Jonathan Bennett Opens Up About Being Part of The First Hallmark Movie Centering On A Gay Couple

Jonathan Bennett is opening up about bringing The Holiday Sitter to life on Hallmark.

In a new interview, the 41-year-old actor broke down how he approached the network with the idea for the movie, his thoughts on recent comments made about non-traditional marriages and stories, and also about being part of the first movie on Hallmark to have a gay couple at it’s center.

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Keep scrolling to see what Jonathan shared with Entertainment Weekly:

On the movie putting a spotlight on a gay couple at Christmas: As gay men, we’re navigating what our lives look like with kids, or getting married, or without kids, and it’s not black or white — there’s so many different avenues to starting a family and having a chosen family. So I wanted to really show Sam and Jason growing together as they navigate what family looks like to each of them. I really wanted to show two men falling in love organically, and I think we pulled that off.

On approaching Hallmark with his idea for the movie: “What I wanted to do at Hallmark Channel was tell a story with two men as the main characters falling in love at the holidays. And I wanted to make it funny, and I wanted it to have a ton of heart. And so I went to Hallmark and said, ‘Hey, I want to tell this story. And the reason we have to tell it is because we haven’t seen this yet, and we have to make sure that we show this.’ There have been a lot of different stories of queer people on Hallmark Channel, but we had yet to see two men fall in love at Christmas. And that’s what I really wanted to show because I really wanted people like me to feel represented when they watched Countdown to Christmas on Hallmark. So when I went to Hallmark with this, their reaction was absolutely 100 percent, over-the-top supportive. They were so excited about the idea and they were so supportive throughout the whole creative process. And what was so cool is that we have a team of queer people working on it from all the creative angles — our producers, writers, directors, and actors are all queer. So it was really a melting pot of experiences that we got to pull from to make this story.”

On his thoughts on Candace Cameron Bure’s comments: “I can only speak to my experience. I wake up every morning and I’m so proud to be part of Hallmark Channel because of the inclusive storytelling they’re doing for the LGBTQ+ community with movies like The Holiday Sitter. It feels so good to have a place at the holiday table because The Holiday Sitter is for everyone, and Christmas is for everyone, Hallmark Channel is for everyone. It feels good to see stories that look like mine on screen.”

On being part of the Hallmark family: “I’m so proud to be on Hallmark Channel and to be telling this story on Hallmark because of how inclusive the network is, but also from a creative standpoint… we’re opening new doors by telling this story on the network, and a lot of people are gonna feel represented and feel like they see themselves on screen. But for me personally, why it’s such an important moment is because of how Hallmark Channel has created a safe space for queer people to tell stories. By having that door wide open, we’ll be able to tell more. It’s the best thing in the world — they literally created the safest space to tell queer stories.”

If you missed it, this moment in the movie was inspired by Jonathan‘s own tradition!

The Holiday Sitter is airing right now on Hallmark Channel, and will re-air on Monday, December 12, Wednesday, December 14, Sunday, December 18 and then on Wednesday, December 21.