Hallmark's Jonathan Bennett Has One Big Goal For His Career

Jonathan Bennett is known for his extensive work on Hallmark, looking sexy with his hair pushed back as Aaron Samuels in "Mean Girls," and being married to Jaymes Vaughan. But while true Hallmark fans know the ins and outs of Bennett's life, the actor is making his big career goal super clear. Speaking to Newsweek, he shared his concerns about LGBTQIA acceptance regressing after seeing a lot of progress.

As one of several Hallmark stars who is a proud member of the LGBTQIA community, Bennett said, "My purpose on this earth and my job was to tell queer stories to a broad audience." He specified a "broad audience" instead of a "queer audience" because those are separate ways to tell stories. He plans to make his characters as relatable as possible, continuing to tell the outlet, "I tell it in a way that puts the humanity of the character at the forefront and puts the relatability [of the] character at the forefront. Those are the things that help change the hearts and minds of people watching."

He also pointed out that if someone watching his work is also a fan of "RuPaul's Drag Race," that's awesome, but not the demographic he's specifically trying to target. It's similar to the drag queens on HBO's "We're Here," who travel to conservative towns to put on a drag show with the locals to try and open their eyes to different types of people. They don't travel to liberal cities like New York to do these shows, and Bennett isn't going to reach out to "Queer Eye" fans to gauge their interest in his work.

One big project Jonathan Bennett is a part of is "The Groomsmen" trilogy for Hallmark that stars him, Tyler Hynes, and B.J. Britt. After the success of the network's "Three Wise Men and a Baby" leading to a sequel, the network figured movies featuring a guy's perspective could be just as engaging as ones focusing on female perspectives. One of "The Groomsmen" movies features a same-sex wedding.

Bennett shared in that same interview with Newsweek how he wanted to make a movie series for Hallmark similar to a popular comedy series. "I had this idea for, like, Hallmark's version of 'The Hangover' and have a trilogy of movies where you follow three guys through all of their different weddings and bachelor parties and what it really means to be like a groomsman to a group of friends," Bennett said. This idea seems to go back to Bennett wanting to create characters that broad audiences can connect with on a deeper level.

While doing press for the trilogy with GLAAD, Bennett explained how his experience at his own wedding, as well as being a groomsman for his straight friends' weddings, influenced him. "I think what's so important about a movie like 'The Groomsmen,' especially in my movie, in my wedding to play a gay character and be standing up there at the altar and having your two best friends, who happen to be straight, standing beside you, supporting you, I think that's a really beautiful and powerful picture for the audience to see," Bennett said.