Bruce Springsteen has nothing but praise for Jeremy Allen White’s depiction of him in the upcoming biopic Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere.
“I want to thank everybody for coming out to see our film tonight and our crew, a great cast,” Springsteen, 76, said during a screening for the movie at the New York Film Festival last month, per People. “Jeremy Allen White for putting his whole heart and soul into the part, just such a wonderful job, and for playing a much better looking version of me.
Springsteen joked, “I’m really thankful for that.”
White, 34, explained that he asked Springsteen “really direct” questions at the beginning of the production.
“‘Why this film? Why this period?’ And even what happened on this journey, on this road trip, in really specific moments. And he was immediately so honest,” White told the outlet.
“He talked to me about a panic attack he’d had, and he described it to me as in this moment he felt like he was like a voyeur in his own life,” White continued. “He was an observer. He felt so outside of himself, and he told me that story, and that’s a feeling I’m familiar with. I think I’m always trying to find some presence in my own life, and I worked very hard at it every day. And when he told me that story and made me familiar with that feeling, I knew there was a tether that I could explore there.”
The film, set to be released later this month, centers on the making of Springsteen’s 1982 album, Nebraska. Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere is also an adaptation of Warren Zanes’ book of the same name.
In June, the “Dancing in the Dark” musician said that White was “very, very tolerant” of him during the days Springsteen was on set.
“I said to him, ‘Look, anytime I’m in the way, just give me the look and I’m on my way home.’ So the days that I got out there, he was wonderfully tolerant with me being there,” Springsteen told Rolling Stone at the time. “And it was just fun. It was enjoyable.”
While Springsteen wanted to be involved in the film process, he shared that reliving some of his past wasn’t an easy feat.
“I mean, there’s some unusualness to it because the movie involves, in some ways, some of the most painful days of my life,” Springsteen shared. “But it was a great project, and Jeremy and Jeremy Strong [who plays manager Jon Landau] were both fantastic, terrific in it as were all the other actors.”
Springsteen continued gushing over the cast, including Adolescence creator and star Stephen Graham, who plays his dad, Douglas, before explaining when he chose to step back from the project.
“Some of the scenes I wasn’t at. If there was a scene coming up that was sometimes really deeply personal, I wanted the actors to feel completely free, and I didn’t want to get in the way, and so I would just stay at home,” Springsteen said. “If Scott Cooper, the director, wanted or needed me there for something, I would try to make it.”
Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere hits theaters on October 24.
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