Margaret Cho Turned Down a Role in Heated Rivalry out of Fear of ICE Detainment

After the first season of HBO’s hit series Heated Rivalry aired this winter, the world got lost in the situationship of two gay hockey players, and we were blissfully distracted from the nightmare that was the first year of Trump’s second term for a brief six episodes. But turns out, Trump had a hand in fucking up Heated Rivalry, too.

On Thursday, Margaret Cho appeared on Matteo Lane and Nick Smith’s podcast, I Never Liked You, where she revealed that she turned down a leading role on Heated Rivalry out of fear of traveling out of the country amidst the uncertainty of Trump’s second term.

“Last year, I got a pilot script for a show that I really loved,” Cho said, “but it shot in Canada, and I was so scared because I’m so vocal about hating ICE and hating this administration. I was like, I will get detained at the border, and I will be put in ICE detention if I go.”

“I was super upset about it,” she continued, “and I said no. And it was Heated Rivalry.” (insert gay guy gasps here). To think we were almost graced with Margaret Cho and Hudson Williams as a mother–son duo in the show…I’ll just add this to the long list of things Trump took from the queer community—right up there with DEI and Diet Coke.

@thatnicksmith09

Margaret Cho gagged us with this… @Matteo Lane @themargaretcho #podcast #ineverlikedyou #nicksmith #matteolane

♬ original sound – Nick Smith

Around the time of the show’s pre-production, Trump had just been inaugurated and promised to ramp up ICE presence across the country. It was early days, and people feared the possibility of Trump becoming a dictator, especially since he said that he would become a dictator. And clearly, Cho’s instincts that ICE would get worse were correct. But even though she turned down the role, which she regrets, she was still a huge fan of the show.

“I watched it. I hosted some rewatch parties, and I’m like, it kills me,” She said. “And it’s all because of Trump.”

Cho hinted that she was in line for the role of Shane’s mother, Yuna, and said that when she looks at Hudson/Shane, she still sees her child. But she agreed that the actress who ended up playing Yuna, Christian Chang, was “wonderful and iconic,” adding, “It came out so perfectly.”

“It really solidified the fact that, as queer people, we’re here. Even in this politicized time when our existence has become criminalized, we’re here, and people want to hear our stories.”

So, will Cho be in Season Two? “We’ll see,” she says.