Mean Girls Star Jonathan Bennett Claims Mantle Of ‘Gay King Of Christmas’
Image: Image: Facebook
Out actor, Jonathan Bennett has claimed the mantle of “gay king of Christmas.”
In an interview with PageSix, the Mean Girls star joked about claiming the title after both staring in and executive producing the upcoming gay Christmas movie, The Holiday Sitter.
The Holiday Sitter will be the Hallmark Channel’s first queer-centric Christmas romantic comedy.
In the movie, Bennett plays gay workaholic bachelor Sam. When his sister and her husband have to go out of town unexpectedly, Sam is forced to babysit his niece and nephew, instead of going on a trip to Hawaii. Completely out of his element, Sam seeks help from Jason (George Krissa), the handsome guy next door.
Inspired By Uncle Buck
Speaking to Entertainment Weekly about his inspiration for the movie, Bennett said “when I was shooting a different holiday movie for Hallmark in Utah, I became friends with the family that owned the house where we were shooting, and they had four kids. I would spend time with the kids on set, and the parents would crack up because I didn’t really understand how kids worked.”
He continued, “that turned into me and my love for Uncle Buck, the movie with John Candy that I grew up on, and I kind of put those ideas together and I said, “What if Uncle Buck was gay?” And that’s kind of how the movie was born. Since then it took a lot of different twists and turns and kind of creatively became something different. But the core nugget was my love for the ’80s movies like Buck.”
‘A Safe Space To Tell Queer Stories’
Talking about what it was like to be involved in Hallmark’s first queer-centric movie, Bennett said, “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.”
The movie also stars Donia Kash (A Million Little Things), Chelsea Hobbs (Make It or Break It), Matthew James Dowden (The Christmas Promise), Nathan Parrott (Lost in Space), and Everett Andres (Supergirl).
The Holiday Sitter comes out December 12 on The Hallmark Channel.
