From the gridiron to the fashion world: Former north Georgia resident makes splash in the modeling world.

Published 1:21 pm Monday, May 2, 2016

DALTON, Ga. — Even though his modeling career has taken him from Tuscany, Italy, to the foothills of the Swiss Alps, a former north Georgia resident still believes his hometown is the best.

“When you ask ‘One of the best places you’ve been,’ I’m like home,” Caleb Callahan said. “I love Dalton, Dalton will always be home. I’m not one of these people who goes ‘God, I’m so glad I got out of here.’ Dalton is an awesome place.”

Callahan, who is also an actor, landed the lead male role in country music star Jennifer Nettles’ newest video for the song “Unlove You.” The video depicts a couple’s struggle with a forbidden relationship.

In the opening scene, Nettles’ character is waiting at a bar, sipping whiskey, when Callahan’s character walks in the door and the two share a moment of happiness as their eyes meet. The camera pans in on each of their wedding bands, emphasizing that the two are married. They silently act out the words of the song, including a mesmerizing underwater scene.

Callahan, a 2005 Northwest Whitfield High School graduate who was The Daily Citizen’s All-Area Football Player of the Year his senior season, has been modeling for five years, and said he began looking at acting as a career two years ago.

“It’s been something I’ve been pursuing and kind of got some momentum,” Callahan said. “It (being in the video) was a really good opportunity for getting more exposure.”

From football to male model to actor has been “a weird transition altogether,” Callahan said.

Some of his friends jokingly agree.

Steven Smith, a long-time friend of Callahan who played football with him at Northwest and is an assistant coach now at the school, said it’s hard to believe the person he sees on screen is his friend.

“We’ve gone fishing together, we’ve gone on vacations together, he’s going to be the best man at my wedding, so it’s tough for me to watch him (on screen) because I think of the guy that pigs out, I watch sports with, I played sports with; I think of that guy,” said Smith. “So it’s tough for me to take him seriously when he’s trying to be romantic to Jennifer Nettles.”

Josh Robinson, head football coach at Northwest Whitfield High School, was  “a young defensive coach” back when Callahan played at Northwest.

“Most of my recollections of Caleb was as a football player,” recalled Robinson. “Just a gritty, tough player. One of those guys that when he set his mind to do something, whether it was on the field on Friday nights or the weight room, he accomplished it.”

Callahan was in New York when he got a call from his agent in Tennessee asking him to audition for the role in the music video and Callahan initially said there was no way he could make it.

“He was like ‘Well, they want someone out of Nashville, I seriously doubt they will fly somebody in, but you can audition for it anyway,’” said Callahan.

To audition, Callahan was supposed to record himself giving his name, where he was from and tell a little about himself, but he said he knew he was going to have to do something “outside the box” to land the role.

“I started it off by looking dead into the camera, trying to look dreamy looking, and said, ‘Hi, my name is Caleb Callahan. I like long walks on the beach. I love …,’ and then I looked like someone said something to me off screen and I was like ‘What? Huh? Oh, man, the eharmony profile is next. OK.’ And then I went into it and gave them what they wanted,” said Callahan. “So I kind of goofed them, I wasn’t supposed to do that, but I was like, you know what, I’m going to try it and they loved it.”

Mark Block, owner of the Block Agency in Nashville who represents Callahan, said he has been one of Callahan’s representatives for about a year.

Block said Callahan’s personality likely played a large part in his landing the role in Nettles’ video.

“And what a nice guy he is and how easy he is to get along with,” said Block. “They knew he’d be a good fit to work with as an artist and be able to hold his own on camera.”

Callahan has also had roles in short films, independent films and episodes on the Investigative Discovery Channel.

“Honestly, I’ve always said that entertainment is one of those things you either pursue or fall into, and I fell into it,” he said.

Callahan had just graduated from Georgia Southern University and was working with his dad when his mother encouraged him to audition during the final 10 minutes of a modeling casting call, he said.

“I went to this place in Atlanta and my mom was like ‘I want you to go in and see these people,’ and I was like ‘No, I don’t want to go in there,’ and she was like ‘Yeah, you’re going in there,’ so I went in,” Callahan said “I asked can I audition to make my mom happy and they were like ‘Yeah.’ I went in there and they asked me to come to Orlando.”

When Callahan went to the convention for aspiring models in Orlando, Fla., several agents asked him to go to New York.

“I signed pretty quick up in New York,” said Callahan. “I moved to New York and then they shipped me to Europe and I was there for a while. Then I came back and started modeling.”

Block said for a lot of people, it usually takes more time to “break out” in the modeling industry.

“But with some people (like Caleb), if they have the right look and right talent, it can happen pretty quickly,” he said.

Callahan, who has done some underwear modeling, said being a model has helped him know why he has the beliefs he does.

“We all have our own convictions in life, and a lot of us don’t know why we hold the convictions that we hold,” said Callahan. “I have only really done three or four underwear modeling jobs, that’s just what pops up (on the Internet). I have my convictions inside of underwear modeling and they’re kind of hard to think about sometimes.

“It forced me to re-think my entire life cause on a daily basis I was going to be challenged by a world that was gong to throw everything at me.”

Robinson said Callahan displayed his faith while playing football.

“He was Christian and not afraid to display that to anybody, which is very admirable,” he said.

But there are many aspects of the modeling industry that Callahan appreciates.

“The coolest thing about my industry, that I love, is that I get to meet new people that have grown up in different cultures and different places and get to have conversations and get to hear their perspective on life,” said Callahan. “I love to be able to see how culture and their environments have shaped people and just get to listen to people that have different ideas than me.”

Callahan said being able to meet new people from diverse backgrounds has helped him in pursuing his acting, “because as I play different roles I kind of know what people are thinking. That’s been something really cool to me.”

Callahan said he still continues to model, but his passion is acting.

“The first five years was modeling, not really taking acting seriously, but that was before I fell in love with it. Now my pursuit is acting,” he said.

Callahan said he visits Dalton as often as possible to meet with family and friends. Most of the responses from people about his career have been positive, he said.

“You can’t make everybody happy. I quit trying to do that a long time ago, but for the most part I’ve had good responses,” he said.