Jeremy Allen White talks about what it was really like taking on the daunting task of playing Bruce Springsteen in the biopic Springsteen: Deliver me from nowhere.
Speaking at the 2025 Gotham Awards in New York, the actor admitted the role carried more weight than expected.
“It was enormous pressure,” he said. Page sixexplaining that portraying a living legend during such a pivotal chapter in his life was both exciting and overwhelming.
Luckily, White wasn’t left to figure it out alone.
He revealed that Springsteen remained closely involved throughout filming, reassuring him almost daily.
“Bruce was texting me almost every night,” he said, adding that the musician was “on set very often.”
White joked that without those messages from the 76-year-old rock icon, he would have “cried a lot more” during the process.
In the film, White portrays Springsteen at a time when he is on the brink of international fame, while still grappling with the realities of his home country.
That emotional push and pull is one of the film’s central themes — and one of the reasons director Scott Cooper felt the story was worth telling now.
White and Cooper were honored together at the Gotham Awards with the Cultural Icon Tribute Award.
While accepting the recognition, White thanked Springsteen for trusting them with a chapter of his life that he had never explored publicly.
“We are very grateful that Bruce allowed us in [his] space. And tell a story that he never told himself and never mythologized,” he said, stumbling on “mythologized” before laughing with: “Sorry guys, I’m very tired,” which sparked hearty laughter in the star-studded room.
That moment captured exactly what White described throughout the night, the pressure, the gratitude and the deeply human experience of stepping into the shoes of someone as influential as Bruce Springsteen.
