Throughout the theatrical music video for Carrie Underwood’s single “Ghost Story,” a man is haunted by memories of a past romance in various scenes, from a bedroom to a dressing room to the seats of a theater. Although that man looks intriguingly similar to Underwood’s husband, Mike Fisher, the role was actually played by actor Craig Geoghan.
Geoghan chatted with Music Mayhem about his career path, how he landed the “Ghost Story” role, and what it was like working with Carrie Underwood.
Originally from Long Island, New York, Geoghan was an athlete and a scholar before he began to pursue a career in modeling and acting. The quarterback football player attended Stony Brook University in New York and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Health Science, with a concentration in Disability Studies. He originally planned to pursue a doctorate in Physical Therapy, but life had other plans.
“I actually got wait-listed into a master’s program for physical therapy,” Geoghan shared. “At the time, I was super bummed out about it, but it ended up being the biggest and best thing that really ever happened to me, to be completely honest. Because I was really only going down that path because it was what was kind of realistic, you know what I mean? It just kind of felt like, ‘Oh, go to high school, go to college, get a master’s degree, get a job, work.”
At that pivotal moment, Geoghan leaned into another type of work that he’d already started – commercial modeling. He began building a portfolio, got agents in both New York and Los Angeles, then moved to L.A. and transitioned into acting. In the eight years since he began his acting career, Geoghan has starred in several film and television roles, including a role on Red Oaks, where he got the chance to work alongside Paul Reiser and Jennifer Grey. He also starred in the film Wake Unto Me, playing the role of Riley.
Geoghan’s commercial agent in Los Angeles brought him the opportunity to audition for a music video, but at the time, he didn’t know it was for Carrie Underwood.
“It was a self tape audition,” said Geoghan. “Everything is from home nowadays via Zoom, you know, recorded from home.” The actor shared what he had to do to land the part, even though he didn’t know exactly what it was for. “What the audition asked for was just going through a range of emotions as authentically as possible.”
It wasn’t until he got a call back after the audition that he found out he would be acting in a music video with Carrie Underwood.
Geoghan revealed that his girlfriend helped introduce him to the world of country music. “Over the course of the last like year or so, my girlfriend and I recently got into listening to more country. She is from Texas, so she’s kind of introduced that whole world to me. It’s just funny how everything aligned, because now I’m the lead in a country video… so everything kinda came full circle.” He added, “I feel like Carrie Underwood is one of the artists that kind of crosses over into like pop… she’s so big that even if you’re not necessarily a country fan, you still know who Carrie Underwood is and you still know her music. I love Carrie Underwood.” Geoghan also shared that some of his other favorite country artists include Luke Bryan, Sam Hunt, and Jimmie Allen.
When it came to filming the music video, Geoghan was overwhelmed by the size of the production. “It was a pretty big set for a music video. Sometimes you can only have a dozen or two dozen people. We had well over a hundred people for this set. We were in this beautiful theater in downtown Los Angeles. It felt kind of like almost being on Broadway, because it was this huge theater with old carvings in the walls and in the ceilings and just beautiful decor all around. And the video itself is very cinematic.”
Even though it was an elaborate setting, Geoghan was pleasantly surprised by how humble Underwood was. “Getting the opportunity to meet and chat with Carrie Underwood was insane. That was super cool. She was very, very, very nice. It felt like talking to just another person. It didn’t feel like I was talking to or interacting with this big giant celebrity, which is refreshing.
She was just telling me about where she’s from, I was telling her about where I’m from, our families and stuff like that.”
So what’s next for the actor? Geoghan would love to land “a recurring role on one of the major streaming platforms. A character that you see time and time again, whether it be on a Netflix show or Hulu show, on Prime, whatever the case may be, so people can start getting used to seeing me out there.”
You can follow Geoghan on Instagram HERE and check out his IMDB HERE.
