Hudson Williams on The Assembly Season 2

The Lowdown

Most celebrity interviews come with a publicist’s list of banned topics. Hudson Williams walked into one with no list at all, and the room asked him about everything from his first splurge to his Heated Rivalry co-star (Calgary Herald; EDGE).

Key Takeaways

Season 2 of CBC’s The Assembly premiered Sunday, November 1, on CBC Gem and CBC TV, with Hudson Williams among its guests (CBC; Parade).
On the show, autistic and neurodivergent interviewers question a celebrity directly, with no topics ruled out (Calgary Herald; Parade).
The trailer shows Williams being asked whether he ever felt more than friendship for co-star Connor Storrie. It does not show his answer (EDGE; CBC trailer).
Zach Galifianakis, Jay Baruchel and Olympic hockey champion Marie-Philip Poulin are also part of the six-episode season (Parade; EDGE).

The Story

Hudson Williams is one of the headline guests as The Assembly opens its second season on CBC. The series seats a celebrity in front of a panel of autistic and neurodivergent interviewers who are free to ask whatever they want (CBC; Parade).

According to the Calgary Herald, the questions start light. Asked about the silliest thing he bought once the money arrived, Williams names a pricey voice-activated trash can. They get personal quickly from there: how he gets in shape for the show’s nude scenes, and what it’s like when friends and family, his mother included, watch his intimate scenes (Calgary Herald).

The Connor Storrie question

The moment fans have fixated on comes from the season trailer. An interviewer asks Williams whether he ever felt anything beyond friendship for Connor Storrie, who plays opposite him in Heated Rivalry. The trailer cuts away before he responds (EDGE; CBC trailer). As EDGE points out, the question by itself says nothing about either actor’s private life (EDGE).

The preview also includes a quieter beat. Talking about loneliness, Williams describes friends and family as “like the climbing pegs that you pull yourself back into life by” (EDGE).

Host Lucas Gates sets the rules at the top of the episode, saying, “No subjects are out of bounds, no questions are off the table” (Calgary Herald).

The Background

Each taping runs about three hours and is edited down to a roughly 22-minute episode, so plenty of questions never make air. Executive producer Stephen Sawchuk told the Calgary Herald that celebrity guests are briefed on the format before they agree to come on (Calgary Herald).

Williams and Storrie star as rival hockey players Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov in Heated Rivalry, the series that made them breakout names. Parade notes that his Assembly appearance arrives ahead of the show’s next season (EDGE; Parade).