As Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere moves closer to release, Bruce Springsteen has opened up about his experience visiting the set and watching his personal story unfold through someone else’s performance.
The upcoming biopic, directed by Scott Cooper (Crazy Heart, Out of the Furnace), stars The Bear Emmy winner Jeremy Allen White as Springsteen during a pivotal and painful chapter of his life — the creation of his 1982 album Nebraska. Based on Warren Zanes’ 2023 book of the same name, the film charts a turning point in Springsteen’s career as he grapples with isolation, self-doubt, and the weight of artistic truth.
“Just Fun. It Was Enjoyable.”
In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, Bruce Springsteen was asked what it felt like to watch an actor portray him. “I’m sure it’s much worse for the actor than for me,” he said. “Jeremy Allen White was very, very tolerant of me the days that I would appear on the 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. And it was just fun. It was enjoyable.”
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Springsteen had kind words not only for White, but for the ensemble cast as well, including Jeremy Strong (Succession) as longtime manager Jon Landau and Stephen Graham (Adolescence) as Springsteen’s father, Doug. “It was a great project, and Jeremy and Jeremy Strong were both fantastic, terrific in it, as were all the other actors. Stephen Graham plays my dad, and he’s out of this world, but everybody that was engaged in the film, they were all tremendous.”
Staying Away from the Heaviest Scenes
Not every moment was easy to witness. Springsteen acknowledged that the film dives into some of the hardest moments of his past. “There’s some unusualness to it because the movie involves, in some ways, some of the most painful days of my life.”
To give the actors space, Springsteen deliberately stayed away from more emotionally fraught scenes. “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.”
He added that his touring schedule also meant he wasn’t around for much of the early production. “I was on tour in Canada for the whole first month or so of the filming, and so I was really out on the road quite a bit and working at that time.”
The Film
Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere promises a grounded, emotionally raw portrayal of the artist at a crossroads. The cast also includes Odessa Young as love interest Faye, Gaby Hoffmann as his mother Adele, Marc Maron as producer Chuck Plotkin, and David Krumholtz as Columbia Records executive Al Teller.
In a statement, writer-director Scott Cooper described the project as “deeply moving,” explaining that it gave him the chance to “step inside the soul of an artist I’ve long admired — and to witness, up close, the vulnerability and strength behind his music.” He continued, “The experience felt like a journey through memory, myth, and truth. And more than anything, it was a privilege to translate that raw emotional honesty to the screen, and in doing so, it changed me.”
The film is scheduled for release in Australia on October 23 and in the United States on October 24.
