\n<\/p>\n
B<\/span>illed as a conversation with Jeremy Allen White<\/a>, and promising \u201ca special guest\u201d, there was very little surprise when Bruce Springsteen arrived on the small stage at Spotify\u2019s London offices on Tuesday evening. The actor and the rock star walked on separately, but to the same clip of entrance music: the opening lines of Atlantic City, from Springsteen\u2019s 1982 album Nebraska.<\/p>\n It is, after all, the making of this record that provides the focus for Scott Cooper\u2019s new film Deliver Me From Nowhere<\/a>, that sees White cast as Springsteen at a critical moment in the singer\u2019s life and career. Much of the evening\u2019s conversation, steered by Edith Bowman, focused on the intricate process of becoming Bruce, and the unavoidable peculiarity of art meeting life.<\/p>\n Springsteen \u2013 throughout, a portrait of reptilian poise \u2013 spoke of first sighting White during a sound check at Wembley Stadium, in the summer of 2024. \u201cJeremy was wearing all white, so he was easy to spot,\u201d he recalled. \u201cI just kind of waved him to the stage and we said hi.\u201d White was already well steeped in Springsteen\u2019s music, had watched hours of concert footage, and read a glut of interviews and biographies. The Wembley show was an opportunity for a greater understanding of Springsteen as a live performer, and to discuss some of the specifics of the Nebraska period with the singer himself. Springsteen recalled bracing himself for an interrogation that did not come: \u201cI thought this guy is really gonna be interested in me<\/em> \u2026\u201d he said. In the end, however, \u201cJeremy was so prepared, he really asked very few questions.\u201d<\/p>\n It was an intimidating role to take on, White said. He referred repeatedly to the sheer weight of Springsteen information available, the amount of learning he had to take on, and spoke of \u201cthe pressure I was putting on myself. Bruce called it \u2018focus\u2019. I called it \u2018anxiety that hardened, maybe, into focus.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n For all the learning he undertook, it was through the music itself that he really connected to the part. \u201cA lot of my energy was going into the musical component of the film,\u201d he said. \u201c[Scott] wanted me to sing and play the guitar, and I said, \u2018I don\u2019t do those things \u2026 are you sure?\u2019\u201d Cooper was adamant. White duly recorded his own versions of Springsteen\u2019s songs. \u201cI remember being in Nashville, at RCA [studio], in the booth, singing Nebraska, and finding some confidence \u2026 feeling close to Bruce, in a way,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen you\u2019re reading a great script, your job is very easy,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd when you\u2019re reading Bruce\u2019s lyrics, it\u2019s the same. Everything\u2019s right there.\u201d<\/p>\n Springsteen also sent White a 1955 Gibson J-200 \u2013 the closest he could find to the guitar used for Nebraska, and \u201cjust about the nicest guitar you can learn on,\u201d White says. He began guitar lessons, via Zoom, with session player JD Simo. \u201cHey, I\u2019m so excited to learn guitar with you,\u201d White recalled saying on their first meeting. \u201cWe don\u2019t have time to learn the guitar,\u201d Simo replied. \u201cWe have time to learn these five Bruce songs.\u201d<\/p>\n Springsteen\u2019s own feelings about the film were initially less complicated. \u201cI figured I\u2019m 76 years old, I don\u2019t really care what the fuck I do any more,\u201d he said. \u201cYeah, go ahead. At my age you take more risks, in your work and in your life in general.\u201d It helped that Cooper was \u201ca real blue-collar film-maker\u201d making \u201cthe kind of film I would be interested in,\u201d he said. \u201cNot your standard musical biopic, but more of a character-driven drama with music.\u201d<\/p>\n As the project gathered pace, it perhaps became stranger. Springsteen visited the set often, apologising to White each time he made an appearance. \u201cIt\u2019s gotta be really weird with the guy\u2019s stupid ass standing there,\u201d he said. But he liked what he saw: \u201cI\u2019ve said this before, but I kept thinking \u2018Damn, when did I get that good-looking?\u2019\u201d In the seat beside him, White wags his finger and shakes his head.<\/p>\n Springsteen had few doubts about White\u2019s casting; he knew that the actor was equipped to portray the most introspective time in his recording career. \u201cI\u2019d watched The Bear<\/a>, and how the camera followed his internal life,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd if you see him in a film, it\u2019s a cliche, but he\u2019s a rock star.\u201d<\/p>\n When he first saw White playing him, he was struck by the actor\u2019s approach. \u201cHis performance was totally from the inside out, not just picking elements and wearing them like clothes,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a non-imitative performance, but somehow it greatly relates to my story and myself.\u201d He saw it as something akin to his own approach to songwriting \u2013 to writing about people whose lives differ so greatly from his own. \u201cYou have to find the part of them that is part of you.\u201d<\/p>\n More unsettling was the way the film forced him to revisit difficult periods in his own life. The recreation of his grandparents\u2019 home in Freehold, New Jersey \u2013 a house he once described as \u201cthe greatest and saddest sanctuary I\u2019ve ever known\u201d was uncanny; Springsteen described how often he visited the home in his dreams. \u201cSo, to be in that house again \u2026 it was quite a miracle, and quite wonderful.\u201d<\/p>\n