At this point, Studio 8H is basically Connor Storrie’s pied-à-terre. When the Heated Rivalry star landed in New York City on Saturday evening ahead of tonight’s Met Gala, he headed straight to the Saturday Night Live set, where he made a surprise appearance during the broadcast to introduce host/musical guest Olivia Rodrigo’s second song of the night, her new single “Begged.”
“We literally landed, dropped my bags off, instantly went to the studio,” says Storrie, speaking by phone from his hotel room on Monday. As it turns out, when he hosted SNL himself not too long ago, the actor became close with Keri Powers, the show’s longtime talent booker. So when he told Powers he’d be in town for the first Monday in May, she invited him to stop by the show beforehand. As soon as he arrived at 30 Rockefeller in Midtown, “she was like, ‘Do you want to possibly introduce Olivia’s new song?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, let’s do it.’”
From there, his duty “was pretty easy” to execute, he adds with a laugh. His nine-second cameo, during which he spoke exactly four words, nevertheless elicited giddy shrills from the studio audience. “It was also nice to watch the performance and not be riddled with anxiety and fear and doubt and be able to enjoy it for what it is.”
Thankfully, Storrie is feeling none of those emotions on this sunny Met Monday, as he gears up for the glitzy zenith of his six-month-long marathon of awards-show and press appearances—a sartorial doozy that has taken him from the Golden Globes to the Winter Olympics, to Paris Fashion Week and, now, to the storied steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. (As Heated Rivalry fans have pointed out, it was only a year ago last week that Storrie and his costar Hudson Williams were officially announced to lead the cast of the Crave series; prior to that, both actors had been waiting tables in their respective home bases of Los Angeles and Vancouver.) During our morning-of conversation, Storrie sounds impressively serene.
Throughout his red-carpet gauntlet, the Texas-born actor and his stylist, James Yardley, have developed a fruitful working relationship with Saint Laurent, with whom the actor is attending the Met Gala tonight. (The label is also the official exhibition-catalog sponsor of this year’s Costume Institute show.) In January, amidst the fervent weeks after the show’s season-one finale aired on HBO, Storrie inked an exclusive deal with the French house—a get that even creative director Anthony Vaccarello was proud of securing, cheekily telling GQ of the signing, “I know everyone is fighting over him. And if you fight, I take.” Cut to today and Storrie’s hitting the steps in a riff on the house’s famous Le Smoking tuxedo, complete with a polka-dot halter top with a pussy-bow train.
Ahead of the night’s frenzy, a calm and collected Storrie gives GQ the pre-Met download.
