Heavy/Hallmark Benjamin Ayres in "Miracle in Bethlehem, PA"
Actor Benjamin Ayres is always up for a new challenge. But he didn’t expect starring in Hallmark‘s final Countdown to Christmas movie of 2023 would include so many of them.
Since 2016, the Canadian-based actor has starred in over a dozen Hallmark movies, with two more on the way in early 2024. But Ayres told Heavy this week that in many ways, filming “Miracle in Bethlehem, PA” with co-star Laura Vandervoort— premiering on Hallmark Movies & Mysteries on December 21, 2023 — was unlike any other Hallmark project he’s been part of.
All of the unique twists and turns, from working with a newborn for the first time to having an unusual amount of creative freedom, were a welcome surprise for Ayres, who said he’s “very, very, very happy” with the outcome.
In fact, Ayres teased, “I really let loose in a way that I haven’t, I don’t think, in a Hallmark movie before.”
Here’s what you need to know:
Benjamin Ayres Was Surprised by How Much He Got to Improvise on Set of Dayspring Movie
HallmarkBenjamin Ayres performs while playing a former rock star in “Miracle in Bethlehem, PA”
When Ayres first received the script for “Miracle in Bethlehem, PA,” it threw him off a bit, he told Heavy, because he hadn’t realized it was for a faith-based, Dayspring-branded movie.
“I started reading it and at some point, I started speaking almost like I was in a sermon and I was like ‘Whoa … I’ve never said these words on this network before,'” he recalled.
In December 2022, Nikki DeLoach and Brennan Elliott starred in Hallmark’s “The Gift of Peace,” a Dayspring movie about keeping the faith in the midst of grief. But director Jeff Beesley told Ayres that the goal this time around was to infuse the newest Dayspring project with more humor, which is right up Ayres’ alley.
Beesley also told Ayres his typical style is to “cross-shoot,” meaning that cameras and lighting are focused on both actors at the same time in a scene, which is not very common on Hallmark projects. Though he’d filmed that way for a couple of scenes over the years, Ayres said shooting “95 percent” of the movie that way was a blast, allowing for more spontaneous interactions and comedic scenes with Vandervoort.
“This was very free flowing,” Ayres told Heavy. “We improvised a lot of things. It was sort of like, ‘Now let’s just sort of do whatever we want in this scene and let’s go for something bigger or let’s have some fun.’ There were scenes that felt like we were doing a play. It was so fun creatively and to get to have that experience for this movie was just fantastic.”
Ayres said that, in collaboration with Beesley, he also got to have some creative input on his character — a former “rock star” who leaves his often lonely life on the road to be around for his aging mom and to give back to his community. But he’s also the “ultimate bachelor” who plays video games and “eats popcorn all day,” Ayres laughed, “and has, kind of, one foot in and one foot out of life.”
Playing a former rock star presented another unique challenge for Ayres, who had to sing and play guitar for the movie, marking another first for him. Even though he does dabble in music for fun, including singing on some of his popular Instagram videos for fans, Ayres said playing a rock star upped the ante.
“That’s a lot of pressure for me because, you know, he can’t be kind of good,” Ayres said. “He has to be a guy that used to be on stage playing at stadiums. So that’s a huge deal.”
Ayres recalled joking around with Beesley, urging him to find an actual rock star to record his character’s voice.
“I was like, ‘Listen, Jeff, I don’t know who we’re gonna get in here, but do you know Bono? Can he come in and do this or what?’ And then the sound guy was like, ‘Dude, get out of your head, you sound great.’ So, we’ll see how it goes,” he said.
Acting With Newborns & a Rambunctious Dog Were Also New Experiences for Benjamin Ayres
HallmarkLaura Vandervoort and Benjamin Ayres in “Miracle in Bethlehem, PA”
Ayres said he loved working with Vandervoort, whom he said is very funny and “loves to make scenes better” any way she can. The biggest challenge for her, he told Heavy, was working with the newborn twins who played her just-adopted baby in the movie. Though co-starring with a baby was also new for Ayres, he does have two daughters and said his parenting skills kicked in and he tried to help Vandervoort feel more confident.
“It’s really hard to hold a baby if you’ve never held a newborn baby,” Ayres quipped, adding, “Not a one year old version but just, like, a little bag of bones. She’s newly adopted this baby, so the character is thrust into becoming a mother. And Laura is not a mother. That’ s a big thing, right? Like it wouldn’t have been the same if the actor cast had a baby or was a mother. Because you really can’t go back and pretend you don’t know what you’re doing. She was sweating bullets.”
Knowing that his rock star character’s backstory included spending time with his young nieces and nephews, Ayres was able to let his own dad instincts kick in while working with the babies.
“I wore a harness and I’m walking around with the baby strapped to me,” Ayres laughed. “We just found a lot of fun, physical comedy (in that). These babies were incredible. And we also had this lifelike doll — a really realistic looking baby, creepily so!”
Ayres said he liked the uncertainty of how the babies would behave or react on-set, giving him more chances to improvise his characters’ reactions. The same was the case with his character’s pup, who turned out to be rather unpredictable even though the script called for a “sleepy old dog,” Ayres told Heavy.
“I get there and it’s a super hyperactive dog and I’m supposed to be sitting on the couch playing video games,” Ayres recalled, adding that at one point he had to put the Golden Retriever in a gentle but awkward headlock and keep giving him popcorn just to keep him steady for a scene.
“I got a lot of face lickings,” Ayres laughed.
Having tackled all those new challenges and waiting to see the finished product, Ayres said that he can’t wait to see how much of their spontaneity made it into the final movie and how fans react.
He said, “That is actually what makes it good, right? That’s what makes it so exciting because you expect one thing and (we’re) doing something else.”
“Miracle in Bethlehem, PA” premieres on December 21 at 8 p.m. Eastern time and will re-air each day through Christmas Eve at various times.