, because I'm not ‘hockey’ enough.’ 

It was a thing of shame for me that I carried for a while, but this audition and this project, I was like, ‘I can really bring myself to this. I don't have to worry about not being tall or fitting the stereotype for a male hockey player, I'm just going to be myself and if they want to cast me in this world, then great.’ I auditioned for one character and I didn't end up landing it. But Jacob [Tierney] approached my team and said he had a role for me, and that's where Connors came in. Playing a pro hockey player has been a dream, and it's really helped me align these two worlds in a really great way, and just feel ‘enough’ as I am in this space.

OOYL: That’s so great. Obviously you played women's pro hockey, and while those locker rooms have their own cultural issues and challenges, they're devoid of the toxic masculinity and homophobia that is plaguing Shane and Ilya on Heated Rivalry. That's a very different environment. How did your own experiences inform your performance and understanding of Connors in the world that he was occupying?

HB: I think there's a lot more the same than different. Obviously not talking about the difference between cultures and LGBTQ+ inclusion within the hockey space from men to women, but hockey players are hockey players. The bro-y hockey girls in the PWHL have a lot in common with the NHL bro-y hockey guys. We know the language, and we know the types of bodies that go into hockey. Because of  training that we all do, regardless of what gender you're playing, your body is morphing in a certain type of way. There's a way that hockey players walk, there's a way that hockey players move, there's a way that hockey players talk. 

I think that there's a lot of similarities that I was able to pull on to be like, ‘I can take up this space, as I did in the women's hockey space, because it's not that different.’ So I just really just went back and reverted into my 20-year-old, kind of cringey self that I was in college and was like, ‘What would Harrison say at that point? What would Harrison think at that point?’ It was a really cool experience to go back and walk in my hockey shoes, but in the hockey shoes that I wished I was walking in—or, hockey skates I should have said.

OOYL: I do love that you get to just play a teammate of Ilya’s. You don't have to be some ‘after school special’ storyline, you just get to be a dude on the team. Did that aspect of the role appeal to you at all?

HB: That's been really nice for me. I've been acting for about six years now, and every time that I get the chance to play a cis person and just kind of be, it really does validate me. When I first started acting, I really had a chip on my shoulder of being like, ‘I'm only getting these roles because I'm trans, or I'm really only able to perform in a trans role because I'm not X enough to play a cis man.’ So this has just been a really nice space for me to really tie it together, in a stereotypically masculine role as a hockey player. 

But also we all can look to the NHL, and we can look at the skewing to having more smaller players. We can look to Martin St. Louis or Nathan Gerbe, who aren’t playing anymore, but there are smaller players in the league. You don't have to have a big beard and be 6’3 to be able to do these roles. It's good to see those different types of bodies on the screen that represent the different types of bodies in sport.

OOYL: I don't know if you're allowed to share, but will we see your character again?

HB: I'm not sure. Stay tuned. 

OOYL: I’ll be petitioning to see Connors in Season 2.

HB: Yeah, let's bring Connors back! I thought, I thought there was some really nice chemistry between me and Franco [François Arnaud, who plays Scott Hunter], so hopefully they bring us back.

OOYL: What has it been like to see the reception this show has received? Even the book publishers seem surprised because they ran out of books. It's number one on HBO Max right now!

HB: It's been pretty surreal. I've had moments of small virality in my career, but when I came out in the NWHL, there was some attention but even now, the PWHL has more attention than the NWHL ever had. Seeing somebody like CJ [Jackson] come out there and the amount of attention that they have through the league, I didn't have that kind of scale. 

This is the first time that I've been part of something that has been so globally seen. Number one on HBO Max?! That's a dream that I would have aspired to when I first started acting. To be able to be part of this and to have it be a hockey story and everything like that? It’s wild. I've definitely been looking at the Heated Rivalry world, through X, through Instagram, and it's been absolutely insane to see the amount of excitement that this show has had. Just me commenting little things that I had in the show, like Ilya’s character bullying me for trying to order room service—just that one little nuance has turned into this meme. It's really cool to see a queer hockey story like this get worldwide attention.

OOYL: OK, because you’re a queer Millennial, I have to ask about the needle drop heard ‘round the world. Obviously, you know that t.A.T.u.’s “All The Things She Said” plays over the scene at the club in episode 4. That song is a lesbian anthem! While you were filming, did you know that was going to be the song that played during that scene?

HB: No! That song was definitely my awakening, too. I remember watching the video, and sneaking it on my laptop. That song meant a lot to me.

OOYL: I also want to ask you about Pink Light, the short film you wrote and starred in. Since the last time we spoke, it's actually shown at film festivals. People have gotten the opportunity to see it, and it's gotten really great reception. What’s next for that project?

HB: This year has been so creatively and life-fulfilling for me, being able to see my brainchild come to life—I don't how many people get to experience that. It's just so surreal to be able to share that space with people and and be there real time, watching somebody watch part of my life unfold onscreen. The last time we showed it, there were 200 people in the theater. We've had a lot of interest in what's next, and we're developing the feature right now. We got a development grant, and we're in the process of building a team and really gearing up to be able to shoot the feature-length film of Pink Light. That's just an absolute dream come true, as well.

OOYL: That is incredible! Congratulations.

HB: Thank you. But it's also been really empowering to see the amount of attention that Heated Rivalry is getting. I know that we're not talking about the men's space in my story [Pink Light], but I've seen a lot of comments being like, ‘Where's the sapphic version of this? Where's the women’s hockey version of this?’ There's a big outcry for that, and I'm just working my way through the script to make sure that we can get that out to people, because they're hungry right now for hockey stories and queer hockey stories, which is something that I did not foresee. Heated Rivalry is definitely playing a big part in being like, ‘there's an audience.’

OOYL: I've also seen people being like, if you want a gay hockey story, you could just watch the PWHL. They're all married!

HB: Exactly, exactly. We're hoping to bring that to the big screen with Pink Light.

OOYL: Is there anything else that you want me to know?

HB: I'm just really grateful for this fan base. I also think it's really cool to see a show that didn't really go for a lot of ‘names’ get this much attention. It can really shake up what people think sells within TV and open up a lot of doors, especially in Canada, which is really exciting.