How a Russian dialect coach helped Heated Rivalry star Connor Storrie master challenging Russian sounds and build a believable accent
An interview with Heated Rivalry's dialect coach Kate Yablunovsky!
So what was out of the ordinary on Heated Rivalry is just the amount of Russian that an American actor had to do. I was lucky to work with Connor Storrie because he was incredible and he really took the challenge, like, head-on. And it was very stressful. But I was hired on the project before Connor was cast, so I just looked at the script, I saw all of this Russian, and to be honest for a moment I got nervous because the timing was short. We were, like, a couple of weeks before principal photography, and it’s a very short time to start practicing Russian at that level for such an amount. When Connor got cast, when we had our first call, I told Connor, you know, “If you’re willing, I’m willing that we show up every day and work on the Russian, and that’s the best way that we’re gonna make it work.” And he totally went into it, and we were meeting every day, including weekends. And we kept on working even after the principal photography started, you know, so on days off or after the shoot, on breaks, whatever. We kept on working as much as possible.
