"Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere" Trailer: First Look at Jeremy Allen White as Bruce Springsteen During the Making of His Iconic Nebraska Album in Scott Cooper’s Upcoming Biopic
The Bear's Jeremy Allen White channels the Boss during the making of his stark, raw, and stripped-down 1982 album, Nebraska.
If you only know Bruce Springsteen for his status as an American rock icon—known for his image of wearing a white T-shirt, red bandana, and worn-down blue denim jeans and jacket, and for singing about the glory days of America—well, you’ve only scratched the surface.
Sure, Springsteen has been viewed as his generation’s Bob Dylan, a blue-collar folk hero whose lyrics are steeped in working-class struggle, restless dreams for a better future, and the disillusionment of the American promise. Not to mention, Springsteen has built a reputation as a showman whose live concert performances have become legendary—marathon sets stretching well past three hours, packed with passion, storytelling, and the kind of communal energy that turns an arena show into something that feels personal, almost spiritual.
What many might not know, however, is Springsteen’s meditative and introspective side—one that wrestles with anxiety, depression, and the quiet ache of loneliness, all of which feed directly into his songwriting. In fact, when asked about which of his albums best reflects who he is as an artist, Springsteen will not point to his most popular chart-toppers like Born to Run (1975) or Born in the U.S.A. (1984). Rather, Springsteen has gone on record to say that 1982’s Nebraska, his sixth studio album (released before he became a pop culture superstar with Born in the U.S.A.) will always be his proudest achievement.
Recorded on a simple four-track cassette recorder in the bedroom of his New Jersey farmhouse, Nebraska is a stark, stripped-down record filled with dark and haunting stories of lost souls, partly inspired by Terrence Malick’s classic crime thriller Badlands, which itself was inspired by the real-life 1958 murder spree of Nebraska serial killer Charles Starkweather and his girlfriend, Caril Ann Fugate.
Yup, that’s right... the Boss went really dark for this one.
It was also one of the first times Springsteen wrote songs fully in character, stepping into the minds of drifters, killers, convicts, and desperate dreamers.
So, beyond the image of the all-American rocker in denim and leather, belting out rock anthems, lies a thoughtful and soulful storyteller whose songs have often been misunderstood. Take, for instance, Born in the U.S.A.—frequently mistaken for a patriotic rallying cry (and often used at political rallies)—when, in truth, it’s a sad song about the emotional detachment and disillusionment of a Vietnam veteran returning home to a dying town after the war.
The original demo of the song (see video above) was much different than what eventually made it onto the album. In fact, Springsteen originally recorded Born in the U.S.A. during the Nebraska sessions, but it didn’t make the cut. It was later remade with pounding snare drums and an arena-rock vibe that became his most commercially successful (and most misunderstood) rock song he ever made.
This brings us to the upcoming Bruce Springsteen biopic Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere, featuring The Bear’s Jeremy Allen White as the man himself. Made with the full support of Springsteen, the film is less a cradle-to-the-grave biography and more a focused exploration of the making of the Nebraska album.
At the time, Springsteen was coming off a couple of chart-toppers like Hungry Heart and The River, but now in his 30s, he was struck with a bout of depression—despite his newfound status as a famous rocker. Still grappling with the pain of his childhood, growing up poor and lonely, he would channel those feelings into a record that became his most personal, emotionally raw, and thematically haunting work to date.
Written and directed by acclaimed filmmaker Scott Cooper (Crazy Heart, Out of the Furnace, Black Mass), the upcoming film is based on the book Deliver Me from Nowhere: The Making of Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska by musician and music historian Warren Zanes.
Joining Jeremy Allen White in the cast are Jeremy Strong as Springsteen's manager and record producer, Jon Landau; Odessa Young as Bruce's love interest, Faye; with Stephen Graham and Gaby Hoffmann as Bruce’s parents, Douglas and Adele Springsteen. Marc Maron and Paul Walter Hauser also co-star as Nebraska sessions producer Chuck Plotkin and recording engineer Mike Batlan, with David Krumholtz as Columbia Records executive Al Teller.
With the recent success of other musical biopics like A Complete Unknown, Elvis, and Bohemian Rhapsody, one can expect Deliver Me from Nowhere to reasonably achieve a similar level of acclaim—and we don’t think an Oscar nomination for Jeremy Allen White is out of the question. In fact, he might be a shoo-in at this point.
Take a look (above) at the first official trailer for Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere, which will be landing in theaters October 24th.
