It might not be one of Netflix‘s flashiest hits, but Southern romantic drama Sweet Magnolias has been something of a sleeper success for the streamer, as it’s been entertaining users for three seasons now since it premiered in 2020. As based on the novels by Sherryl Woods, the series follows three former childhood friends as they navigate romance, career, and family while living in the South Carolina town of Serenity.
JoAnna Garcia Swisher plays Maddie Townsend, a separated mother of three who gains a new love interest at the show’s beginning in the form of Cal, a handsome baseball coach. Long-term viewers might be up to date with the cast, but for those who are just catching up with the show as the third season drops on Netflix this July 20, here’s what you need to know about who brings Cal to life.
Justin Bruening plays Cal Maddox in Sweet Magnolias
43-year-old actor and former fashion model Justin Bruening plays Cal opposite Swisher’s Maddie. The baseball coach of her teenage son Ty, Cal embarks on an epic romance across the show’s two first seasons, before surprising secrets from Cal’s surprisingly violent past emerge in season three, causing fractures in their relationship.
After shifting away from his modelling career (Bruening was first discovered by a talent scout while working at a McDonalds in Escondido, California), the star immediately made a name for himself by joining the cast of soap opera All My Children, appearing from 2003-2007 (and then again in 2011) across 163 episodes in total. He also starred in the short-lived 2008 Knight Rider reboot, playing the son of David Hasselhoff’s character in the original. Likewise, he portrayed Steve Trevor in the unfortunately infamously aborted Wonder Woman pilot in 2011.
However, Bruening’s most famous role before Sweet Magnolias came along has to be his turn in Grey’s Anatomy as paramedic Matthew Taylor, a love interest for Dr. April Kepner (Sarah Drew), for 16 episodes across 2013-18.
While speaking to Entertainment Weekly, Bruening admitted that he knows he’s perhaps typecast as good guy love interests, joking that he has to “go murder a bunch of people in my next project.” That said, he did stress that “it’s not a bad thing to be the nice guy.”
While Matthew didn’t end up getting the girl over on Grey’s (there was no stopping the April/Jackson train), we’ll have to keep watching Sweet Magnolias to see if Cal has better luck with Maddie.