Jonathan Bennett is making the holidays a whole lot hotter! Dubbing himself the "Gay King of Christmas," the 'Mean Girls' star has made a mark on the festive season by commandeering Hallmark Channel through past projects like The Christmas House franchise, executive producing and starring in 'The Holiday Sitter,' Hallmark's first Christmas romantic comedy that focuses on a queer couple and so much more. Bennett sat down with The Hollywood Reporter about his acclaimed work within the network for the holidays, bringing LGBTQ+ visibility to the forefront of television.
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00:00It's time to make sure that we're telling stories for everyone because Christmas is
00:05for everyone."
00:06Jonathan Bennett is making the holidays a whole lot hotter.
00:10Dubbing himself the gay king of Christmas, the Mean Girls star has made a mark on the
00:14festive season by commandeering Hallmark Channel through past projects like the Christmas House
00:19franchise, executive producing and starring in The Holiday Sitter, Hallmark's first
00:24Christmas romantic comedy that focuses on a queer couple, and so much more.
00:28Bennett sat down with The Hollywood Reporter about his acclaimed work within the network
00:31for the holidays, bringing LGBTQ plus visibility to the forefront of television, and so much
00:37more.
00:38I reinvented the holidays at Hallmark as well, so it's kind of like we both won."
00:43The actor is currently gearing up for his next big collaboration with Hallmark, Finding
00:47Mr. Christmas.
00:48Bennett is helping Hallmark find their next leading man, hosting the reality competition
00:53series where 10 guys will compete in a series of challenges, testing their acting skills
00:58and festive spirit.
00:59The winner will land a leading role in an upcoming Hallmark Channel holiday movie and
01:03earn the title of Mr. Christmas.
01:05It is the first ever unscripted reality competition series for Hallmark.
01:11We dissected Hallmark Christmas movies and we said, what are the tropes that make a Hallmark
01:17Christmas movie?
01:19Well, you have the meet cue, you have the ice skating scene, you have the apology, you
01:26have a kiss under a mistletoe.
01:27You have all these different things.
01:30We took all those tropes and made a challenge and figured out a way to gamify each of those
01:36tropes and put them through the challenges.
01:38As for the criteria to be a Christmas hunk, well, they've got to have a good sense of
01:43humor.
01:44They've got to be witty.
01:45They've got to be funny.
01:46They've got to have a kindness about them that's genuine.
01:50And of course, they've got to look good in a Christmas sweater.
01:53With Hallmark being known for their holiday tropes, Bennett also shared his favorite Christmas
01:58tropes.
01:59Bring your partner home for the holidays to your eccentric family, for sure.
02:02There's no family that isn't dysfunctional.
02:04Every family is dysfunctional in some level.
02:06That's what families are.
02:08Families are messy.
02:09While it seems like Bennett was born to share his festive spirit, the actor said that it
02:13wasn't always the case.
02:14Being a gay kid in Ohio, it was the holidays, going home for the holidays after living in
02:21the big city.
02:22And I moved to New York and was able to be my full self.
02:27And then I would go home for the holidays and still wasn't completely out with everyone
02:32in the town.
02:34Everything was like, the holidays always can be crunchy for a lot of people, right?
02:38There's a lot of different reasons why the holidays can be crunchy sometimes.
02:41That's why the actor, who received back-to-back GLAAD Media Award nominations for his prior
02:45holiday films for the network, made it his mission to bring more representation to the
02:50screen.
02:51There's nothing more powerful than seeing your life reflected in a scene in a movie.
02:59I had played a whole bunch of characters on Hallmark that were straight, which was wonderful.
03:04But there came a time where it was like, it's time to make sure that we're telling stories
03:10for everyone because Christmas is for everyone.
03:13Elsewhere, the actor touched on another holiday, one he may be most known for, October 3rd.
03:18No matter where you go, there will always be a person at a Starbucks that will write
03:25your name on the cup, Aaron Samuels, 100%.
03:30No matter what city you're in, what town, when you tell them your name, they're like,
03:33uh-huh.
03:34And they write Aaron Samuels on the cup.
03:35I'm paying attention to Mean Girls less this year on October 3rd, but I'm still paying
03:39attention to October 3rd, just in a different way.
03:42But Mean Girls is the reason that I'm able to do that.
03:44So it's almost like a passing of a baton or like a salute.
03:49You know what I mean?
03:50It's like, there's still the respect there and the love for the movie and the love for
03:54the fans and the love for what it gave me as a career.
03:5710 years out of your high school reunion, you still talk about high school.
04:0020 year high school reunion, you're not talking about what happened in high school as much
04:05because other exciting things have happened to your life.
04:08Finding Mr. Christmas premieres October 31st on Hallmark+.
04:12For the latest entertainment news and updates, keep watching The Hollywood Reporter News.