Benjamin Hollingsworth on Virgin River, Hallmark Holiday Movies, Career

(This story contains spoilers for Virgin River season six.)

In the early seasons of Virgin Riverstar Benjamin Hollingsworth was wherever the trouble was, but he’s now reversing his bad-boy character in season six.

The 40-year-old Canadian actor, who previously saw success on the CBS medical drama Code blackeventually found its home on the Netflix series, which follows relationships, drama and romance in Virgin River, a fictional small town in Northern California. While Hollingsworth started out playing the villain Brady, he was on a mission to show another side of his character. And over six seasons (Virgin River has also been renewed for a seventh), the actor slowly stripped Brady of his mask.

“I love redemption arcs because I take your idea of ​​what the character is and it’s basically a mask that he wears,” Hollingsworth shares The Hollywood Reporter. “And then you see (his love interest) Brie (Zibby Allen) come into his life and she cracks him wide open and he completely takes off the mask. And you see Brady for who Brady is, which is this little boy trapped inside in this strong outer body which is used to trying to block the world out.”

Below, Hollingsworth talks about his hopes for his character Brady Virgin River season seven, what he’s most excited about with his new Christmas movies, the biggest challenge he’s been able to overcome and more.

With Virgin Riverwhich just released its sixth season and has already been renewed for a seventh, what do you think of the show’s success?

We’ve been blessed from the beginning to have a really strong fan base, which I think benefited a lot from the pandemic because our show is about community. It’s all about this idyllic time where we had this world where everyone lived in one society and came together and there was no division, there was no political divide. It really didn’t matter. You were just looking out for your neighbor and everybody was in it together and we got together and we celebrated and I think at the time everybody longed for this sense of community. And that’s really the key ingredient to it Virgin River. … (And) all the supporting roles, these characters are the ingredients of the main character, which I think is Virgin River, which also allows it to go for a very long time because people can come and go, but the town will always stay the same. Wi-Fi will always be slow and gossip will always be fast.

Knowing that you’ll get more to explore with your character with a seventh season, what do you hope to see for Brady?

I always say Brady’s address where he gets his Amazon packages is 555 rock and hard place. He lives directly between them and will probably never move due to his genetic makeup. He always gets into trouble. For me, it’s been a blessing to play Brady because I’ve taken him from a very stereotypical villain, and he’s the only character out of all the leads that’s not in the books other than just a little three-page thing. So I was really lucky early on because Sue Tenney, our original showrunner, really saw something in what I was doing with Brady, and we decided to do a redemption arc. And I love redemption arcs because I take your idea of ​​what the character is and basically it’s a mask that he wears. And when you watch him navigate those situations, you start to see him take off the mask for just a second or two. … And then you see Brie (Zibby Allen) come into his life, and she blows him wide open, and he completely takes the mask off. You see Brady for who Brady is, which is this little boy trapped inside this strong outer body that’s used to trying to block out the world. And he lets her in, and that to an audience is really compelling because you go on this journey with this character and you end up rooting for them. … So with that feeling, I don’t want to see Brady go backwards. … I feel he will go after his money. I can’t imagine that he just wants to let Lærke (Elise Gatien) go. … I want to see Brady continue to pursue Brie. I think this is the love of his life. I don’t think he should give up on her, and I don’t think he’ll ever be truly, truly happy again until he can be with Brie.

You also starred in two new Hallmark holiday movies this year, Cover the halls of Cherry Lane and Christmas with the Singhs. What are you most excited for fans to see?

What I love about Christmas is that even if you are not Catholic or Christian or Jewish, people can still feel the magic of Christmas because everyone has shifted their attitude away from politics, aggression, frustration, work and opens their hearts a little bit. . … (Before the recordings to Christmas with the Singhs) I watched Jim Carrey movies nonstop because I love me a nostalgic Jim Carrey. But for this character in particular, I wanted to make him kind of a jerk. So I did a lot of physical humor and big twists on things, and because I saw Jim Carrey, I’m like, “Oh my God, I can’t believe he got away with doing this. It’s so big!” He literally just bounces off everything on set, but it’s entertaining and it’s fun. And I thought the energy in (Christmas with the Singhs) could actually work because the whole idea of ​​the movie is fun. The other (Cover the halls of Cherry Lane), I play computer scientist in 1960. So you can imagine what it looks like. I have the comb over, clean shaven, with the old fashioned way of speaking. And it’s a super cute, super cozy story about Christmas that takes place on the same street over four different decades.

Going back to where it all started, what first made you want to work as an actor?

I think it was a combination of a lot of things. The first was seeing a Shakespeare outdoor theater in the rounds when I was about 5 or 6. I had no idea what was going on but the actors spoke with such passion and Shakespeare almost has a rhythm to it and a dynamic parameter, and I was drawn to it. Then there were sword fights and people dying and all these wonderful things as a 5- and 6-year-old, you’re like, “Oh, what’s this?” So that piqued my interest.

My dad had always done community theater growing up, nothing professional, but he did community musicals. And I remember seeing him once on stage and – he was dying on stage – everyone around was crying and really affected by it. And I felt like I had these feelings even though I knew it was my father on stage. I knew it wasn’t right. I then lost the feeling of understanding it and was in what happened to the character. I thought, “Wow, this is the coolest magic trick in the world. That there’s such a power in telling the story that affects all these people.” … It’s so interesting, and the show would be done, and I would see my father, and I would see him differently than I saw him before. And I looked up to my father before that, but then I looked up even more to him knowing what it takes to be a strong father figure, but then to be vulnerable enough to die on stage, that was a very poignant core memory for me.

If you have a day off, what does your perfect day off look like?

It depends on which city I’m in. I love being outside. So if I’m close to the Virgin River and Squamish (British Columbia, Canada) I’ll hike up a mountain or something. There is something very affirming about going through a struggle to get to the top somewhere and look down. I feel that the best things in life are earned. Hard work allows you to gain perspective and feel rewarded. If you don’t put in any hard work, the rewards aren’t quite as satisfying. … Life is often about perspective, so I often try to take those days to regain perspective because I’m with three kids – 8, 6 and 4 – and my career, busy enough as it is, is hard to take stock of life when you’re so busy. … And I play hockey, but I play hockey so much and it’s a different kind of release, it’s more of a physical kind of thing.

What is a challenge you have overcome to help get you where you are today?

I have ADHD and it was only diagnosed a year and a half ago. My son also has ADHD and I have learned a lot right after his diagnosis about what it was like for me growing up. Like, “Oh, this makes so much sense.” … It was something I had struggled with all through (school), even to this day I still struggle with it. But it’s like the classic idea of ​​the superhero harnessing his power. I have harnessed my ADHD in such a way that it has become, in some aspects of my life, a superpower. When I’m on set, one of the cool things about someone with ADHD is that it’s not that they can’t focus, it’s that they have trouble focusing on things they’re not interested in in. So when I’m working on something that I’m really interested in, like a character that I really love, like Brady or Dr. Mario Savetti (in CBS’ Code black), I hyperfocus. So that type of hyperfocus is essential in acting because you have to tune out everything else. Everything has to come right down to the actor who’s opposite you, and when it’s just us, just the two people on stage, it’s almost a feeling of floating.

What would you tell your younger self when you see where you are now?

I would just say play and enjoy every aspect of what you are doing. Never forget what the power of this is, because it is a special, unique power that should be respected and honored, but also never lose that sense of play. Do not grow emotionally. Our imagination is the only thing that recedes as we age. Keep, plant, close, protect your imagination at all costs because it is your superpower and never let anyone say you can’t because you can and did.

If you had to describe what makes Benjamin Hollingsworth, Benjamin Hollingsworth, what would you say?

What makes me me? I feel that I am very empathetic. It comes and plays a bunch of different characters from different backgrounds who constantly see the world from different points of view. I’m quick to forgive because I make a lot of mistakes too. It’s part of what makes us human again. I constantly make mistakes, constantly learn from them and constantly apologize for them (Laughing). And I think what makes me the most is that I’m so grateful for every single day that I live, like I wake up and I feel like it’s a gift.