For Hallmark fans, the name Luke Macfarlane might evoke the comforting smell of Christmas tree needles, but the actor’s life hasn’t followed the script of one of his feel-good films. It also hasn’t been easy for him to keep churning out seasonal favorites such as “Catch Me if You Claus” and “Sense, Sensibility & Snowmen.”
Macfarlane admitted to Vanity Fair that being gay and playing the straight lead in Hallmark movies is an uncomfortable experience. “If you go to my IMDb page, there’s a lot of me holding hands with some nice Christian white lady — like, yeah, I’m terrified. I’m totally freaked out by that,” he said. In 2019, Hallmark put him in an even more awkward position by pulling an ad that featured a same-sex kiss between two brides. “It was a really complicated thing for me to consider,” Macfarlane told TV Goodness of his reaction to the move. He expressed relief that Hallmark eventually reinstated the commercial.
Macfarlane also filmed a movie with Candace Cameron Bure after she announced her departure from Hallmark for the Great American Family network. Bure had strongly insinuated that she took issue with Hallmark embracing LGBTQ+ storylines. “I will admit that I was nervous to work with her,” Macfarlane said on the “Tosh Show” podcast. “But she could not have been more lovely.” Macfarlane toyed with leaving the network himself but changed his mind, possibly because he’s been so often frustrated by the lack of opportunity elsewhere.
Coming out as gay made him feel uncertain about his future
Luke Macfarlane can now count himself among the Hallmark stars who have been open about their sexuality, but this wasn’t always the case. In 2012, he opened up to Metro Weekly about how stressful it was for him to do interviews when he wasn’t out as gay. “There was always this notion that it was kind of in the room and it could just pop out, so I always felt on guard and it was a terrible, terrible feeling,” he said. Macfarlane added that his heightened state of anxiety affected his performance in the 2005 series “Over There.” It didn’t help matters that he had seen other gay actors suffer for keeping their sexual orientation a secret. “I think so many of the people I saw were tortured and ruined by the lies that they had to tell,” he told Page Six.
After playing a gay character in “Brothers & Sisters,” Macfarlane decided that he was done hiding. However, when he came out in a 2008 interview with The Globe and Mail (via Advocate), he admitted that he was uncertain about how his decision would affect his career. “But I guess I can’t really be concerned about what will happen, because it’s my truth,” he said. In 2022, he explained to Indiewire why he had reason to believe he might lose out on roles, saying, “Growing up, I never did see out gay male movie stars.”
Woodworking reminds Luke Macfarlane of his late father
Luke Macfarlane’s decision to come out publicly came at a tumultuous time. “My father had passed away, and all the sort of ‘what’s important’ life stuff was happening,” he told Vanity Fair. In a 2015 interview with CTNow, Luke said that his dad, Dr. Thomas William Robert Macfarlane, had encouraged him to be true to himself before his 2007 death. However, when Luke came out to his family, Thomas took some time to come to terms with the revelation. “But he never made it my problem. He was always able to be self-reflective enough to understand that any of his ideas about what his son was going to be was his problem,” Luke told Out.
Thomas had worked as the Director of Health Services at The University of Western Ontario and was also passionate about woodworking. He introduced his son to his hobby, and now Luke shows off some of his handiwork on Instagram. His creations include a toy barn and a baby crib. “So much of our bonding experience was through making things together, whether that was a gazebo in our backyard … and we actually did a kitchen renovation,” Luke told Story & Rain of some of the projects he worked on with his dad. Now, woodworking allows him to relive those precious moments. “I’m always thinking about my father,” Luke told Attitude. “When you cut open certain woods, they have a smell to them that takes you places.”
Luke Macfarlane’s dyslexia makes his job more challenging
Luke Macfarlane can boast a Juilliard education and fruitful careers on screen and stage. His success is all the more impressive because he counts himself among the stars who have dyslexia. The learning disorder makes reading difficult, which seems like a major obstacle in an industry that requires memorizing scripts and running lines with other actors. “I have a hard time with ‘words, words, words,'” Macfarlane told Metro Weekly.
After the actor got cast as “The Great Gatsby” author F. Scott Fitzgerald in a 2009 stage production of “The Jazz Age,” he told TheaterMania he had to familiarize himself with the writer’s works by listening to audiobooks instead of reading them because of his dyslexia. Macfarlane has also had to devise his own unique method of preparing to deliver his lines. He can play the cello, which may explain why he’s found that developing a rhythm is helpful for memorization. “I always have to do this thing with the dialogue, I have to make it so second nature to me, and it almost becomes like a melody,” he told Story & Rain. While this description makes it sound serene and undemanding, the process can be a bit of a grind. “I’m always really envious of the actors that can kind of grab the page, look at it, then know it. I just don’t have that relationship to words on a page,” he continued.
He rarely gets the roles he wants
Like most actors, Luke Macfarlane has some roles that got away. Due to scheduling conflicts, he had to make a painful choice between a bit part in the “Barbie” movie and a larger one in the Apple TV+ comedy “Platonic.” He went with the latter, but who knows what future opportunities he missed out on by turning down Greta Gerwig? “Barbie” was a pop culture phenomenon, so even a seemingly insignificant role could have boosted his profile substantially. “It was one of those brutal things,” he told The Hollywood Reporter.
The “Killjoys” star has also experienced the bitter disappointment of mistakenly believing that a role was going to lead to much bigger and better things. He played a soldier in “Over There,” so the FX series seemed like an ideal launching pad for an action film career. “I thought I was going to be a big star. Then it got canceled while I was doing press in Argentina,” he told Vanity Fair.
There’s no doubt that Macfarlane’s decision to come out significantly altered his career trajectory. “I can literally remember an agent once saying to me, ‘Superman can’t be gay’ — like just straight out,” he recalled. He had hoped to get a piece of that lucrative comic book movie pie, but lead roles in popular popcorn movies eluded him. “I do remember being frustrated, seeing other actors and straight guys my age … thinking, Why are they getting [the parts]?”
His first big studio film flopped
In 2022, Universal Pictures took a gamble on a Hollywood rarity: a rom-com centered on a gay love story. Luke Macfarlane got to be a part of the daring endeavor when he landed his first lead role in a studio film. He played the love interest of “Billy on the Street” star Billy Eichner in “Bros,” which apparently did not have major crossover appeal with the Hallmark crowd that faithfully tunes in to watch Macfarlane trim Christmas trees while looking like an outwear catalog model.
The movie bombed at the box office, which is a development no actor wants to see. It’s even worse when they have to talk about it in interviews, where they are forced to answer questions about why they think it failed. “I can’t think of anything that I felt was a big mistake in making it, so it’s disappointing,” Macfarlane told The Hollywood Reporter. It had to be especially tough for him because he considered getting cast in the movie such a career high point. “The competition for leading man roles is fierce and I wondered if I’d ever get to check that box,” he said in an interview with The London Free Press.
Macfarlane pointed out to Attitude that critics seemed to like “Bros,” so there was some consolation in that. He’s also not finished checking boxes and has a specific role in mind. “The question is, is America ready for a gay Captain America?” he said.
