Hopeless Romantic

After co-creating Letterkenny and Shoresy, Jacob Tierney became Canada's go-to director of bro comedies. Now he's releasing Heated Rivalry, an erotic gay hockey love story. Life's funny that way

- BY COURTNEY SHEA

As the brain behind shows about dudes drinking beer and telling fart jokes, you're associated with frat-boy humour. A gay hockey romance feels like a departure, no?

Yes. I stepped back from the Letterkenny universe to do something different. I loved working on those shows, but I feel like I've put in my dude time. I told my agents, “If you send me any work related to sports, I’m going to kill you!” Then I presented them with Rachel Reid’s gay hockey series, Game Changers. A sincere gay romance is very different from bro comedy.

You don't strike me as the typical romance reader.

I discovered Rachel’s books during the pandemic. A friend suggested that I get into smutty gay romances. When I found Game Changers, I was hooked right away. And not ironically; it wasn’t a guilty pleasure. I appreciated the storytelling: extremely sexy, funny and sweet.

And you thought, This is my next project?

Not immediately. I didn’t yet understand the breadth of the appeal. Then I came across an article on how romance is a billion-dollar industry that doesn’t get any respect. It also explained that hockey romance, in particular, had exploded in America even though hockey is considered a second-tier sport there.