Well, well, well, it looks like Barry Keoghan’s boxing lessons have finally paid off. The actor put his athleticism to good use in Sabrina Carpenter’s latest video, “Please Please Please.” His role? Carpenter’s jailbird boyfriend. Don’t worry, though—he’s a bad boy with a big heart.
In case you missed it, Carpenter and Keoghan have been dating for a while. In January, eagle-eyed fans spotted them at Luna Luna, an interactive art museum in Los Angeles. Then he was seen filming her Coachella performance, stage-mom-style. Now they seem to have taken their courtship to the next level—which, in 2024, is a buzzy music video. Don’t you love it when a couple maximizes their joint slay? (Look it up.)
In “Please Please Please,” Carpenter spots Keoghan in jail. She walks out, he walks in, and it’s love at first sight. When it’s Keoghan’s turn to leave his confines, Carpenter scoops him up, and thus begins their whirlwind romance. “I heard that you’re an actor, so act like a stand-up guy,” she sings. “Whatever devil’s inside you, don’t let him out tonight.” Carpenter is ready to take a chance on the man. He has a rough reputation, but it’s fine!
Wrong. Keoghan’s character can’t stay out of trouble. He takes her to a gang’s den and promptly gets into a brutal fistfight, then he robs a bank and is arrested again. Meanwhile, his poor girlfriend begs him to chill out. “Please, please, please / Don’t prove ’em right,” Carpenter sings. “Heartbreak is one thing, my ego’s another / I beg you, don’t embarrass me, motherfucker.” It’s no use. The man is who he is—which, by the way, is a pretty decent fella. Despite the chaos, he still remembers to hold her hand. He’s not all bad.
The cheeky video appears to be a nod to Keoghan’s onscreen bad-boy reputation. (None of us are over Saltburn’s Oliver Quick, are we?) Still, in “Please Please Please,” Carpenter asks him to behave. If not for his sake, then for hers. It ends with her cuffing Keoghan to a chair and kissing his duct-taped mouth while he lovingly gazes at her. I guess you can’t get into trouble if you can’t get up.
