The Art of the Overnight Sensation by Marco Quesada

From grocery bagger to playing sold out stadiums. From cater waiter to the red carpet. From small town country to the big city. We all dream of our lives being changed by one small moment. One big break. To go from nothing to something. 

There are plenty of these types of rag-to-riches stories that filter through artistic industries and keep young kids dreaming. Rosario Dawson was simply sitting on her apartment stoop in New York City when a filmmaker asked her to be in his movie. Angus Cloud was working a restaurant job in Brooklyn when the casting director for Euphoria walked in. Jennifer Lawrence was vacationing in New York when she got spotted by a talent agent. These stories are glamorous—and an encouragement to go outside—but stories like this are becoming increasingly less common. Nowadays, you are more likely to be discovered through a tasteful photo dump on instagram or a well timed TikTok that the algorithm shares.

However, recently there has been a case of absolute overnight fame in a way the world has not seen in a long time. Launching a pair of actors to stardom without them having a seasoned resume, without the help of a well-connected family member, or even having a big name star in the production to garner attention. These two lucky fellows are Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie.

Their launch to fame has been astronomical. Going from restaurant waiters to presenting at the golden globes in a matter of months. The famous saying goes “It generally takes about 10 years to become an overnight sensation,” but at their age and experience, this quote does not apply. Heated Rivalry was not some long awaited tv show with an A-lister attached. Hell, there wasn’t even a C-lister attached. It’s simply a show that found its audience—and on a massive scale. The last meteoric rise like this that I can think of would be Paul Mescal in Normal People. His rise in fame was definitely aided by the show’s release during the coronavirus pandemic. With the world stuck inside with not much to do but binge-watch television and doomscroll, shows such as Normal People and Bridgerton came at a perfect time and launched the careers of their actors. But in the current state of media oversaturation, Heated Rivaly’s singular obsession is something the industry hasn’t seen in a long time. And the industry is sucking everything they can out of it. 

Everything is fighting for our attention. Everything is motivated by engagement. Everything is performative. Everything is for views. In days long gone, a big movie or tv show would catapult someone to stardom. This stardom would lead to bigger movie roles, magazine covers, lots of talk shows, interviews, and brand deals. But with social media everything is fast and bite sized. Everything is a headline. A short clip can catch a spectator’s attention and get them to consume someone’s product. Companies are doing everything they can to trap people’s engagement.

This engagement-trapping has been most evident with the Heated Rivalry boys' rise to fame. First with their golden globes presentations. At its core, this was an opportunity for more views. Did they have anything to do with the golden globes that year? Sort of. They were part of a huge show that sent ripples through Hollywood. Was their show nominated for anything? No. But that doesn’t matter. They are the focus of the cultural moment. They will bring in viewers who had no interest in watching the award show before. This is evident in other places of the art industry as well. Hudson Williams recently opened for Dsquared2 on the runway for Milan fashion week. As fashionable as Williams looks smoking a cigarette in a gorgeous double breasted Armani suit (he surely does belong on a runway) what does he have to do with the fashion world? Not much, besides the winter dress connection to Heated Rivalry. But his and Dsquared2’s PR teams realized this was the perfect opportunity for engagement. Having a budding star open for your fashion show is surely a way to capture people’s attention, driven by the craze of his stardom and the desire for users to feel “caught up” to the cultural conversation. Then the hope is this little trick will keep their engagement for a few more minutes as the rest of the models strut the catwalk. In a world run by ads, Williams and Storrie are being used as human billboards.

Obviously, this is nothing new. Plenty of actors have blown up incredibly quickly and been invited to all sorts of events that don’t exactly have anything to do with them besides being a famous face to build hype around. To be featured in public events helps draw the nation’s gaze towards it. But with Williams and Storrie this quickness in popularity is becoming something we have never seen before. It’s recently been announced that the boys will be torch bearers at the 2026 Winter Olympics, a role usually reserved for past athletes, coaches, activists, or people with a deep connection to the host country’s culture. None of that applies here. The decision to have the boys as torchbearers speaks to the cultural moment of engagement-trapping. “Let’s get the fake hockey boys to kick off the Olympics, that’ll get viewership up! Everyone is obsessed with this hockey show! But please don’t mention HBO on-air, this is a peacock exclusive event.”

I hope I don’t sound bitter. I am only guilty of wanting the same attention. I loved the show and can’t wait to see what the boys do next. I love an overnight sensation story where hard work, talent, and opportunity meet. I am however bitter with the exploitation of the sensation. The invasiveness of fans. Letterboxd accounts being invaded, romantic drama being created, all in an attempt to end a career as quickly as it started. The priority of profit for companies is leading where perhaps creativity and intention are being excluded. Companies now need engagement more. I would challenge any pushback that this has always been around. Yes, ads and celebrity spokespeople have been around forever. But it has not been quite as singular as it is now: Influencers on every red carpet when they have no reason to be there. Just to draw attention. Daily moments in people’s lives being filmed, analyzed, and dogmatized. Just to draw attention. A performative culture that has become a reflection of the internet rather than a reflection of the actual world. We have the power to use our attention to build people up or to strip them down. And we have the power to have our attention manipulated. But that power seems to be more out of our control everyday.

Most people want to be famous. Feel free to pick up your phone and do it. It’s as easy as ever now. But this change in the artistic industries must be paid attention to. Does every actor now need a certain instagram following threshold to be cast in something? Are auditions vetted on the quality of the acting or the quality of the production design in your self-tape? Will the long revered “character actor” go extinct in favor of the actor that is most culturally relevant in the moment? In this attention saturated world that is more focused on control and profit, a real lasting sensation is much harder to achieve—and it may no longer be something to dream of.