Luke Macfarlane is spilling the tea about his holiday movie earnings — including whether Netflix or Hallmark Channel paid better.
“You were in [Single All the Way on Netflix], was the paycheck bigger [than Hallmark]?” Daniel Tosh asked Macfarlane, 43, during a recent episode of his “Tosh Show” podcast.
Macfarlane succinctly replied, “Smaller.”
The actor, who played Michael Urie’s love interest in the 2021 Netflix holiday film, has been a Hallmark staple since 2015. Earlier this year, Macfarlane appeared in Notes of Autumn and Catch Me If You Claus.
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“So, I’ve had, like, sort of overall deals with [Hallmark where] I’m gonna commit to five Christmas movies or five movies, but I can’t work for any other networks and they can’t be holiday-related movies,” Macfarlane explained, noting he could sign onto Single All the Way at the time because that was “outside of my deal.”
Luke Macfarlane VALERIE MACON/AFP via Getty Images
After host Tosh, 48, asked if Hallmark pays well, Macfarlane nodded and confirmed that his “rate goes up” for successive projects.
“It is a nice thing,” Macfarlane added before dropping a surprising truth about network residual checks. “They have to air a certain amount of time before you start getting [any money]. As you know, they air them a lot. So, if you end up doing one of the ones that hits and is popular, it gets aired more and more. So, you eventually get residuals.”
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Tosh specifically asked if Macfarlane has seen any residuals come in for 2018’s A Shoe Addict’s Christmas, a movie he made with Candace Cameron Bure. “I don’t know if I’ve gotten [any],” Macfarlane coyly added.
Elsewhere in the podcast episode, Macfarlane noted that he was “nervous to work with” Cameron Bure, 47, for the first time in A Shoe Addict’s Christmas.
“But, she could not have been more lovely,” he added.
Cameron Bure was another Hallmark mainstay before she opted to leave the network for Great American Media. In a November 2022 interview with WSJ Magazine, the Full House alum praised her new TV home’s commitment to showcasing “traditional marriage” on screen. (Hallmark has since featured more LGBTQIA+ couples in its yearly film slate.)
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Cameron Bure, who has frequently stressed her conservative values over the years has since apologized for her comments.
“She has a lot of gay friends,” Macfarlane added to Tosh, noting that they “never” discussed his sexuality while filming A Shoe Addict’s Christmas. (He publicly came out as gay in 2008.)
Macfarlane was further asked if he has a “preference” filming intimate or romantic scenes with women or men.
“I don’t know, it’s acting,” he said on the podcast. “It’s not that weird, you know, I don’t find it that uncomfortable. The most uncomfortable I got was right before the kissing scene when my female lead asked me, ‘Do you get the feeling in your tummy when you kiss a woman?’ I think she was feeling anxious because she gets the feeling and she wanted to know I got the feeling to make her feel better. It was a little irky.”
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