Margaret Cho reveals how Trump stopped her from appearing in “Heated Rivalry”.
By Daniel Villareal
“It kills me. Like, it kills me, and it’s all because of Trump.”
Bisexual Korean-American comedian Margaret Cho revealed last Thursday that she turned down a chance to appear in the gay romantic sports drama Heated Rivalry. Cho worried that traveling to Canada to shoot the series might have resulted in U.S. federal immigration officers harassing her over her many social media posts criticizing them and the current U.S. presidential administration.
Cho suggested in the May 7 installment of I Never Liked You, a podcast hosted by gay comedians Matteo Lane and Nick Smith, that she would have played Yuna Hollander, the supportive mother of the drama’s closeted pro-hockey-playing protagonist Shane Hollander (played by Korean-Canadian actor Hudson Williams).
“Last year, I got a script for a pilot script for a show that I really loved, but it shot in Canada and I was so scared because I’m so vocal about hating ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] and hating this administration. It was Heated Rivalry. Isn’t that horrible? Because I love [creator] Jacob Tierney, also,” she
“I was like, ‘I will get detained at the border and I will be put in ICE detention if I go,’ and I was struggling over it,” she said. “I had to talk to all these people about it, and I was super upset, and I said, ‘No.’”
Cho admitted that she watched the series and even hosted some watching parties. “I watch it, and I’m like, ‘That’s my child,’” she said. “Like Hudson is my child!” she said, adding, “It kills me. Like, it kills me, and it’s all because of Trump.”
“Of course, the woman who played the part did a great job, and she’s wonderful and iconic, and everybody in it is… It came out so perfectly,” she said. The role of Yuna Hollander was ultimately played by Taiwanese-American actress Christina Chang.
Cho also said she expressed interest in appearing on the show’s second season (scheduled for release in April 2027), but she added, “We’ll see.”
Cho’s anxiety makes sense. Though she is a U.S. citizen who was born in San Francisco, California, federal immigration agents have detained U.S. residents and denied entry to foreign travelers based on social media posts and digital content criticizing the current presidential administration.
Cho has also been an outspoken critic of the current presidential administration, and said the show’s massive success demonstrates the public’s desire to see LGBTQ+ lives on screen. The Canadian production was made on a roughly $9 million budget but garnered over 10.6 million viewers per episode in the U.S., becoming a surprise top-rated acquisition for its U.S. broadcaster, HBO.
“It really solidified the fact that as queer people, we’re here — even during this politicized time where our existence [has] become criminalized,” Cho said. “We’re here, and people want to hear our stories, and they want to see us.”
Source: https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2026/05/margaret-cho-reveals-how-stopped-her-from-appearing-in-heated-rivalry/
