Brian Geraghty: all he used to dream about was riding waves on the new jersey shore. Now he's about to catch a cinematic one of his own

As a self-described "surf punk" growing up in the seaside town of Toms River, New Jersey, Brian Geraghty hadn't given much thought to life after high school, until a chance viewing of Dead Man Walking (1995) changed everything. "It was Sean Penn all the way," Geraghty recalls. "I found out he was a surfer, and that was it."

With Oscar-winner Penn as his inspiration, Geraghty packed up for a two-year conservatory program at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York City. He became so immersed in the study of classical theater and movement that he hadn't even heard of HBO's hit The Sopranos when he got a call to audition for it. "I said to my agent, 'Dude, I told you I don't sing,'" he laughs. Nevertheless, he snagged a memorable guest spot in the show's first season, playing a counter boy who gets shot in the foot in a witty homage to series star Michael Imperioli's send-off in GoodFellas (1990).

Roles in more films and commercials quickly followed, and Geraghty soon made the move to Los Angeles, where he spent his days racing to auditions and his weekends teaching at the local Surf Academy. "I decided to go all out," he recalls of his hectic first year as a struggling actor. "Then suddenly things started clicking."

Next year he appears with Max Minghella, Anjelica Huston, and John Malkovich in the dark comedy Art School Confidential, Ghost World (2001) director Terry Zwigoff's second collaboration with comic-artist Daniel Clowes. But first he stars in next month's Jarhead, director Sam Mendes's film adaptation of former marine Anthony Swofford's 2003 best-selling memoir. In Jarhead Geraghty stars opposite Jake Gyllenhaal, Peter Sarsgaard, and Jamie Foxx as a soldier making his way through boot camp and Desert Storm. Prior to filming, the cast completed a week of military simulation training at an army base in Victorville, California. "It gave me such a respect," Geraghty, himself the son of a marine, explains. "For a second, I even thought maybe I'd join up."

Enlistment aside, Geraghty's busy enough planning future projects, including a remake of 1979's When a Stranger Calls, and making time for the beach. "I want to jump into as many different roles as possible," he says. Except, it seems, for romantic comedies: "I'd love to play a serial killer or something really dark. Being a leading man just doesn't sound as fun for me."

Carolyn Murnick last wrote about Eugene Hutz in the September issue.

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