Jonathan Bennett has been a leading man since Mean Girls, but his time as one on Hallmark Channel has really become something special. The actor has been at the forefront of advocating for more LGBTQ+ leading roles on the network. Bennett has been vocal about how important this has been, and recently opened up about his experience living through Hallmark’s inclusive era and what it has meant on a grander scale.
The network of romance has focused on adding more inclusive stories since the backlash they received after pulling lesbian wedding ads. At the time, the network promised more inclusivity in their films, and honestly, I was skeptical they’d see it through. But since then, we’ve received multiple LGBTQ+ romances, including Hallmark’s first gay-led rom-com, The Holiday Sitter, starring Bennett and George Krissa. And it’s roles like this that have the actor sharing with People about what a "huge deal" his time on Hallmark has been:
Getting to play a leading man on Hallmark and the leading man in those roles being gay is such a huge deal because it shows that you can have straight men be leading men and you can have gay men be leading men.
This is especially impactful after rival network GAF’s “traditional family” drama, which had Bennett and other Hallmark stars speaking out. And in response, we’ve been given several firsts for the network, including the first lesbian romance Friends & Family Christmas (2023). We’ve also gotten multiple roles from Bennett, which are characters he says are “so beautiful” about being part of Hallmark.
But the main role he’s singling out is last year’s The Groomsmen: Second Chances. This marked another first: the first gay wedding as the central plot in the movie. It’s the second in the Groomsmen trilogy about three best friends finding love, and has been praised by Bennett for breaking down LGBTQ+ stereotypes. He has described the movie as “breaking heteronormative stereotypes” through his character Danny, who is both a gay man and a baseball player. He dished on what he loved about the trilogy:
We got to shoot in Greece and got to fall in love in Greece. And I got to have my two buddies Tyler [Hynes] and B.J. [Britt] with me the whole time, and fall in love with this amazing guy named Alexander Lincoln in the movie. And it was such a huge deal because it was the first-ever same-sex wedding on Hallmark Channel.
Bennett also starred in the hijink-filled A Keller Family Christmas Vacation last year with Legends of Tomorrow’s Brandon Routh and The Middle’s Eden Sher. Fans immediately wanted a series out of the fun family movie, and I couldn’t agree more. The network has been known to make series, so it’s not an impossible wish. This happened with Christmas on Cherry Lane (Bennet was in the first two movies), which keeps coming back with new characters and new decades.
Bennett is continuously drawn back to these movies because he believes it’s important everyone sees “a love that look[s] like theirs on the network that tells love stories.” And it’s not just him who feels that way. Speaking out about the importance of representation, fellow leading man Alec Santos has praised these movies for what they’re giving families: “These stories kind of allow them to experience other stories of queerness through television that is wholesome, that is completely acceptable.”
I hope we continue to get more of these stories and that the channel stays in it’s inclusive era. But I have no doubt that Bennett will continue to push for new stories to be told. And I can't wait.
