JD Vance Was An Extra On The TV Show That Made Hallmark's Bethany Joy Lenz Famous

Though Hallmark star Bethany Joy Lenz has worked with, and feuded with, the likes of Sophia Bush and Hilarie Burton, with whom she also had a falling out, she might not know she's also rubbed elbows with a high-profile politician. 

Eagle-eyed viewers could notice that Donald Trump's running mate was once present as an extra in an episode of the series "One Tree Hill." While addressing the crowd at a campaign event in Wilmington, North Carolina in October 2024, Vance shared that he appeared on the show while he was a marine. "I'm going to tell you something I bet very few, maybe no one, knows," he said in a video uploaded to YouTube by Forbes Breaking News. Vance presumably flaunted this tidbit to impress the Wilmington crowd, given that the episode, he said, was shot in that very city. "They showed up one day and they said, 'Alright, we'll feed you and we'll pay you $300 to be an extra in 'One Tree Hill,'" he told his audience.

Although JD Vance didn't offer any further details about his "One Tree Hill" appearance, like which episode of Hallmark star Bethany Joy Lenz's breakthrough series he was in, or when filming took place, the news itself seemed to strike a chord with the Wilmington crowd, who cheered after he shared the fun fact about his life pre-politics. The notion that he was in it, period, also provides a fun, or perhaps shocking, Easter egg for fans and new viewers alike to look out for next time they watch the series.

Vance is also no stranger to the entertainment world in general. Many know his memoir "Hillbilly Elegy," was adapted into an Oscar-nominated biopic directed by "The Da Vinci Code" director Ron Howard. Though Lenz hasn't let on about how she feels about his appearance in one of her projects, Howard has made audiences aware of how he feels about the Vice President-elect's political career since he directed the movie. "To be honest, I was surprised," Howard told Variety in November 2022. "When I was getting to know [JD], we didn't talk politics because I wasn't interested in that about his life. I was interested in his childhood and navigating the particulars of his family and his culture so that's what we focused on in our conversation. To me, he struck me as a very moderate center-right kind of guy."