Christina Chang Talks Filming Tender 'Heated Rivalry' Scene With Hudson Williams & How It Changed Day Of

Christina Chang is opening about that emotional, tender moment in the Heated Rivalry season one finale.

The actress plays Yuna Hollander, the mother of Hudson Williams‘ Shane Hollander, and they had an important, special moment in that final episode, that was not in the book.

In a new interview, Christina opened up about what it was like filming that scene and how creator Jacob Tierney rewrote it the day of!

Keep reading to find out more…

“On the day, we were shooting on location, and Jacob was basically like, ‘OK, don’t hate me, but I think I’m going to rewrite the whole thing.’ And we were like, ‘What?!’” Christina told TV Guide. “So he doesn’t quickly just write it right there [in front of us], but he gets us the pages as soon as possible. Hudson and I started rehearsing the scene in between other takes of the table [scenes], running lines and things like that.”

“I will say that [the final cut] was a much more distilled version, and Jacob was trying to get to the heart of what the [original] scene had. The other scene was beautiful, but there were more words. It was a longer scene, and this one just got right down to it and was also a little bit more colloquial, if you will. The other one was beautifully written. This one sounded more like something we would say, maybe.”

She continued, “And then shooting it, what I love about Jacob is he’s very collaborative, but he works quickly and he’s very decisive. He knows exactly what he wants. It’s almost like he’s editing as we’re shooting, which I know a lot of directors can do. So I knew we weren’t going to have to do this a thousand times anyway. That’s not how he works. So we probably did two of the master [wide angle] shots, and then we just were getting pummeled with rain. So we had to stop, and we had to come back the next day and shoot it. So the shooting experience was like, ‘Oh my God, we’re getting there, we’re getting there.’ And then, ‘Ugh, pause! Just press the pause button for 12 hours and come back.’ So we had to finish up the scene the next day.”

“But it was wonderful. It was like an actor’s dream to be able to film this the way that we got to film with Jacob. And working with Huddy was great — and I want to say easy. It sounds flippant, but it was a very easy process.”

Christina also dished on filming with Hudson, Connor Storrie and on-screen husband Dylan Walsh.

“I have so much fun with those boys. They’re like my sons on set, but also my friends off set. I don’t want to make it sound like, ‘Yeah, it was really easy,’ because at the end of the day, we’re all very focused, and we do our work when we need to do our work,” she shard. “But we’re kind of clowns, and it was just the four of us for a couple days, so it was a really wonderful experience. It sounds boring and cliché, but it really was. It was towards the end of the shoot, and I think we all felt like, ‘We get to do this, finally.’”

“I know for the boys, they had so much tension, and Ilya had to be so closed off all the time, so it felt like a breath of fresh air,” Christina added. “Everyone could just be together and shoot these scenes that we were all waiting for. What everyone was waiting to watch, we couldn’t wait to film — [that] is the best way to put it, I guess.”

In case you missed it, find out what other projects the cast of Heated Rivalry has coming out!