When Rose Landry, the supporting character played by Sophie Nélisse on Heated Rivalry, first appeared in Episode 4 of the affectionally nicknamed “Canadian gay hockey show,” some audience members were quick to compare the fictional actress’ superficial but public romantic relationship with athlete Shane Hollander (Hudson Williams) to the early days of Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce. But now that we’ve seen more than a starlet wearing a jersey in a box seat after Heated Rivalry Episode 5. We have a better sense of who Rose is as a person and, hilariously, which IRL actresses may have inspired her.
In the fourth episode of the series, Shane meets Rose shortly after an emotionally intimate encounter with Ilya (Connor Storrie) spooks him. He’s still figuring out his own sexuality. Having a rivals-with-benefits situationship with a bisexual guy, while not Ilya’s fault, doesn’t help make that less complicated. So when he seems to click with Rose, he gives dating her a try. On one hand, publicly dating a woman may have been a bad idea. This could have been a disaster, right? Thankfully, Rose turned out to be exactly what he needed.
Rose is filming a sequel for a movie called X-Squad in Montreal when she meets Shane. Given the title of the film franchise within Heated Rivalry, the fact that X-Men: Days of Future Past filmed in Montreal IRL, and the alleged Stucky origins of the Kip & Scott romance Game Changers, it’s safe to assume that this is meant to be like X-Men or Avengers. It also means that I started wondering who Rose could be, emphasis on could, in this equation.
Which superhero actress is Rose Landry modeled off of?
In “Rose,” the episode that introduces the actress character, she complains about getting kidnapped in four movies over the course of her career. This includes a movie she made when she was eight years old that starred Bill Paxton, an FBI movie called “Under Dark,” and the new X-Squad. That’s not really something specific to the X-Men movies or even the Marvel Cinematic Universe, thankfully. But the kidnapping of female characters in service of a male protagonist is a hallmark of superhero movies and action movies in general. (I keep a rough and very subjective running list, if you’re interested.) Spider-Man movies before the MCU were particularly egregious. So it would stand to reason that Rose Landry is meant to be a Kirsten Dunst type–especially since she was a child actress!
But then, in “I’ll Believe In Anything,” we see Rose in the makeup chair. She’s in the middle of X-Squad reshoots. They’re painting her blue and she has a red wig. “This movie makes no sense,” she says. “I regret shapeshifting.”She’s Mystique! It was Jennifer Lawrence all along! Now everything makes sense. Remember how much people used to talk about how it seemed like Lawrence hated being in the X-Men movies? It was a whole thing, and definitely went too far at the time. Shane also mentions that Rose successfully negotiated a higher salary, something that Lawrence has been vocal about in the past.
I don’t think that Rose Landry is a 1:1 Lawrence comp. As far as I know, she never dated a closeted hockey player thing… obviously. But as an enjoyer of superhero movies, the actors who make them, and all of the surrounding lore, this was a really cute detail to see in the show.
Rose avoided so many painful stereotypes with grace.
Let’s not forget that Rose is a fictional character, of course. She serves an important function in the story. Honestly, she may be one of the best “beard” characters that I’ve ever seen. Aren’t we all a little over the unsuspecting girlfriend stereotype? I really don’t like it when male characters take advantage of girls by lying to them, full stop. From the audience’s perspective, because we can see things they don’t, it makes those female characters look a little stupid. Plus, not to shock you, but they have feelings too.
However, Shane and Rose’s short-lived romantic relationship didn’t feel like that at all. It was so well-calibrated. They weren’t that serious, for starts. Things between did not go too far. Shane wasn’t really hooking up with Ilya during that time, so he wasn’t doing anything behind her back. Even so, Rose clocks early on that Shane isn’t being genuine with her and pivots from girlfriend to sounding board seamlessly.
Of course an actress in 2017 would have a progressive handle on sexuality and be able to ask the right questions to get an athlete to open up. It makes sense that she has experience with gay boyfriends and crushes. Kudos to her for not blaming herself or taking personal offense, as well! It was refreshing to see a female character not suffer at the expense of a closeted male character or be rude about it. She gets the ball rolling about the possibility of openly gay hockey players way before the big Scott and Kip moment at the end of the episode. It hits even harder thanks to her gentle prodding. Remember, the romance is the plot… don’t you forget it!
(featured image: Crave/HBO Max)
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